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Brad...ley

 Vince Vaughn finally followed through with “locking it up” with his turn as Bradley in S. Craig Zahler’s BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99. For fans of Zaher’s last effort BONE TOMAHAWK (2015) all of your expectations of intensity are fully met with this movie. The quiet calm that punctuates his work is brought to life with unexpected electricity through Vaughn’s performance. Not since his turn as Norman Bates in the Psycho remake (not anything to race out and see) have we seen Vince Vaughn flex his acting chops like this. He is able to so perfectly relay and embody his character of Bradley that he truly gets lost in the role. It can be confidently said that the entire momentum and high octane suspenseful energy that courses through this movie can be attributed to his performance.

This is not a movie for the faint of heart. It moves through some of the darkest truths behind the capabilities of mankind and refuses to allow the audience a single moment’s respite as it barrels forwards. Fans of Johnny Cash will be familiar with the assessment of his music being as sharp as a razor but steady and powerful like a locomotive. There is no more perfect of an allusion to apply to Brawl in Cell Block 99. Except perhaps to provide the qualifier that this train is surely headed straight through the depths of hell. 

The “action” sequences are delivered with such a visceral crunch of reality it makes it hard to separate truth from fiction. Zahler is able to float between reality and hyperbole with such a keen sense of when to keep his finger on the trigger and when to pull it, the audience is totally at his mercy; of which he has very little. 

Fitting into the genre of a prison film there are certain aspects that must be in place to flesh out the environment both inside the walls and out. With a supporting cast comprised of Jennifer Carpenter (the foul mouth Debra Morgan of Dexter fame) filling the spouse on the outside role, Don Johnson (of Don Johnson fame) as the merciless hard-nosed maximum security prison warden, and Udo Kier (who has had a long and storied career but most personally important for his brief role in Ace Ventura Pet Detective) as the sadistic enforcer for the criminal organization that acts as one of the primary antagonists. All of these roles are filled with such satisfying depth and clarity there is never any cause to doubt the reality within this world. For the eagle-eyed movie buff you can also spot Tom Guiry as one of the prison guards. He will always be killing me as Smalls.  S Craig Zahler knows how to cast. Richard Jenkins turn as Chicory in Bone Tomahawk is the only listing he needs on that resume to prove that fact. And also he cats Kurt Russell so clearly he’s a genius... 

The heart of this movie lies in one repeated occurence. On any instance that Vince Vaughn’s Bradley is addressed as Brad, he sharply and quickly corrects whoever has made this error. His intensity paints it as if they have just committed an unforgivable act. This scene repeated a few times throughout the film illustrates a few things. About Bradley it shows he has distinct pride in who he is, it shows that he has a principled stance of what is personally right and wrong, as well as clearly presenting him as a human with an identity.

This movie is apt to leave you breathless and high strung as it sets out to and succeeds in projecting the extreme possibilities of this world when love and hate are used as weapons against each other. Get some Xanax and some cartoons on deck for the post viewing come down, but if you are one that enjoys being taken on a ride, do yourself a favor and don’t miss this one. 

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Meathead American Maverick meets Mystical Ancient Magic

Since the 70′s there has seldom been a man more responsible for doling out a plethora of pulp cultural perfection than the true craftsmen himself;

John Carpenter. 

From haunting Halloween Themes and shuffling Shatner faced Shapes to Escapes from major cities and Things from outer space, few could argue the impact this man has had in Hollywood. However in my humble opinion he did not peak the summit of personal perfection until he got into Big Trouble in 1986. I may be a bit biased as I am truly a Die Hard Kurt Russell fan (Do yourself a favor and go watch Overboard and Breakdown tonight!), but maybe if admit to never being a fan of Escape from NY/LA you’ll be more inclined to trust my opinion for this Kurt/Carpenter Collabo. Snake Plissken is still one of the gnarliest movie names ever though.  

There are a handful of movies that have stuck in my heart solely based on one connecting thread; my dad made a big deal about watching it with my brothers and I for the first time. Terminator, T2, Predator, Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, Alien(s), The Goonies (because kids cursed and back then it was atypical...), Stand By Me, Lost Boys, My Cousin Vinny, Psycho, Goodfellas, The Godfather, Caddyshack, Animal House, and Halloween are all embedded in my subconscious movie fanatic mind as seminal pieces of pop culture due solely to the venerated recommendation of my blue collar father. Dude’s got great taste I know!

Yet among those heavy hitters rested one movie that despite the definite and formative impact the others impressed upon my Young mind, the first time I was pulled into the living room to watch Big Trouble in Little China with him, the effect of this movie’s magic was one of the most memorable. (Perhaps second only to the first time he made us watch Aliens while decorating for Christmas, Oh Hey! what’s up Traumatic memory! we’ll table that for another day.)

It’s difficult in the age of mind melding millennial meme jockey’s to let the sardonic sarcasm take a back seat to benign enjoyment, but Big Trouble in Little China is well worth relinquishing your rectangle for its meager Ninety Nine minute run time. In fact a valuable lesson can be pulled from the Black Blood of the Earth (reference you’ll only understand if you watch it), and that is; If you don’t take yourself too seriously, even when things don’t quite make sense, you just might find yourself having more fun than expected. I Promise that is as faux-losophically deep as I’ll ever get.

That being said, this is a movie that effectively thrives with the knowledge that it’s tongue is firmly placed in its cheek. Russell’s not so subtle shades of Graceland blended with The Duke let you know instantly amidst his trucker lingo laden monologues that we’ve got our Hero. Carpenter uses the cliched conventions of what would otherwise be regarded as poor storytelling to his advantage in crafting his martial arts magnum opus. Kim Cattrall’s Gracie Law, The Lawyer and unapologetic plot device, kindly delivers succinct self answering questions used simply to supply us with all necessary exposition to get us to the next hare-brained scheme or high stakes action. The entire supporting cast all plays the stereotype much to their strengths as Carpenter is clearly focused on the audience’s amusement over any academy’s awards. James Hong and Victor Wong round out the cast as David Lo Pan and Egg Shen; the opposing sides of the mystical side of the movie’s magic. James Hong’s villainous Lo Pan deserves his place in the ranks of All-Time Creeps if not for his costume and make-up ( those nails...), then certainly his giddy cackle alone merits his inclusion. 

Carpenter’s eye for striking imagery is never allowed out to play more than with the set designs throughout the entire movie, especially when we make it to Lo Pan’s Palace. The visuals throughout the entire film are not held back by the era in which it was released, rather they are enhanced by it. I’ll take a neon skull palace any day thank you very much.

Perhaps nostalgia and personal attachment are the primary reasons for my perpetual enjoyment of this movie, but I’d have to kindly disagree as I find this movie to be one of the best of all time. “Cult Classic” is usually an indicator that the mainstream minds that be didn’t quite get what was tried by the movie but I promise if you give this one a go with an open mind and a desire to just have some good clean fun, you won’t even need Egg Shen’s bubbling brew to make you feel pretty good.

P.S It gets extra points for sneakin’ an all too perfect “F-Bomb” into a PG-13 in ‘86 

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