“Full Metal Jacket” (1987) is the Vietnam movie that gave us memorable-but-now-impermissible phrases such as, “me so horny, me love you long time,” and “only steers and queers come from Texas, and I don’t see any horns on you.” It’s also the Vietnam movie that is often credited for coming the closest to capturing what combat was actually like in Vietnam. I wasn’t there. I won’t judge. I will say that from a cinematic standpoint, it is better as a work of art than a piece of entertainment. I think writer/director/producer Stanley Kubrick meant for it to be that way.
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I saw the original “Death Wish.” Bruce Willis’ 2018 version is not “Death Wish.” It’s primarily a Bruce Willis movie. In it, he becomes a vigilante to avenge crimes against his family. That sounds a lot like “Death Wish,” but it’s not “Death Wish.” The 1974 version was weightier in every aspect. The crimes against Charles Bronson’s family were worse, his vengeance less precise and the moral argument more personal (although I do like the irony that Willis’s character is a trauma surgeon). But ultimately, Bruce Willis and his preternatural lack of gravitas is the problem with Bruce Willis’ “Death Wish.”
I was really, really, really expecting “CHIPS” (2017) to suck, especially when I saw the same person (Dax Shepard) was directing, writing and co-starring (usually a bad sign). However, I was astonished at how fully formed it was. And funny. I mean, it’s overloaded with bro humor (facial-scrotal contact appears to be mandatory in all R-rated comedies these days) but that was to be expected. Still, the dialogue is great, even for secondary characters. Speaking of which, the secondary characters and extras are probably about as diverse a crew as I’ve ever seen in a movie without an ethnic/racial subtext.
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