Title:Relentless Year: 1989 Director: William Lustig Rating: R Length: 92 Min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround Subtitles: English, Spanish
Stars: Judd Nelson (1959) Robert Loggia Leo Rossi Meg Foster Patrick O'Bryan
Plot: A sadistic serial killer holds Los Angeles in the grip of unspeakable fear in this hard-hitting action-thriller.
Rejected from the police force on psychological grounds, Buck Taylor (Judd Nelson) exacts revenge by committing a string of brutal murders and taunting the LAPD. The only clues are pages torn from a telephone book and victims who appear to have somehow participated in their own deaths. But when a brash rookie detective (Leo Rossi) pairs up with a cynical veteran (Robert Loggia) to track down the killer, the cat-and-mouse game ends in a deadly fight to the finish.
Extras: Scene Access Feature Trailers Closed Captioned
My Thoughts:
There are three notable Judd Nelson movies from his career that should be watched. Forget the Brat Pack movies... watch New Jack City, From The Hip, and this movie, Relentless.
Here he plays young Buck Taylor, abused as a child by his domineering cop father who, now grown up, recently has his enrollment to the police academy rejected based on his failed psych evaluation. Already in a frail mental state, his perceived failure causes him to crack and go on a random killing spree in which he makes his victims participate in their own murders.
First time I watched this years ago I said WOW! Serial killer movies are nothing new but I liked the unique twist of Nelson's character forcing his helpless victims to actual hold the instruments of their death all the while cooing softly "C'mon... you can do it. See... it's easy!" Wicked! Nelson nailed the calm, simple demeanor of a man who knows exactly what he is doing which utter confidence as he taunts the police.
Leo Rossi and Robert Loggia are the detectives trying to nail him while trying not to kill each other as they bicker on how to go about it. Meg Foster is in this as Rossi's wife and she has the absolute creepiest eyes I have ever seen. Combined they make a strong supporting cast.
There were three sequels to this, all starring Leo Rossi and they were all rubbish compared to the original. If you have never seen Relentless I highly recommend it!
Individually, they've starred in the most adrenaline-pumping martial-arts adventures ever. Together for the first time, JET LI and JACKIE CHAN join forces to create the greatest epic of them all - The Forbidden Kingdom. As ancient Chinese warriors, they must train and mentor a 21st century kung-fu fanatic who's been summoned to fight a centuries-old battle and free the imprisoned Monkey King. If you're a fighting fan, the wait is over. The team is ready. The Kingdom has arrived.
My Thoughts
I was interested in seeing Forbidden Kingdom when the movie came out a few years ago, but I didn't get the chance to see it then. I ended up seeing it after it was released on DVD and I enjoyed it. I decided to pick up the Blu-ray of the movie a few months ago when I found it for like $15.
The plot is interesting with having a teenager who likes kung fu movies travel through time and end up in ancient China. A few elements of the plot could be a little stronger, but overall the movie is really entertaining. There are lots of fights, but the story is developed enough for it to make sense. There are some mystical or magical type of things involved and those things work with what is going on.
This is the first movie that Jackie Chan and Jet Li have made together. I think it is still the only one they've made together, though I might be wrong about that. Both of them are very impressive with their martial arts abilities. Their characters aren't enemies, though they aren't exactly friends either and they do end up fighting at one point. The fight is done well, though some of their fans may be disappointed that it didn't last longer. All the fights are done well and look really impressive. Some wire work is done in some scenes. I don't think there is much CGI to the fight scenes.
The Blu-ray has several extras focused on different aspects of the making of the movie that are very interesting and worth watching. The movie was filmed at various locations around China. The different locations look gorgeous on Blu-ray.
This is a very entertaining movie that is well worth watching, especially for fans of Chan or Li.
I did get a review posted on Epinions if anyone wants to take a look.
A drug dealer, a hacker and a banker walk into a bar. Well, they don't actually walk into a bar. But they do meet. This show came only accidentally across my radar so my knowledge of what it's actually going to be about is a bit sketchy. I can only tell you what happened in the pilot episode and then infer what's going to happen next.
The banker played by The O.C.'s Adam Brody doesn't seem too happy in his job. But he is even less happy when his father walks back into his life and asks him to launder some money for him.
The dad (who has disappeared by the end of the pilot so I don't know his actual role in the things to come) is a player in the drug trade and was tracked down by a federal agent played by Martin Freeman (Sherlock, The Hobbit). Phil Rask (Freeman) tried to extort the dad which is why he went to his son in the first place.
The money Nick Talman (Brody) is expected to launder belongs to a Haitian drug lord who appears to live by at least some kind of honour and now finds his money gone and is understandably pissed.
The final player is a young woman and hacker (in the classical sense of the word), played by Otmara Marrero. She has developed a new digital currency, far better than Bitcoin per her own words. She's trying to market it to the bank Talman is working at but they decline the offer. Talman on the other hand is suddenly very interested to invest.
The pilot starts the story rather slowly but since we're living in the post Breaking Bad age one should not dismiss this as a bad thing. It gives you the idea where the story is heading (drug money transferred around the globe with this new currency system) and you have to decide if the story and the acting is for you. I for one will at least watch a few more episodes to make up my mind.
Maybe the most interesting question this show could ask (don't know if it will do that though) is how our understanding of and relationship to money has changed.
Money almost always had only a symbolic value. Sure, back in the days you had gold coins and silver dollars but your trust in the currency always dependent on the fact that there only was so much of it there and that defined its value as a trading object. The minute the money owner (e.g. the state) started to print it by the bucket, the value was gone, see this 200 billion Mark note from 1923 which probably only bought you a loaf of bread.
At some point in the 1900s most currencies left the gold standard and barely anyone batted an eye.
For almost a decade now many western central banks are pumping zero interest money into the markets. There are probably very few people on this planet who still know how much money is currently in circulation. But the prices are reasonably stable.
Heck, in many regards we've even abandoned the concept of money as a physical object altogether. I know the U.S. is at least still using "pay checks" but on the other hand even the Starbucks coffee gets paid via credit card. Here in Germany we get our salary transferred into our debit account after which our landlord deducts the rent and the insurance, power and phone companies also automatically collect their bills electronically. You buy something for more than 10 euros, you probably pay with your debit card. 100 euros in cash will keep me afloat for a good two weeks at least. In Sweden they're debating the abandonment of cash money.
But all of this only works because we've developed a trust in the system. But how long is this trust going to hold? And are there better systems? Maybe this show will ask these questions. Or maybe not. Maybe it's just a variant of Breaking Bad's car wash money laundering system. But I will find out.
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May 18, 2024, 04:51:28 AM
Combined they make a strong supporting cast.
