The Beast (1988)
DIRECTOR: Kevin Reynolds
CAST: Jason Patric, George Dzundza, Steven Bauer, Stephen Baldwin, Don Harvey, Erick Avari, Kabir Bedi, Chaim Jeraffi
REVIEW:
From action director Kevin Reynolds and screenwriter William Mastrosimone, who adapted the script from his play Nanawatai (an honor code among ethnic Afghans requiring hospitality for any who request it, even an enemy), comes this underrated gritty war drama that sets a small-scale interpersonal conflict against the historical backdrop of a seldom cinematically-explored war (the 1979-1989 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan). The Beast is a lesser-known entry in the war genre; despite a fairly small budget of $8 million, the movie still had a very weak box office performance, making back only $161,000, but for fans of grittier, more character-based war dramas, The Beast is sufficiently well-made to be worth giving a chance.
Continue readingDie Hard (1988)
DIRECTOR: John McTiernan
CAST:
Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Alexander Godunov, Hart Bochner, William Atherton, Paul Gleason, Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush, De’voreaux White, Clarence Gilyard Jr., James Shigeta
REVIEW:
While the two movies’ tones are markedly different, Die Hard is in the same class as Raiders of the Lost Ark as action-adventure that shows the other innumerable wannabe action movies how it’s done. Both also share another asset: an everyman hero who’s not superhumanly buff, gets beaten up, and (almost) seems like a real person we can identify with. Continue reading