DEEP BLUE SEA

What do you get when you cross JAWS (1975) with THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972)? The answer is DEEP BLUE SEA (1999) a B movie science fiction action adventure film directed by genre maestro Renny Harlin (DIE HARD 2 (1990), CLIFFHANGER (1993), CUTTHROAT ISLAND (1995), THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (1996)). I watched this one for the second time the other day. It's not a great film by any means but it made for an enjoyable way to kill some time on a hot summer afternoon with a bag of popcorn and a big glass of peach tea.

Scientists at the remote research station, a re-purposed submarine refueling facility dubbed Aquatica, are experimenting with sharks. They hope to genetically increase the size of the shark brain and then extract a protein found within. Said protein is supposed to be a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Oddly enough, this plot device was also used in RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011), except in that film it was an experimental Alzheimer's drug used on apes which in turn boosted their mental capacities.

But when a giant shark escapes and attacks four teenagers on a boat, trouble starts brewing. The company that owns the project wants to shut it down but CEO Russell Franklin (Samuel L Jackson), agrees to a 48 hour extension provided he can fly to the base and see what all of his company's money has bought.

As Franklin arrives, the majority of the crew leaves the station leaving only a skeleton crew on hand. Franklin is given a tour of the base by Janice Higgins (Jacqueline McKenzie). She provides a walking, talking info dump for both Franklin and the audience. Then things start to go bad when a hurricane zeroes in on Aquatica. A scientist, Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgard), loses an arm to a supposedly tranquilized shark and when an airlift is attempted to remove him from the base, the helicopter crashes into the above water part of the facility and things blow up real good.

There are now only six people left on the station, the majority of them on the lowest underwater level where the laboratory is. They must ascend through the rapidly sinking structure battling flooding, freezing water, more explosions and really big, really fast, really smart sharks.

Only two characters remain alive at the climax of the film which features an exploding shark a la JAWS. DEEP BLUE SEA was produced at a time when CGI was still relatively new. The sharks in the film are a combination of real animals, animatronic mock ups and computer generated images, some of which work, while others look like outtakes from an episode of JABBERJAWS. The screenplay by committee (Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers), is formulaic, generic and cliched. The biggest names in the cast are Jackson and LL Cool J. Thomas Jane would later play Frank Castle, The Punisher in the 2004 film of the same name while Stellan Skarsgard would go on to appear in THOR (2011), THE AVENGERS (2012), THOR: THE DARK WORLD (2013) and AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015). Harlin keeps things moving well enough but there's nothing remotely fresh, surprising or original about any of this nonsense.

For all of that, it's still fun to watch. It's no JAWS but it's better than any of the SHARKNADO films.

ATOMIC SUBMARINE

With a shooting schedule of six days (!), THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE (1959) is a low budget '50s science fiction whose title and poster art promise much more than the actual film delivers. I watched this one yesterday with my buddy Kelly Greene. We'd watched a bad transfer of the film on VHS years ago so it was a treat to see a really sharp looking print of the film presented on, of all things, the Criterion Collection label (it's part of a four film box set, MONSTERS AND MADMEN which includes FIRST MAN INTO SPACE, THE HAUNTED STRANGLER and CORRIDORS OF BLOOD).

The story is routine. An underwater alien saucer is wreaking havoc within the Arctic Circle, attacking and sinking ships at random. The submarine Tigershark is sent to investigate. They encounter the saucer and the cyclopean alien within and (spoiler warning) destroy the saucer.

The characters are as generic as the story. Some tension is evoked between Lt. Commander Richard "Reef" Holloway (Arthur Franz) and Dr. Carl Neilson (Brett Halsey), as Reef is a by-the-book military officer while Carl is a pacifist who doesn't believe in war. Franz acts pissed off throughout the entire film, regardless of whether the script calls for him to be or not. And Tom Conway, who plays a scientist aboard the sub, actually looks like he's forgotten his lines in a couple of shots as he just stands and watches the action.

What action there is to watch consists of stock footage of real subs and the same special effects shots used over and over. The submarine fx footage was shot "dry for wet" with a miniature sub model and as such, it's not bad looking but overuse exposes the budgetary constraints the filmmakers were working with. The other "action" is men sitting or standing around amazingly spacious submarine sets drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and talking. The sets don't resemble any other movie submarines I've ever seen. There's no periscope (!) and director Spencer Gordon Bennet frames every shot with way too much head room.

Providing little comic relief is cast member Sid Melton. Years ago, on my first trip to Las Vegas, my buddies and I were waiting for our plane to depart from the airport when Sid walked by carrying his luggage. No one in the airport recognized him except for my friend Terry Porter who pointed and loudly proclaimed "Sid Melton!" It was a moment of pure joy.

Produced by Alex Gordon, THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE isn't a terrible movie and it's certainly worth seeing at least once if you're a fan of '50s sf films. Just don't expect a minor classic, some overlooked diamond in the rough. It's more rough than diamond.

"LAUGH WHILE YOU CAN, MONKEY BOY"

I saw THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION when it was first released back in August, 1984. I watched it again the other day and my take on the film hasn't changed in the subsequent thirty-plus years. That is that this film was designed from the get go to be a freshly-minted, straight out-of-the-box manufactured cult film. Oh sure, director W.D. Richter has maintained otherwise but I know a cult film when I see one and BUCKAROO was a cult film then and it still is.

Cult films aren't necessarily a bad thing. They can keep what was initially a commercial failure alive well past it's original sell-by date. The people involved with cult films, the writers, directors, and actors, can enjoy a small but ferociously devoted audience of fans who embrace everything about the film. Cult films also profit not just from revenue generated by theatrical screenings and DVD sales. Many cult films have generated tie-in merchandise of all kinds including action figures, comic books, video games and more.

The primary evidence for BUCKAROO'S cult status is in the very way the film is structured. The film opens with a brief flashback scene using "home movies"of a young Buckaroo, his family and friends attempting a dangerous experiment to set the stage. Then it immediately cuts to present day where an adult Buckaroo is attempting to perform the same experiment by driving a vehicle that looks like a pickup truck mated with a space shuttle (it's a rig that prefigures Marty McFly's time traveling DeLorean in BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)) through a mountain. The test succeeds but Buckaroo discovers a race of evil aliens that live within the spaces between solid matter.

But, as the screenplay by Earl Mac Rauch makes clear, this is not Buckaroo's first adventure. He's well known by everyone thanks to his fronting a rock and roll band, The Hong Kong Cavaliers as well as his work as a brilliant scientist and crime fighter. Buckaroo Banzai is an already established media hero in this world as evidenced by the presence of a Buckaroo video game and comic book. How many adventures he's already had we don't know but it's clear that "Across the 8th Dimension" is only his latest. And the end credits promise another forthcoming adventure, BUCKAROO BANZAI AGAINST THE WORLD CRIME LEAGUE, a sequel that, of course, was never produced.

It's clear that Richter and Rauch conceived an ongoing series of films about this "Doc Savage" style hero for the '80s. We're left to wonder what all of the other films may have been like because this is the only one we have. BUCKAROO BANZAI is humorous in a gently amusing way. There are no real belly laughs to be had. It has some action scenes but they're not excitingly staged and shot. The special effects are good and the cast tries it's best to sell the material. The show is stolen by the villains, an unholy quartet of evil aliens played by Dan Hedaya, Vincent Schiavelli, Christopher Lloyd and John Lithgow (the latter two playing crazy as only they can). It's goofy, don't-take-this-shit-seriously fun but it's neither laugh-out-loud funny or edge-of-your-seat thrilling.

Your mileage may vary. I know the film has lots of die hard fans. It's not a bad little film and I commend Richter and Rauch for taking a chance with such offbeat material and an unconventional narrative conceit. It's definitely a cult film, a slice of '80s pop culture that holds up fairly well. Worth seeing once.

12 O'CLOCK HIGH

Thanks to the cable channel Heroes and Icons, my current favorite television show is 12 O'CLOCK HIGH, a series that ran from September 18th, 1964 to January 13th, 1967 on ABC TV. The show was based on the 1949 film of the same name.

I remember this show being on when I was a kid but I don't recall seeing more than one or two episodes. At the time of its' original broadcast I was eight-years-old (born in 1956) and for kids of my generation, WWII was still being packaged, marketed and sold as the last great war, a magnificent adventure that changed the course of world history. My father fought in WWII as did almost every one of my friends' dads. Sentiment against the escalating war in Viet Nam was just beginning to ramp up but the appetite for WWII material in our popular culture and mass media was voracious.

I grew up surrounded by WWII. It was in the comic books I read, Marvel's SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS and DC's "Big Five": OUR ARMY AT WAR (Sgt. Rock), G.I. COMBAT (The Haunted Tank), ALL AMERICAN MEN OF WAR (Capt. Johnny Cloud, Navajo ace), OUR FIGHTING FORCES (Gunner and Sarge and Pooch) and my favorite, STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES (featuring The War That Time Forgot which pitted soldiers against dinosaurs). There was also the short lived CAPT. STORM, a series about a wooden legged PT boat skipper.

WWII was on the big screen at the local movie theaters: THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961), THE LONGEST DAY (1962), THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), OPERATION CROSSBOW (1965), THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), WHERE EAGLES DARE (1968), KELLY'S HEROES (1970) and PATTON (1970) all rank among some of my all time favorite films.  There were books, both fiction and non-fiction about WWII. The men's adventure magazines which I so dearly love now, were full to bursting with stories of guts and glory (and gals) during "the big one". And there were toys galore including replicas of weapons, plastic soldiers (I had the Sears Iwo Jima play set) and the big guy himself, G.I. Joe (I had the sailor edition from the first release of Joes).

On the small, home screen, WWII was played for laughs on HOGAN'S HEROES but 12 O'CLOCK HIGH and COMBAT (the granddaddy of the TV war shows), played things straight and deadly.

12 O'CLOCK HIGH started out with Robert Lansing in the starring role as General Frank Savage, leader of the 918 bomber group stationed in England. Lansing's interpretation of Savage was by the book and no nonsense. Savage was a man who wore the mantle of leadership and command heavily. He was stern, gruff and tough. And as played by Lansing, almost constipated in his tight assedness. The man had little if any sense of humor. Not that I want to see comedy in this show, just a little touch of humanity every now and then.

The producers and ABC network brass thought a change was needed and in the first episode of the second season, they killed off General Savage and replaced him with Colonel Gallagher (Paul Burke). I much prefer Burke's episodes to Lansings. Gallagher is also tough but he's shown with female companionship (the oh-so-lovely Lee Meriwether in two episodes). Burke would continue to star until the end of the series. For the third season, production shifted to color but the show only lasted 17 episodes before being canceled in mid-season.

I also prefer the black and white episodes over the color ones. WWII just looks more real in black and white. 12 O'CLOCK HIGH made extensive use of stock footage (it was filmed at the 20th Century Fox studios in Southern California) and growing up in the 1960s, almost all of the real footage of WWII I saw was in black and white.

12 O'CLOCK HIGH was a Quinn Martin production and followed the format used in all other QM productions: opener, four acts and an epilogue. There were guest stars every week including William Shatner, Jack Lord, John Voight, Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda, Fritz Weaver, Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, James McArthur, and James Whitmore, among others. Frank Overton, Chris Robinson and Andrew Duggan had recurring supporting player roles as well.

Quinn Martin, along with Jack Webb and Irwin Allen, was one of the great first true auteurs of television. His other shows include THE UNTOUCHABLES, THE FUGITIVE, THE INVADERS, DAN AUGUST, CANNON, BARNABY JONES, THE F.B.I,M THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO and THE MANHUNTER.

12 O'CLOCK HIGH was pitched at an older, adult male audience, many of whom were veterans of the war. It wasn't a show for little kids although the flying scenes and footage of B-17s in action are thrilling to watch whether you're ten or sixty. I get a big kick out of watching this show. It takes me back to my childhood in a big way while providing well written, well directed and well acted episodic television entertainment.

THE SEVEN UPS

I remember seeing THE SEVEN-UPS when it was first released in December, 1973. I was a senior in high school. Like everyone else who has seen this film, the one thing I remember the most is the hell-and-gone car chase that occurs in the middle of the movie. It's a thrilling set piece that continues the tradition of vehicular thrills and mayhem begun in BULLITT (1968) and THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971). That's because one man, Philip D'Antoni was responsible for all three films. D'Antoni produced both BULLITT and FRENCH CONNECTION and he made his directing debut with THE SEVEN-UPS.

The story revolves around an elite group of NYPD detectives who use any means necessary to bust criminals for crimes carrying a prison sentence of seven years or more, hence the title. Buddy Manucci (Roy Scheider) is the leader of the  team and Buddy is similar to the cop Scheider played in THE FRENCH CONNECTION. Buddy's childhood friend (Tony Lo Bianco), is mobbed-up and serves as an informant for Buddy. Buddy has a list of mobsters he wants to take down but before he can do so, someone starts kidnapping the gangsters and holding them for big ransoms. When a member of the team is killed by the kidnappers, Buddy's quest becomes personal. He figures out who is behind the kidnappers but only after much gun play and a spectacular car chase.

The chase occurs on the streets of New York City and the countryside outside of the city. The bad guys are driving a 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville (a veritable land yacht of a car), while Buddy is behind the wheel of a 1973 Pontiac Ventura Custom Sprint Coupe, a muscle car with extreme speed and a roaring engine. It's a thrilling set piece that is far and away the best thing about the film.

Not that the rest of the movie is bad, mind you. THE SEVEN-UPS is a very good '70s urban crime film. There's nothing glamorous about New York City in this film. The cops have no personal lives, wives or girlfriends. They are totally focused on their job. And the mobsters are all sleaze bags. Tough, gritty and hard nosed, THE SEVEN-UPS is definitely worth checking out.

ED MCBAIN

Prior to a couple of weeks ago, I'd only read three books by American Grand Master mystery writer Ed McBain: THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE, DOWNTOWN and ANOTHER PART OF THE CITY. I recall enjoying them all and wanting to read more of his work. I had the opportunity to read three McBain mystery novels in a row recently and, once again, I enjoyed them all.

The first was CUT ME IN, originally published in 1955 as THE PROPOSITION. It was recently published for the first time in over sixty years in a handsome trade paperback edition by Hard Case Crime (have I mentioned how much I love this publisher?) with a beautiful cover painting by the legendary Robert McGinnis.

In CUT, literary agent Josh Blake is forced to play detective to solve the murder of his business partner, Del Gilbert and recover an important missing contract. There are the usual twists and turns, the dialogue is sharp and snappy and there's no shortage of beautiful (and treacherous) women. The real pleasure to be found here is the portrait of the mid century publishing industry that McBain paints for us. It's amusing and insightful and shows that nothing much has really changed in the business over the last sixty years. 




The next book was AX, (1964), one of McBain's 87th Precinct mysteries, a series which really made his name and reputation. The 87th Precinct novels take place in a generic big city and feature a rotating cast of city detectives who solve various crimes buy using by-the-book police procedural methods. Similar to Jack Webb's television series DRAGNET but with more color, action and humor. In this one, a building superintendent is killed by an ax blow to the head, a killing that leads detectives Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes down a twisting path of suspects and motives.

 Again, the best thing about AX isn't so much the mystery (although it's a solid one), as a scene where Carella and Hawes discuss a film entitled THE LOCUSTS. As their conversation goes along, you realize the movie they're describing is a thinly disguised version of Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS (1963), a film which McBain, under his real name, Evan Hunter, wrote the screenplay for. By he way, I had a chance to meet Hunter at a screening of THE BIRDS at the Paramount several years ago. I got him to sign the film notes I'd written for the event. Very nice guy.




The last book was BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1988), one of McBain's Matthew Hope novels. Hope is a Florida lawyer and all of his adventures feature titles from various fairy tales. In this one, a beautiful, badly beaten woman comes to Hope to file a complaint against her husband. Hope does so but the next day, the woman is found dead, bound and burned to death. Her husband is, of course, the prime suspect. Oh, and one more thing. The woman was white, her husband is a black man.

As Hope digs deeper into the case, he uncovers a group of interracial swingers and tangled relationships. He's not a criminal attorney and he's really in over his head but he has help from a sympathetic police detective and the case is finally solved.

All three of these books were standard whodunit mysteries. There's a murder, a suspect (or several), lots of red herrings and blind alleys and a final solution. All three are well told and kept me turning the pages. McBain brings all of his characters to life, gives us insight into how literary agencies, police departments and attorneys work, mixes in action, sex and humor and delivers solid, entertaining books. I can't wait to read another Ed McBain mystery. Highly recommended.

OBJECTIVE BURMA

World War II was still being waged when Warner Brothers released Raoul Walsh's OBJECTIVE BURMA on January 26th, 1945. I watched this rousing war film for the first time this past Memorial Day and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's a classic "guys on a mission" adventure narrative. Captain Nelson (Errol Flynn), and his men parachute into Burma in order to find and destroy a Japanese radar base. They do so with little difficulty but when they are ambushed at an extraction point, they can't get out of Burma by plane as was originally planned. They are forced to walk out of the enemy held country in a long march to freedom or death.

Flynn was a bit past his prime at this point in his career. He's a little softer around the edges and his hair is darker but he still cuts a heroic figure as a man who is determined to accomplish his mission and save as many of his men as possible. Along for the ride is older war correspondent Mark Williams, wonderfully played by Henry (WEREWOLF OF LONDON) Hull. A lot of the narrative exposition is told to Williams as a means of informing the audience as well. Also among Nelson's men is Warner Brothers contract player George Tobias who later gained fame as Abner Kravitz on television's BEWITCHED. And back at headquarters, monitoring Nelson's plight is an uncredited Hugh (LEAVE IT TO BEAVER) Beaumont.

OBJECTIVE BURMA was beautifully shot on location in Southern California by the great cinematographer James Wong Howe (there's also a lot of stock footage) and has a terrific score by Franz Waxman. Raoul Walsh keeps things moving relatively well but with a running time of 142 minutes, the film is a bit too long. Nevertheless, OBJECTIVE BURMA delivers the wartime goods in a big way. It's an exciting WWII film with a solid cast. Recommended.