Treat Williams Double Feature, 05/07 - 05/08/02

Now, some of you might know that recently I got a laser disc player. There are some features that are currently not available on DVD... and since the player was free... thanks mom... I decided to go out and purchase a ton of missing movies. I'm going to be doing some features on them in the next couple of weeks... since I haven't been able to enjoy them (quality wise) the way I'd have liked... until now.

Dead Heat, 1988

In the 1980's, America was inundated with action movies, trying to cash in on the Die Hard/Lethal Weapon craze that was sweeping the nation. We got a TON of them... with brand new action stars popping up over night. And, it was around this time that straight to home video films were popping up as well. The distribution rights were cheaper then going to the theaters... companies could spend more money on the films and make a great return on their investments...

Suffice it to say, the viewing audience was assaulted.

Now, back in 1988, I was still in high school. But I was a big movie fan. And I remember, very clearly, seeing the ads for this film, Dead Heat, in the newspaper. They were showing this film in the movies. Not straight to video. Oh no.

Now, 1988... Joe Piscopo was still a pretty well known character. He had his career as a comedian, his SNL days... he was in Johnny Dangerously, a cult classic... and a number of other quick bits, including his own television show, Joe Piscopo Live!

So, around this time, he was still a name. He still had a following.

Treat Williams... well. His career is kind of strange. I've always enjoyed his work, ever since 1941. He's also been in The Empire Strikes Back, if you can believe that, as an Echo Base Trooper. Once Upon a Time in America, a few television spots... and then he got the chance to star, in Dead Heat.

For my money, this is by far one of the most original films to come out of the 1980's. I mean, sure, it's tongue in cheek humor. It's got some decent one liners, it's got Piscopo being all tough guy on us... but it has some great things going for it. Great action sequences, fantastic make-up, an incredible story...

Mark Goldblatt has worked on some very influential films of the last twenty years. As an editor.

Piranha (where he would hook up with James Cameron), The Howling, Enter the Ninja, The Terminator, Rambo Part II, Commando, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Nightbreed, Predator 2, Terminator 2, The Last Boy Scout, True Lies, Showgirls, Starship Troopers, Armageddon, Hollow Man, Pearl Harbor and the upcoming Bad Company.

If you look at this list... the films are pretty solid mainstream films... some of them huge moneymakers. Dead Heat was Goldblatt's first time out as a director, and I think it was a very impressive first showing.

There are some incredible moments in the movie, with some great personality and humor, some incredible action scenes that were choreographed very well, and I have to hand it to the effects department. For 1988, this movie is just incredible.

Unfortunately a year later, Goldblatt would take on the doomed project The Punisher. Doomed because of the era in which it was released, doomed because of the terrible script, and doomed because the powers that be decided not to put Frank Castle in his Punisher costume... always a mistake.

But, Goldblatt is still with us, doing incredible work on great films... I hope we continue to see him getting these good movies.

This was Terry Black's first and only feature length script. He would do some teleplay's for Tales from the Crypt a year later... but would then disappear. In 2000, he would resurface with some work on 18 Wheels of Justice, whatever the hell that is.

Again, I must say that this is one of the most original stories I've seen in a long time. I mean, sure, it's got cliched moments throughout... but if you take into consideration when the film was made... you can trace subtle homages throughout a number of horror movies that have come since.

An incredible job, in my opinion. I'm sorry Black hasn't resurfaced with another neat horror story...

Treat Williams is a great actor. I think he's got such a presence on the screen that you just can't help but like his character. He's got a grasp on humor and can deadpan lines, or be the set-up guy... really well done.

Piscopo... well, he kind of fell into obscurity, which is unfortunate. It must have been around this time, or shortly after... he started pumping iron a lot... his physique in this film is pretty impressive... and I don't know why this would have anything to do with him falling out of the public eye... but the two seem to correspond. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. But he still delivered some great lines in this film.

The rest of the cast, Lindsay Frost, Darren McGavin, Vincent Price, Clare Kirkconnell... all of them did a great job, rounding out the film.

Another individual off of this film who went on to bigger and better things was Robert D. Yeoman, the cinematographer. There's some pretty cool work in here, along with some of the special effects work that Yeoman must have been in on... nothing so incredible, but it did catch the eye of some heavy hitters down the road. A year later he would shoot Drugstore Cowboy. In 1996, Yeoman would hook up with Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson and shoot Bottle Rocket... along with the collaberators two other films, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. Good stuff all around.

A very cool movie, with a group of people who went on to do some great things for other features. I would strongly suggest this movie to horror fans, to fans of horror/comedies... you know who you are.

I watched that... I was blown away, man. I can't tell you how impressed I was. Then, the next night, tonight, the 8th, I stuck in one of the laser discs I'd gotten off of ebay. I had seen it before, but it had been a while...

Deep Rising, 1998

Deep Rising is my third all time favorite water movie. Jaws is first. The Abyss is second.

First off, it's written and directed by Stephen Sommers, who gave us The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. It's obvious to me that he had some serious talent before he worked on The Mummy series. This film has so much going for it, it's not even funny.

Sommers worked on The Adventures of Huck Finn in 1993 and the live action release of The Jungle Book in 1994. I guess Disney thought he was a decent enough money maker. He also wrote the scripts on both of those films... so when it came time for Deep Rising, I suppose it was pretty obvious to the powers that be that he could handle himself, and direct a feature that would be well made.

First off, the production on this film is amazing. The sets, the props, the effects... all of them are pretty top notch. I was very impressed, watching this film, knowing it didn't last long in the theaters... wondering why it didn't gain more of an audience.

In 1998, two other water movies came out. Deep Blue Sea and Lake Placid. Both of these films had larger star names to them, like Sam Jackson, Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, L.L. Cool J... eh. I didn't like them half as much as this film.

Again, William's comes off as a very cool character, someone people can get on the side of. I was very impressed with his work in this film.

The rest of the main cast, I can pretty much say the same thing... and there are some great actors rounding out this film.

For one, Famke Janssen, who is one of the most sought after women in Hollywood right now... at least, I think so. She's beautiful, can act very well, and has a pretty significant range, in so much that she doesn't accept the same roles over and over.

This is apparent in Lord of Illusions (her first major role), Goldeneye (straight to a Bond flick!), Rounders, The Faculty, House on Haunted Hill, X-Men, Made... and she will be in two big productions in the following year. The remake of ISpy and the sequel to X-Men, X2.

Coming directly off of Lord of Illusions with her, Kevin J. O'Conner also lends a hand in this film, as William's sidekick. I've always liked O'Conner's work, ever since Virtuosity and Color of Night. I think he's got a unique sense of character about himself, and much of the humor in this film comes directly from him and his delivery. Really well done. It should be noted that O'Conner would follow Sommers a year later, co-starring in The Mummy.

The remainder of the cast, all bad guys, do their jobs well. Anthony Heald (who was Dr. Chilton in Silence of the Lambs), Derrick O'Connor (who would play a serious bad guy in Leathal Weapon 2), Wes Studi, Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, From Hell, Mean Machine...) Cliff Curtis, Clifton Powell, Trevor Goddard... some great actors... and they all lent very well to creating a tense atmosphere.

Not much coming out of cinematographer Howard Atherton. Shooting Fatal Attraction for Adriane Lyne in 1987, he would shoot some decent films... two others were Lyne's including Indecent Proposal and Lolita. Mermaids, Bad Boys... I guess he would lose his taste for big budget action movies. It's too bad, because the work in this film is pretty spectacular. Working on water, with rain, heavy special effects... a large cast. And the casino boat itself... a very big deal for a DP.

All in all, I was very, VERY impressed with this movie. I thought it blew the other two water films of the year out of the (oh dear) water. I hope we see more original work from Sommers... possibly a sequel to this film... I wouldn't mind, for certain.