Tequila Sunrise - Arrow 4K

Tequila Sunrise (available for pre-order now) was a rental store staple for me that I would always see on the shelf as a child, but never rented because, you know, it’s not exactly a kids movie based on that title. When I finally checked it out years later as a big fan of both Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell, I came away disappointed. When this new release from Arrow was announced, I decided to check it out because maybe I was still too young to appreciate it that first time. Turns out this is just okay. 

This is a movie completely reliant on star power. Without Gibson, Russell, Pfeiffer, and Julia I doubt this movie is remembered at all. The fact that it’s not that remembered today even with this cast says it all. 

Written and directed by Robert Towne (the guy who famously wrote Chinatown and much less famously wrote and directed Ask the Dust), Tequila Sunrise is about lifelong friends on opposite sides of the law who both fall in love with a restaurant owner. All the inherent conflict should make this very compelling, but it all seems uneventful. There’s a low energy to the film that makes the high stakes of it all feel low. 

But all these stars are in their prime and are so watchable that it still ends up being okay. It’s just that it should be great. Perhaps my expectations were too high and misplaced. The love triangle element isn’t that interesting to me, and that takes up more of the plot than the drug smuggling. I simply didn’t care who Pfeiffer ended up with, mainly because Russell is a bit of a shithead in this, and it doesn’t make much sense why she’s giving him any chance at all. But then again, her other option is a former drug smuggler who nearly gets her killed for simply knowing him, so maybe she just has poor taste in men?

Beyond that, I guess I wanted more of a Michael Mann experience, in which the film goes on vibes more than plot. I needed a Miami Vice scene in which some intricate detail is being explained but the sound drowns out as a character stares off into the ocean. But Towne isn’t capable of that since he’s a screenwriter first, and a director second. 

Despite that, Tequila Sunrise has its beautiful moments. It better, with a title like that. The standout scene is a dialogue between Russell and Gibson during a sunset. If more scenes were like that, I would have at least enjoyed this more as a visual experience, but moments like that are rare. 

All that written, this doesn’t get an Arrow 4K if it isn’t beloved. People clearly like this movie; I wish I was one of them. Maybe it’s as simple as being too young when it first came out. Who knows? But one thing’s for sure, I’m done trying to love this movie.

Random Thoughts

Despite my misgivings, I must admit the film does feature tequila, sunrises (more sunsets, though), and Tequila Sunrises (Mel Gibson's character drinks them). So there's that.

My main memory of this film beyond seeing it at the video store is its appearance in Interview with the Vampire. Louis is seen leaving a screening of Tequila Sunrise before he finds a decrepit Lestat. It’s part of him talking about being able to see the sun again through movies. I get that, but does that mean he watches any movie with "sun" in the title? What a fucking dildo.

Transfer and Special Features

Arrow is one of those distributors you can trust to handle a film with care, and that’s the case here. That sunset scene looks great, as does the rest of the film.

The standout of this new release was a new interview with producer Thom Mount (there’s also a commentary with him, but I don’t care enough about this movie to check that out). He’s as low energy as the movie, but he’s candid as hell. He acknowledges that current Mel Gibson is not great, but back then he seemed great! Somehow he brings up merkins and pasties in regards to the Pfeiffer and Gibson sex scene. And he says Robert Towne was so checked out that famed cinematographer Conrad Hall was brought in not only as DP, but also to shadow direct when Towne was late to set (which was a daily occurrence).

An interview with second AD Robert Roda confirms the Towne stuff as he talks about it being rare to have a second AD at all. It sounds like this was a team effort when it came to directing.

There’s a retrospective about Towne’s entire career, as well. 

And there’s a truly odd interview with Lala Sloatman. The interview itself isn’t odd, as she goes through her career, and her time working on the film. It’s odd because she plays “Sin Sister #2,” a character with five seconds of screen time. I really want to know why they tracked her down for this. She’s related to the Zappas and seems to know a lot of famous folk, so maybe she’s friends with the producer of this new release or something. 

There’s also the usual Arrow stuff like a reversible sleeve and a collectible booklet with essays about the film.

"Street Fighter" - All-American Van Damme

With the Fourth of July this weekend, I thought I’d go with a very American Van Damme movie, and Van Damme has the Stars and Stripes tattooed on his arm in this one. Let’s ignore the fact that a clearly Belgian man named Jean-Claude is playing an “all-American” character, and instead focus on the fact that JCVD was a coked-up mess during the shoot, and that kind of American behavior transcends his actual nationality.

This Movie Has Everything...Except Street Fighting

Street Fighter is a busy-ass movie. The plot is relatively basic (a fictional UN called the AN, led by typical American Jean-Claude Van Damme, must stop the evil Bison, a dictator hellbent on world domination who holds hostages for ransom money to fund his world domination plan), but there are so many characters and random plot points.

On top of the international crisis, this film also features arms dealing (both real and Nerf), cage (not street) fighting, a “stealth” boat, a genetic experiment to create supersoldiers, among other random tidbits. It’s the typical problem with video game movies: the filmmakers (or in this case, the video game company Capcom) insist on including as much stuff from the video game as possible. But games, especially fighting games like Street Fighter, are so all-over-the-place (literally), that it’s impossible to form a cohesive story or create enough character development to make you care about anyone involved. 

Since pretty much every character in the video game had to be introduced throughout the film, Van Damme ends up coming across more like a supporting character than the leading man. There are portions of the film in which it seems like they forget he’s the main character. This is partly the fault of the script, but it’s also very likely that this is the result of Van Damme’s alleged cocaine use at the time. Based on an interview with the director, Steven de Souza, Van Damme was high all the time and just showed up on set whenever he felt like it. If that’s true, then it’s likely that some scenes with Van Damme ended up not being shot in the interest of moving the film along.

But this is based on the word of de Souza, and I don’t trust him completely because of something he wrote for the notes in the DVD insert (Street Fighter is one of those random DVDs that came with a little booklet that contained quotes and stuff). Seemingly as a response to the film’s poor critical reception, de Souza refers to the film as “a martial arts epic, an action comedy, or a tongue-in-cheek parody of its own form.” Martial arts epic is definitely a stretch, but I’ll give him action comedy because the movie is intentionally goofy (the Godzilla scene with E. Honda and Zangief comes to mind). But to call this movie a parody is simply wrong.

De Souza just had to reckon with the fact that he made a mess of a movie, but it still somehow made money and developed a following. But he doesn’t understand that sometimes people like movies because they are bad, and sometimes people just like bad movies. He can’t accept this, though, so he has to come up with this parody bullshit. Street Fighter is too many things, but one of them isn’t parody. Yes, the film is goofy as shit on purpose, but that doesn’t make it a satire. As far as the action and the general plot are concerned, the film is quite straightforward. If the film wanted to be a satire, then there would be a lot more focus on the fact that both the “good” and “bad” guys don’t seem to acknowledge the country they are trying to save/destroy. There was an opportunity to have some Team America-type commentary about military force actually causing more harm than good, but that’s squandered. When Van Damme is told to stand down by his boss (who wants to give in to Bison’s demands), Van Damme tells him he lost his balls and goes to war anyway. I like this call from Van Damme, but because of this moment, you can’t really call this film a parody. Is it a commentary on the usefulness of UN-type groups and giving in to dictators? Sure, but commentary isn’t parody.

De Souza simply thinks that he ended up with such a goofy mess of a movie that you can just slap “parody” on it and act like it was all on purpose. But that’s not necessary. He should just embrace the chaos of what he created and be proud of it. Street Fighter is a fun mess, and that’s okay. 

The Pax Bisonica

I always look back at movies like this and give the villain a second look. Bison is definitely evil because of the hostages he wants to kill when his demands are not met, and because of the genetic experiments he’s performing on unwilling captives. Not to mention he flat out admits that he wants to take over the world by force.

All that considered, his Pax Bisonica has a few perks. Ignoring the ethics of the supersoldier program, wouldn’t such a fighting force provide great security? And the ethics of the program can be fixed, as well. Bison has plenty of loyal followers; why not ask for volunteers? Zangief was a true believer, and he would have taken part of the experiment if Bison had simply asked him.

His Bison-bucks currency would provide a stable economic base, since it would be the only currency in existence after he takes over the world. And you could spend those Bison-bucks at the literal black market/circuses that he creates. He even talks about the food courts he wants to create. This is a man who is concerned about your consumer experience from top to bottom. And he provides healthcare to all his employees, as well. All told, it seems like a pretty good deal, as long as you avoid having your spine snapped by him when he gets mad...

Of course, I’m joking and in no way endorse fascism (unfortunately, I think it’s necessary in today’s world for me to point this out). Bison’s plans are so humorously specific for such a silly movie that I felt the need to at least jokingly consider what kind of world he would create, if only Van Damme would have let the AN give the man his ransom money.

Why Do I Own This?

It’s a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

Random Thoughts

Bison snapping all those necks at the beginning is more Mortal Kombat than Street Fighter.

They definitely make a point to address each other by name so we’re certain which characters from the game made the cut.

Nearly every actor is portraying a character of a different ethnicity and/or nationality. At least they’re consistent.

I get that Van Damme wanted his death to seem real, but did he really need to lie fake dead in the morgue for hours?

I always like when a movie takes the idea of a black market and makes it a literal market. Dudes are out hawking war weapons like they’re trying to sell bootleg DVDs to passersby. 

I believe the behind the scenes stories about Van Damme coming to set whenever he felt like it. He’s the star of the movie, yet he disappears for large segments of it. There are times when it seems like Chun Li, Balrog, E. Honda, Ryu, and Ken are the stars. 

“Colonel, have you lost your mind?”

“No. You’ve lost your balls!”

A stealth boat on a river is pretty stupid, especially when you use start firing a mini-gun from said boat. Sure, radars can’t detect it, but anyone with ears within a ten mile radius will.

In a really dumb movie, Bison having arcade-style controls on his hover-command center-thing is the dumbest part.

“Let’s see how smart you are when you’re not breathing!” Can’t argue with that. Death does make people pretty fucking dumb.

Van Damme was really going to kill Charlie. I get that the dude was a monstrous experiment at this point, but he was still sentient enough to recognize his friend and ask for help. So Van Damme’s response is to kill him? Is JCVD the villain of this movie?

Dhalsim explains to Van Damme that Charlie has the capacity for good, therefore he should not be killed. But Van Damme was going to kill Charlie because he looked fucked up. It had nothing to do with Charlie’s aggression and everything to do with Charlie’s appearance. Don’t get me wrong, if one of my friends turned into a green rage monster, it would definitely change our friendship drastically, but my first impulse wouldn’t be to kill them.

Raul Julia makes the most out of his role, and his performance is doubly admirable when you realize he was dying of stomach cancer during filming.

For a movie meant to be about a fighting video game, the fight scenes are shot way too choppily. Guile’s flip kick should’ve been an amazing image, but it was cut in such a way that you barely notice how badass such a kick is.

Only a Van Damme roundhouse kick can kill a god.

I like that all the characters do their pose from the video game at the end, but man, it doesn’t make a bit of fucking sense for them to do that.

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