The Age of Commercialism

That was an excellent one.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I'd probably rate this much lower if I saw it for the first time today or Reynolds wasn't one of my favorite actors. I first saw this during a very good period of my life and when this held a particular sort of interest for me. Add in Reynolds being my pick for coolest actor ever and you get a 9 rating instead of a 5(ish). It has about the worst action you can imagine. The music is that ubiquitous, 80's attempt at 'grit' you hear in every movie of the era trying to show you there are no real heroes, only anti-heroes. Most of the cast seems to have attended the school for over emoting. BUT Reynolds and MacNicol work very well together AND I bet they make you chuckle at least once. This is not a great movie but if you set your expectations low enough you just might find it charming. I can still watch this every 3-5 years or so.

Even though it came out a few months earlier, this great Burt Reynold's obscurity, "Heat," could have easily been a sequel to his other great 80s obscurity, "Malone." Once you changed a couple of small plot points to make the films consistent, you'd still have exactly the same character at the center of each. Burt acts the same, looks the same, dresses the same, and his character in Heat has a very similar background and the exact same skills as the one on "Malone." In fact, the two films even share some of the same lines of dialog (almost). In "Malone" the young girl tells Burt's character that he must like violence. Burt replies that "No, I'm just good at it--there's a difference." In "Heat" Peter McNichol asks Burt if he's a naturally violent person. To which Burt replies "No, I'm just good at it." I mean, really--could that be a total coincidence? Another similarity--"Malone" was basically a old fashioned Western in the "Shane" mode. "Heat" is basically a Spaghetti Western in the revenge mode.I love both of these flicks and wish they'd get decent DVD releases.

Burt Reynolds had made bad films before this one, but he was always able to bounce back with films like Sharkey's Machine (1981) or City Heat (1984), but there was no recovering from this turkey. It took Burt all the way to 1997's Boogie Nights to make a decent film. This film has all of the usual elements, but just not put together correctly. Wayne had Ford and De Niro had Scorsese I guess Burt couldn't make a decent film without Hal Needham. If Hal would have done this he could have at least made the action scenes exciting and Burt could concentrate on being Burt. So if Burt makes a good movie every ten years we should see one pretty soon. Not a Dukes of Hazzard or The Longest Yard, but a real Burt Reynolds movie. One bad thing is the Burt I know would wear a toupee, but would never have undergone that wretched plastic surgery(Clint didn't need one). Come on Hal,if you're still kicking get together and bring back the good ol' Burt Reynolds.

The beginning of this movie I thought it was a horror film, a shot following a bloody woman to the ER. This is a cheat as Roger Ebert puts it and misleads us. However that set-up with the beat up girl is incredibul...its very interesting how the director chooses to take revenge on the people who beat up the girl...HOWEVER I have seen over a million movies in my day believe me and this is by far the worst ending I have ever seen. EVER. After seeing the movie I was not mad I spent 2hrs watching it because the early action scenes were very good and showing the star with a gambling problem very unique. We all know what happens to people with gambling problems and you see in the movie. However this is a very small subplot and does not get expanded in the least...very weak. There are so many things this movie could have been. And about the HORRIBLE ending I would never give it away even thou I belive it to be the worst anti-climax ending ever it is sooooooooo uniqie I dont believe any movie ever made has done it and for good reason. A million more movies can come out in the next 20 years none will end like this come on...YOUR LEADING UP TO THE FINAL BATTLE WITH a guy who has been in vietnam and is considered to be one of the deadliest men in the world and they don't even fight...you have to see what happens...wow...I can't take it. This is the longest review I have ever written on this site and I just can't get over how good this movie could have been. A dam shame...6.8 out of 10 but a definite viewing for any gamblerholic or lover of offbeat cinema.