Review: Eureka


From Nicolas Roeg, the director of such confounding and pretentious works as “Bad Timing…A Sensual Obsession” (and admittedly good films like “Don’t Look Now” and “Walkabout”) comes yet another film in this vein, but for once he takes a fine cast down with him. 1981 flick starts as a “Citizen Kane” tale of gold miner Gene Hackman becoming extremely rich, but paranoid of his beloved daughter Theresa Russell’s handsome suitor (played by a pre-“Blade Runner” Rutger Hauer). Then it turns into a mob film, with scene-stealing Joe Pesci (commanding despite his small stature) and a young-looking Mickey Rourke turning up as a Capone-like mobster and his trusted accountant/henchman, respectively. Add to this a courtroom finale and touches of voodoo and kinky sex, and you’ve got a film heading in every which way, and never working at any point.

 

The acting is somewhat uneven as well; a soft-spoken Hauer is well-cast as the handsome but possibly opportunistic playboy, whilst Pesci, Ed Lauter (in a fine turn as Hackman’s pal and long-suffering employee), and a surprisingly effective Rourke probably fair the best. Hackman is surprisingly flat, he has a fixed brooding and introspective facial expression that never changes. Even worse is the seriously overrated Russell (AKA Mrs. Roeg), in a supremely silly performance that never for a moment convinces. It is at the courtroom climax that things really go to hell, at first the film is just interminable, but here it becomes extraordinarily stupid, with Russell (and admittedly Hauer) making histrionic speech after speech with absolutely no interruptions from lawyers or even the judge! It’s the most laughable courtroom scene I’ve seen since Fredric March devoured the scenery in “Inherit the Wind”.

 

A few nice grisly moments, but otherwise silly, slow, uber-pretentious, confusing (I’m still not sure what the final scene between Hauer and Russell was meant to suggest), and overlong. For arthouse lovers, perhaps, but even they’ll be roaring with laughter at the finale. The screenplay is by Paul Mayersberg (Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth”).

 

Rating: D+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more