WIlliam Friedkin Marathon: Sorcerer, Rampage, Blue Chips, Rules of Engagement, The Hunted, Bug.

William Friedkin has received a lot of love from me on the site. He is the man and I continually enjoy everything I see by him. I noticed recently that a crop of his movies have appeared on Netflix instant, so I watched them... and gave a brief run down with my ratings... because that's what I do here at WFR!

Sorcerer
(1977) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]

Synopsis: 4 men with checkered pasts are hired to transport highly volatile dynamite through a Nicaraguan forest.

This film is a definite pleaser in my book. Whoever the guy is that's in charge of the explosions in Sorcerer should be given an Oscar. Also the score-- it's incredible. There was a little lag towards the beginning and it took some time for the story to gain momentum, but when it gets going it rules. The truck building scene was awesome, I feel like I could build one now.

There's tons of suspense as the crew travels through the jungle. Two stand out moments for me were... the truck driving across the Temple of Doom bridge and the jerry-rigging of the C4 to blow up the tree.

Rampage
(1987) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]

Synopsis: A delusional young man goes on a killing spree. He's taken to court and tries to get off on insanity.

This film's main problem is... it's boring as shit. Seriously... it was so slow and really hard to finish. It stars Michael Biehn from The Terminator, he was probably the best actor of the lot. I don't know what else to say here.... this is definitely a pass.

Snooze city.

Blue Chips
(1994) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]

Synopsis: Nick Nolte is a college basket ball coach looking to build a winning team.

Nick Nolte plays a pretty typical coach, or at least what I think one should act like, so I guess that's good. There's a lot of poor acting from all the players and a few believability issues. When Nolte goes to visit Shaq for the first time, he takes a boat, travels through a swamp, then hikes through a field. When he arrives to the town Shaq lives in, it has a street running right through it... why didn't Nolte just drive there? Blue Chips is a pretty average sports drama, not horrible, but not great either.

Rules of Engagement
(2000) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]

Synopsis: Tommy Lee Jones defends Samuel L Jackson after he gives orders to attack a group of Yemen protesters.

I was prepared to be disappointed after seeing the ratings score for this film, but it wasn't that bad. There were a few predictable moments but all the performance and pacing were good enough to give it a pass.

The scene where Samuel L Jackson kills the Viet Cong guy was pretty rad and the surge on the US embassy was pretty gripping.

This was a nice blend of a court room drama and war flick, absolutely a decent time waster.

The Hunted
(2003) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]

Synopsis: Benicio Del Toro is a crazed ex military assassin and his mentor (Tommy Lee Jones) is brought in to track him down.

This movie could have been so much cooler. It started off and had a sort of Rambo meets Deerhunter vibe going for it, but somewhere along the way it derailed a little. It wasn't awful or anything, just kinda bland.

Two things. The opening scene with the wild wolf caught in a snare and TLJ just walks up and frees it... it's absurd. Also... at the end when Del Toro is being chased by a shit ton of FBI, he finds the time to stop and forge a blade out of iron and fire???? It might have been one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in a serious movie.

Bug
(2006) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin [IMDB]

Synopsis: Two people with a lot of baggage hook up and then start to believe the government has bugged them?

Bug is a weird film. It feels dirty, kind of like Killer Joe did. There's some really cool camera work and sound design throughout this. As always, Michael Shannon plays a great crazy person. The film takes awhile to roll out, but when it does, it unfold very quickly. The last 20 minutes are bananas.

Undefeated

Undefeated
(2012) [Trailer]
Directors: Daniel Lindsay [IMDB], T.J. Martin [IMDB]

There are a few documentaries that came out in 2012 that I really wanted to see, but never got the chance too... Undefeated is one of them. I saw the trailer for this awhile back and immediately thought it looked like a real life version of Season 4 in Friday Night Lights, which is one of the greatest television programs of all time. So why would I not want to see it?

Synopsis: A high school coach struggles to build a successful football program in the inner city of West Memphis.

This is a fantastic documentary and just an overall enjoyable experience. Most effective documentaries have a strong character who is an interesting subject to watch on camera... Coach Bill Courtney is that man. He is so sincere and genuinely cares about, not only building a great team, but making a difference in his players lives. The team dynamic is robust but there are few members that tend to get the focus of the film. Watching the way things unfold over the season is captivating and there's definitely a few tear jerking moments in Undefeated's run time.

If you like docs, this is a must see and highly recommended by me.

Warrior

Warrior
(2011) [Trailer]
Director: Gavin O'Connor (IMDB)

I knew a lot about this movie going into it and I wasn't sure if I was gonna really like it or not. I had heard it's like MMA (Mixed Martial Arts for all you newbs) meets Rocky, and in a way I guess you could say that's true. Is that a bad thing? Who knows. I think a lot of people love to hate on MMA, probably because of all the tools that walk around with Tapout gear on and shit. However, at the end of the day it's an exciting sport, and that universe holds promise to have a really good story take place inside it.

Warrior centers around two brothers and Nick Nolte. Nick's their recovering acloholic father and they all hate each other. Liquor is a hell of a drug, and for the most part, tore their family to shit. Neither brother has spoken to each other in years and Nolte's just trying to get the fam back on track. There's a lot of twists and turns that have the two brothers eventually fitted to go up against each other in a huge MMA contest.

Trust me, there's a lot of stuff in here that's not too believable. If you were to hold on to some of those things, it could ruin the film for you. Like that fact that both brothers just happen to be no name fighters who both, through completely different events, land in the rankings to enter a huge multimillion dollar MMA event. Or that a teacher could get suspended for being in MMA outside of school. But, it's Hollywood and you gotta sweetin' up the story a bit. I honestly liked this movie a lot. It wasn't perfect, but it's extremely entertaining and I was into it from beginning to end.