Nick of Time (1995) - Good performances in taut Badham thriller

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A high-stakes dilemma  is attempted as baiting tag-line on this ocher-colored poster for John Badham's Nick of Time

A young male accountant has his daughter taken hostage in Los Angeles, and the kidnappers demand that he kills the state governor during her soon to begin campaign event! - What will he do!?!

Nick of Time is written by Patrick Sheane Duncan (The Pornographer (1994)) and directed by great English filmmaker John Badham (The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)).

It is a well-made, exciting thriller in Hitchcock style at times; one that creates a paranoid tension, which may make you wonder, if the plot is really merely the result of an insane protagonist's wild delusions.

Johnny Depp (Benny & Joon (1993)) and Christopher Walken (Kiss Toledo Goodbye (1999)) are good, and the film has sharp supporting performances from Charles S. Dutton (Threshold (2005-06)) and Marsha Mason (I Love Trouble (1994)) as the governor. Parts of the plot don't completely add up, but basically it is solid. The entire film takes place in real-time, (meaning that the plot plays out minute-for-minute in the total 90 minute playtime), and this is a high-wire act that also succeeds pretty well here.

 

Related post:

 

John Badham: Dracula (1979) - Badham's sensuous, exceptional adaptation

 

Watch a 4-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 33 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 8.1 mil. $ (North America only)

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.45 times its cost)

[Nick of Time was released 22 November (North America) and runs 90 minutes. Depp was paid 5 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from April - June 1995 in Toronto, Ontario and in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #9, its highest placement, to a 2.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 8.1 mil. $. Regrettably the international gross numbers have not been made public. With a projected world total gross of 15 mil. $, the film ranks as a mega-flop. Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Badham returned with Incognito (1997). Depp returned in Divine Rapture (1995, short) and theatrically in Donnie Brasco (1997). Nick of Time is rotten at 31 % with a 4.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Nick of Time?

London Has Fallen (2016) - Jingoistic and irrelevant actioner that passes the time

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+ Most Tasteless Movie of the Year

One of the more upsetting posters for Babak Najafi's London Has Fallen

London Has Fallen is the sequel to the action movie Olympus Has Fallen (2013), in which terrorists attack Washington, D.C.

The American president's head of security is about to tender his resignation, when the British prime minister suddenly dies, and the president and other world leaders fly to London to attend the funeral. - But something is wrong ... - Very wrong!

Gerard Butler (Machine Gun Preacher (2011)) is back as the trustworthy, capable Mike Banning, and he is physically convincing and fills out the part with the appropriate macho bravado if not with any groundbreaking charisma. Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight (2008)) is also back as the kind of inane and boring president, who has to be saved once again.
The film has been used as a boxing ball by disgruntled critics and audiences alike, and many of the attacks launched against it are not fair. - It isn't xenophobic, its effects aren't poorly done, and the film isn't incoherent in any way.
It has been devised before the 2015 Paris attacks and the recent Brussels attack, and its plot doesn't feel very realistic given these recent, horrifying events. The film doesn't catch the opportunity to be relevant in our present context, maybe because it doesn't dare to. I think it might have been a great film, if the scenario had been believable, because wouldn't we all have liked to have seen a Mike Banning create order out of chaos in the attacks we have witnessed recently. SPOILER As it stands and in this current, toxic climate in Europe, the pleasure of seeing Westminster Abbey and other London landmarks explode in a gigantic terrorist attack are very limited.

London Has Fallen is jingoistic, as could be expected: The British system fails spectacularly in it, and only the Americans seem competent to handle the crooks of the world. The terrorists are hundreds, it seems, and they have infiltrated just about every London authority. They are also racially diverse and without a foundation in Islamic fanaticism. Their employer is an unpolitical arms dealer out for revenge, but it is unclear why they attack. None of this seems very likely, and this is the main reason the film misses its target.
SPOILER The main villain, who is forgotten by the film's end, wants revenge for a US drone attack of a huge wedding he attended but incredibly enough survived. It is ironic and not very commendable that the solution to his London revenge is another drone attack at the film's end. It isn't a very exciting end either.
Some great actors are wasted in very minor parts in London Has Fallen: Robert Forster (Jackie Brown (1997)), Melissa Leo (Flight (2012)), Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children (2006)) and Morgan Freeman (Se7en (1995)) are far away from the action and fairly irrelevant. SPOILER Angela Bassett (The Score (2001)) injects some warmth into the film, but is regrettably killed off.
London Has Fallen is co-written by Christian Gudegast (A Man Apart (2003)), Chad St. John (The Punisher: Dirty Laundry (2012), short), Creighton Rothenberger (Olympus Has Fallen) and Katrin Benedikt (The Expendables 3 (2014)), perhaps supporting the notion that many chefs don't make for a great meal. It is directed by Iranian Babak Najafi (Sebbe (2011)).
London Has Fallen is low-calories entertainment, and everyone involved, us audiences not least, deserved better.

Related posts:

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 127.3 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say (but currently a flop)
[London Has Fallen premiered March 1 (Hollywood) and runs 99 minutes. The director of the original film, which was not even strictly speaking a hit, Pennsylvanian master filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (Training Day (2001)), was unavailable for the sequel due to his work on the great The Equalizer (2014). Filming began in October 2014, without Butler, who, it seems, only joined the production from March - April 2015. It was shot in London, India and Bulgaria. The release was moved from October 2015 to March 2016. It opened #2 to 21.6 mil. $ behind Zootopia in North America, where it has grossed 59.7 mil. $ (46.9 % if the total gross so far). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been the UK with 14.5 mil. $ (11.4 %) and South Korea with 5.1 mil. $ (4 %). London Has Fallen is rotten at 24 % with a 3.8 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of London Has Fallen?

Black Dragons (1942) or, The Sinister Foreigner Attacks!

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Sinister intrigues are lurking on this handsomely painted poster for William Nigh's Black Dragons

Black Dragons was one of Hollywood's first responses on screen to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place just a month before shooting began in January 1942. The film is a weird and fairly awful, exploitative, anti-Japanese and anti-German WWII spy thriller with the telling work title Yellow Menace. It runs only 62 minutes, a testament to its measly, rocking structure and meager substance.
Besides a then arthritic, morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi (Die Todeskarawane (1920)) in the villainous lead, there really isn't much to come for in Black Dragons:

 
Evil Japanese plot to infiltrate powerful positions in the West by assassinating the leaders and switching them out with their own cosmetically altered doubles.  

 

Lugosi does both the incredible operating, - as Doctor Melcher, - and the assassination of the American leaders, under the moniker Monsieur Colomb.
The man who would later become the Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore (The Far Frontier (1948)) plays a handsome detective in the poor Black Dragons, which is directed by William Nigh (Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)), a prolific b-movie director, who directed Mack Sennett comedy shorts earlier in his career. It is written by Harvey Gates (Navy Secrets (1939)), based on the story Black Dragon by Robert Kehoe.

Related posts:

William Nigh: The Ape (1940) or, The Costume-Crazed Doctor  
Doomed to Die (1940) - Karloff's last Mr. Wong movie is a good one 

The Fatal Hour (1940) - Nigh and Karloff return with a humdrum crime flick 

Here's a 7-minute clip from the trailer

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain

[Black Dragons was released 6 March (USA) and runs 64 minutes. A virtual lightning-speed production, tapping into especially the anti-Japanese sentiment of the time, shooting started in late January 1942, taking place in California, and less than two months later the film was released! Details around its release are regrettably scarce to come by. The film was colorized in the 1990s. It is now available (in B/W) in public domain to watch and download free and legally right here. Nigh returned with The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942), (he directed 7 feature films in 1942 in total!) Lugosi returned in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). 1,2k+ IMDb users have given Black Dragons a 4.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Black Dragons?