D.V. vs T.W.

Backcover...

...from an issue of Mjau Mjau.

F/X, Stakeout

I made a double feature out of it. In F/X Bryan Brown is a special effects guy asked by the justice department to fake the death of mob guy Jerry Orbach. It goes wrong and Brown is the innocent man on the run, using all the knowledge from his job to survive. Brian Dennehy is a cop, trying to find out what the hell is going on.

It's part Hitchcock, part high concept, still entertaining.

In Stakeout Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez are cops doing surveillance on Madeleine Stowe, ex-girlfriend of escaped convict Aidan Quinn. Then Dreyfuss falls in love with Stowe. Who wouldn't? The script is by Jim Kouf who also wrote The Hidden. The film also stars a young Forest Whitaker.

Well, it's a popcorn film, a mix of everything. Carchase, buddy movie, romance, a comedy version of Rear window. It's good, but the ending is a bit dragged out. There's also a quick scene of Madeleine Stowe naked for those who care about such things. I don't!

How 80s is it? F/X: 4/10. There's a real score but also a song by Huey Lewis and the News. Stakeout: 5/10. There's a synth score, and the big showdown at the end takes place in a factory. That's something that started in the 80s, no?

Two covers

One for a book of philosophy, one for a cd of a Norwegian band.

Hopper's

-I'm cold. When is your stupid dog gonna find the keys?

An early cartoon

No, it doesn't make me feel old at all.

Le dernier combat

Luc Besson's debut film is sort of a French Mad Max. Max le Fou? Mad Jean-Paul? It's after the catastrophe, in the ruins of civilisation. Some incident has made people unable to speak. The whole film is told in black and white images.

A young man meets an old man, and they form a father and son relationship. There's a woman, locked up in a cell, and... in this broken world Jean Reno is the violent madman who must break the few things that are not broken. The film is like a dark fable. I think Beckett would have liked it.

Among the actors is also Fritz Wepper. For Americans this name won't mean a thing. But I suppose every European my age must have seen at least one episode of the German television show Derrick where he played Harry Klein.

How 80s is it? 3 out of 10. It takes place in the future, but it gets 3 points just for the annoying score. Early Besson movies like Subway and The Big Blue are almost unwatchable today because of the awful music of Eric Serra.

Next: F/X