I’m kicking off 2023 by trying to watch and review one movie every day for the first 90 days, all of which will be 90 minutes or less.
Title: Black Panthers Release Date: 1968 Director: Agnès Varda Production Company: Cine-Tamaris Summary/Review:
This short film depicts protestors in Oakland, California demanding the release of Black Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton after he was arrested on charges of killing a police officer. Agnès Varda, creator of Cleo From 5 to 7, with a sympathetic eye to the abuses suffered by Oakland’s Black community at the hands of the police force, and the Black Panthers efforts at self-determination. People seen speaking and interviewed at the protests include Stokely Carmichael and Kathleen Cleaver, as well as an interview with Newton in jail.
I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to watch and review one movie from each year of my life. The only qualification is that it has to be a movie I’ve not reviewed previously. If you have any suggestions for movies from the past 50 years, please drop them in the comments!
Title: Running Scared Release Date: June 27, 1986 Director: Peter Hyams Production Company: The Turman-Foster Company Summary/Review:
I saw Running Scared in the movie theater, possibly more than once, and then several more times on cable. So I have a certain nostalgic fondness for this movie. Watching with older and wiser eyes, the Reagan-era “law and order” ideology runs thick in this movie with all the copaganda to justify breaking the rules to get the “bad” guys. If this were real life, these would be terrible, awful cops not lovable scamps. Running Scared basically has all the grit of The French Connection with jokes. In fact it one ups The French Connection’s thrilling car chase after an elevated train by having a car chase ON the elevated railway!
Ray Hughes (Gregory Hines) and Danny Costanzo (Billy Crystal) are undercover police detectives in Chicago. When Danny inherits a small fortune, they decide to retire and run a bar in Key West. But they have one more job to settle, busting drug kingpin Julio Gonzales (Jimmy Smits in his film debut). Hines and Crystal are pretty funny with the quips and have a good camaraderie. The action scenes hold up pretty well too, and the film makes good use of its Chicago locations and winter setting.
Panorama of the Mountains 