FILM FRENZY

Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer (Photo: Universal)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

THE EQUALIZER 3-MOVIE COLLECTION (2014-2023). Running for four seasons (1985-1989), TV’s The Equalizer found British actor Edward Woodward (The Wicker Man, recently reviewed here) essaying the role of Robert McCall, a former government operative employing his impressive skills to help out those too weak and powerless to fight back. In the same-named film The Equalizer (2014), Robert McCall has been reborn in the personage of Denzel Washington, who similarly brings enormous reserves of brains, brawn, and bravado to the part. Making small talk with another regular customer at his favorite diner, a too-young call girl named Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), McCall can easily surmise that her vocation isn’t exactly what this Russian immigrant had in mind for herself — that becomes even more clear after she’s brutally beaten by Russian thugs who control her very existence. Realizing he can no longer stand idly by, McCall taps into his long-buried past to help him with this present situation. The Equalizer is about as subtle as a pneumatic stapler shot to the temple, with McCall worthy of sainthood and the villains worthy of being Satan’s emissaries on Earth. But who wants subtlety when one can bask in the glory of Denzel obliterating remorseless degenerates left and right? Like the original (and only decent) entry in Liam Neeson’s Taken series, this isn’t a film for those seeking moral ambiguity or thought-provoking shades of gray. It’s cinema as catharsis, allowing ordinary people weary of living in a world run by vile criminals and corrupt cops the fantasy of seeing a sentient superman righting all wrongs on their behalf. Pimps and other like-minded creeps who prey on women — whether murdering them, torturing them, controlling them (anti-choice, anyone?) or grabbing them by the, ahem — represent just about the worst that humanity has to offer, so when McCall deals with them in violent fashion, progressive viewers just might cheer out loud.

As noted, watching Denzel’s former CIA operative deal with all manner of evildoers over the course of The Equalizer is a cathartic experience, but the movie also works because of its kinetic action scenes as well as a gradual reveal of the layers of Washington’s character. The Equalizer 2 (2018) offers no such pleasures. This is a particularly dreary film, one which makes no attempt to freshen up or even disguise its rote storyline. As in many an unimaginative sequel, This Time It’s Personal™, meaning that McCall’s CIA pal Susan (Melissa Leo) gets killed once she gets too close to the truth regarding a faked murder/suicide — that truth is so fleetingly and haphazardly explained that it scarcely matters, and Susan might as well have been slain for trying to steal a neighbor’s cherished pie recipe. A subplot involving McCall’s mentoring relationship with a young kid (Ashton Sanders) seems to have been imported from a lesser ABC Afterschool Special from the 1970s. And while The Equalizer was excessively brutal because the plot demanded it, The Equalizer 2 is excessively brutal because the filmmakers demanded it. It all culminates with a lengthy battle royale in which McCall faces down the baddies while a storm rages all around them. It’s laughably absurd, and just one more reason why The Equalizer 2, despite typically strong work from Washington, is less than the sum of its slickly oiled parts.

As heavily reported at the time of its release, The Equalizer 2 was the first sequel Denzel ever made, a mind-blowing fact considering the number of actors only too happy to remain aboard any given gravy train. With The Equalizer 3 (2023), we now get only the second follow-up Denzel has ever made. Clearly, the superstar has great affinity for the character of Robert McCall, and it shows in this picture’s plot. Whereas the heroes in other action flicks find themselves trapped in a neverending series of carbon-copy adventures or only slow down and sleep when they’re dead, McCall is one of the very few who has a legitimate chance at a Happily Ever After retirement from bloodletting. When his latest do-gooder deed takes him to Italy, he ends up recuperating from a particularly nasty injury in a quiet coastal town where everyone seemingly knows everyone else. McCall responds positively to the region and its people, and he considers making the town his permanent home — first, though, he must rid the area of a Mafia-like outfit whose members are into drug-running, murder, and general sneering. With a more focused storyline and a greater emphasis on character, The Equalizer 3 is a definite improvement over the previous picture. It also benefits from the clever casting of Dakota Fanning, here playing acerbic CIA agent Emma Collins. Fanning was all of 10 when she previously co-starred with Washington in 2004’s Man on Fire; she’s now 29, and it’s trippy seeing this former moppet squaring off against Denzel and playing an adult who gives as good as she gets. No points, though, for figuring out how Emma is connected to McCall’s past, as the big reveal turns out to be no big deal with its utter predictability.

This new Blu-ray collection is being released alongside standalone editions of The Equalizer 3. The E3 4K and Blu extras include deleted scenes; a look at the reunion between Washington and Fanning; and the lyric video for Jacob Banks’ “Monster.”

The Equalizer: ★★★

The Equalizer 2: ★★

The Equalizer 3: ★★½

THE FUGITIVE (1993). Movies based on prime-time television series have long tended to be sorry excuses for cinematic enshrinement (The Dukes of Hazzard, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Honeymooners, about 1,000 more), but The Fugitive remains one of the very best examples of the exception to that rule. Both a critical and commercial smash when it hit theaters 30 years ago, this adaptation of the classic TV show (1963-1967) stars Harrison Ford as Richard Kimble, a Chicago doctor whose wife (Sela Ward) is murdered by a one-armed man for unknown reasons. With no evidence, though, the police finger Kimble as the killer, and he’s quickly arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. But after a spectacular train-and-bus collision sets him free, he searches for the murderer himself — he’s pursued every step of the way by U.S. Marshall Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), who cares far more about catching his man than wondering whether said man is guilty or innocent. Directed for maximum impact by Andrew Davis from a sharp script by Jeb Stuart and David Twohy, this contains enough suspenseful set-pieces, clever red herrings, and spectacular stuntwork to satisfy most thriller aficionados. Yet what really makes the movie work are the performances by the two leads. Ford is believable as the tormented hero — indeed, a key ingredient to the film’s success is how firmly he commands audience sympathy — while Jones is out-and-out terrific as the arrogant, never-say-quit lawman. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, this earned Jones the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Extras in the 4K UHD + Digital Code edition consist of audio commentary by Davis and Jones; an introduction by Davis and Ford; a pair of making-of featurettes; a breakdown of the train wreck sequence; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★½

IN LOVE AND WAR (1996). All’s poor in In Love and War, a major miscalculation with two flailing stars under the tutelage of a dull director. Richard Attenborough, a decent actor who began performing in 1942 but only took up directing in 1969, has long maintained a reputation in many (non-BAFTA) circles as a stodgy helmer. While his attention to plodding detail worked quite well for 1982’s Gandhi (his best film, and the one that earned him a Best Director Oscar), it muted other pictures that might have benefitted from a more robust style, such as A Chorus Line and A Bridge Too Far. (Attenborough’s most popular roles included Squadron Leader Bartlett in The Great Escape and John Hammond in Jurassic Park, and we should give thanks that he acted in, rather than directed, those thrill-a-minute classics. But I digress.) The 113-minute In Love and War takes what should have been a moving love story — the fact-based dalliance between a 19-year-old Ernest Hemingway and a 26-year-old nurse — and makes it about as emotionally involving as a 180-minute documentary on aglet production. Chris O’Donnell plays Hemingway as a cocky yet sweet kid whose boundless energy results in a serious leg injury during a World War I skirmish. This places him in the care of Agnes von Kurowsky (Sandra Bullock), and it was the earnest Ernest’s doomed romance with her that arguably transformed him into the macho, womanizing he-man known to all and inarguably informed some of his writing (the character of Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms was based on her). Watching the bland O’Donnell attempt to convey soulful anguish is a sight in itself, while a sluggish Bullock seems distracted throughout, perhaps reflecting on whether it was a mistake to agree to star in the upcoming Speed 2: Cruise Control. (Answer: It was.)

The only Blu-ray extra is the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★½

OPPENHEIMER (2023). It was quite gratifying to see that both halves of the Barbenheimer phenomenon lived up to the hype, with the social frenzy so ear-piercingly loud that it probably belonged in an IMAX production directed by Christopher Nolan. While Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (recently reviewed here) offers sunshine and rainbow colors to go with its satiric and social themes, Nolan’s Oppenheimer presents a suitably sobering drama that largely hangs under a mushroom cloud of darkly troubling sociopolitical issues. One of the best films of the year thus far, this finds Nolan regular Cillian Murphy moving from supporting player to leading man for the helmer — he delivers a superb performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist whose work on the Manhattan Project led to the creation of the atom bomb. A three-hour motion picture that never wears out its welcome, the film, written and directed by Nolan and adapted from the biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, covers a startling amount of ground, examining not only Oppenheimer’s years on the assignment but also his relationships with his strong-willed wife Kitty (Emily Blunt) and his troubled mistress Jean Tatlock (an excellent Florence Pugh), his crippling guilt over the hundreds of thousands killed in Japan toward the close of World War II, and the post-war circumstances that damaged his career. Oppenheimer features an all-star cast, but the picture isn’t merely collecting A-listers as if they were baseball cards — from Matt Damon as the supportive General Groves to Robert Downey Jr. as the shifty Atomic Energy Commission head Lewis Strauss, most of the major roles help round out Oppenheimer’s story, and even the smaller parts (tackled by Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Gary Oldman, among others) lend import and understanding to the proceedings.

Extras in the Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Code edition include a making-of featurette; a Q&A panel chat; and a piece on the atomic bomb.

Movie: ★★★½

THE POLICE ACADEMY COLLECTION (1984-1994). What, pray tell, might rightly be considered the worst movie franchise (minimum four films) in Hollywood history? While my personal vote would be neatly sliced down the middle with each half given to the Transformers and Friday the 13th series, it’s hard to argue against the folks who would insist it was this inane comedy franchise that dominated much of the 1980s (with one straggler appearing in the ‘90s). That there was a total of seven of these things — not to mention a live-action television series, an animated TV show, a comic book, and even a global theme park attraction — boggles the mind; it would be easy to chalk it up to the ofttimes dubious taste of the American public (see also: Grown Ups, The Apprentice, anything to do with the Kardashians) except that these pictures were even more popular overseas.

Police Academy (1984) certainly demonstrated why there was at least one sequel, as the first picture in the series was one of the top 10 grossers of 1984 (thereby rubbing shoulders with genuinely funny flicks like Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, and Romancing the Stone). A mandate by the mayor states that the metropolitan police department must accept all applicants regardless of age, weight, IQ, etc. Thus we get the usual assemblage of slobs, misfits, and underachievers, including the affable Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg, desperately trying to channel an inner Bill Murray that doesn’t exist), the towering Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith), the wacky Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow), the gun-crazy Eugene Tackleberry (David Graf), the bold and busty Debbie Callahan (Leslie Easterbrook), the mousy Laverne Hooks (Marion Ramsey), and the bumbling Douglas Fackler (Bruce Mahler). All are under the not-so-watchful eye of the easily befuddled academy head, Commandant Eric Lassard (George Gaynes), with the devious Lieutenant Thaddeus Harris (G.W. Bailey, the poor man’s Herbert Lom/Chief Inspector Dreyfus from The Pink Panther series) serving as a constant foil. The movie isn’t really much funnier than its sorry sequels, but it’s the best of the bunch simply by virtue of being fresh (or as fresh as this moldy premise can get) and by introducing Winslow’s amazing, self-produced sound effects to the general population. Practically every picture in the series showcased a pretty woman to serve as a one-and-done opposite Guttenberg (or his equally blasé replacements in the later entries) — here, it’s Kim Cattrall as the shapely cadet who can’t resist Mahoney’s obnoxious ways.

The original Police Academy was the only movie in the series to earn an R rating (for nudity and profanity, natch) — Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) was PG-13, while the subsequent five flicks all garnered benign PG ratings. This one finds the former cadets (now graduates) assigned to police the most dangerous part of town. Easterbrook is MIA, Bailey has been replaced as the fumbling foil by Art Metrano as Lieutenant Mauser, and Colleen Camp’s Kathleen Kirkland is introduced as a love interest for Tackleberry. But never mind all that: The real story is the arrival of Bobcat Goldthwait to the series, playing a gang leader named Zed McGlunk. Anyone familiar with ‘80s lowbrow humor is familiar with Goldthwait, who typically played twitchy, stuttering goofballs. He’s fascinating to behold, although whether that’s a positive or a negative is up to each individual viewer. At #11, this barely missed out on making the year’s Top 10 grossers list, pushed out by the year-end Chevy Chase-Dan Aykroyd comedy Spies Like Us.

Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986) finds the gang returning to the titular institute to help Lassard prevent its probable closing. Easterbrook reappears (thus reuniting the first picture’s not-so-magnificent seven), Metrano remains, Goldthwait’s Zed is now one of the good guys as a new cadet, and Guttenberg’s plaything this time around is a comely cadet played by 1980 Miss South Carolina / Miss USA / Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly. As in all the other films, the majority of the jokes (whether visual or verbal) don’t even bother with a payoff, which is an odd way to approach comedy. It’s also the only film series in which the characters somehow manage to become even less developed with each passing entry.

Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987) is pretty self-explanatory, with the regulars joined in their efforts to rid the city of crime by ordinary citizens recruited to be ersatz cops. Bailey returns as the sneaky Lieutenant Harris, and the supporting cast has more recognizable names than usual: Sharon Stone as Mahoney’s latest conquest, David Spade in his film debut, Randall “Tex” Cobb as a heavy, and an 18-year-old Tony Hawk among the skateboarders making cameo appearances. It’s the same-old same-old, only somehow slightly worse.

Police Academy 4 marked Guttenberg’s last series appearance, and with his departure, the filmmakers introduced a boring new vanilla character to replace him in Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988). That would be Lassard’s nephew Nick (Matt McCoy), and this entry’s sweetheart du jour is an officer trained in physical combat (Janet Jones, who became Wayne Gretsky’s wife in the same year she made this). Goldthwait also bailed on the series after PA4, leaving René Auberjonois to attempt to add some semblance of laughs as an excitable jewel thief. One of the series’ worst characters, Harris’ brain-dead assistant Carl Proctor (Lance Kinsey), was introduced back in Part Deux; the filmmakers somehow thought it was a good idea to increase his role with each passing picture, so this one goes all-out with his imbecilic antics.

With Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989), the series decided to skip bottom-of-the-barrel status and immediately burrow beneath the barrel. This dreadful entry finds the gang unearthing a leak inside their inner circle, one that is allowing a gang of criminals to successfully pull off a series of heists. It’s mildly amusing watching Winslow pretend to be a robot, and, uh, that’s about it for the film’s semi-successful comedy quotient.

A Police Academy movie was released annually like clockwork during the decade’s final six years, but the hope that this would be an ‘80s-only franchise was dashed with the belated debut of the awful Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994), the seventh entry in the series. Most of the regulars are gone — indeed, the only actors to appear in all seven movies were Gaynes, Winslow, and Graf, although Bailey (in 5 of 7) and Easterbrook (6 of 7) are also on view here. Charlie Schlatter replaces McCoy as the clean-shaven hero, Claire Forlani pops up in an early role as his Russian love interest, and (horrors!) Christopher Lee and Ron Perlman respectively portray a good Russkie and a bad Russkie. For the past 15 or so years, Guttenberg and select studio suits have been discussing an eighth film, although I’m taking that as less of a promise and more of a threat,

Extras in the Blu-ray collection include audio commentary on Police Academy by Guttenberg, Winslow, Easterbrook , director Hugh Wilson, and producer Paul Maslansky; film historian audio commentary on Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol; new and archival making-of featurettes; and additional scenes.

Police Academy: ★★

Police Academy 2: ★★

Police Academy 3: ★½

Police Academy 4: ★½

Police Academy 5: ★½

Police Academy 6: ★

Police Academy 7: ★

THE SCARLET LETTER (1934). Given its lofty literary status, it’s perhaps surprising that there haven’t been more film adaptations of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter. The vast majority have been silent films, all largely forgotten save for the 1926 favorite starring Lillian Gish. As for sound versions, there have been three, with the most (in)famous being the 1995 debacle in which Demi Moore was so unconvincing as Hester Prynne that they might as well have cast Roger Moore or Dudley Moore in the part (this was also the one containing the risible scene of Robert Duvall dancing around a campfire with a dead deer balanced on his head). There was a 1973 German take directed by Wim Wenders, and then there’s this 1934 adaptation. The film begins with a written foreword that’s less Hawthorne and more Hollywood Production Code, reading in part, “Though to us, the [Puritan] customs seem grim and the punishments hard, they were a necessity of the times and helped shape the destiny of a nation.” In 17th century Boston, Hester Prynne (Colleen Moore) is forced to wear the letter “A” on her garments for committing adultery and conceiving a child out of wedlock. She refuses to name the father, who turns out to be minister Arthur Dimmesdale (Hardie Albright); meanwhile, Hester’s husband (Henry B. Walthall, who also played the part in the Lillian Gish version) returns after a lengthy absence and is determined to discover the dad’s identity. Often static and burdened with incongruous comic relief, this remains watchable due largely to its relative faithfulness to Hawthorne’s potent source material.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by professor Jason A. Ney, with contributions by Cora Sue Collins (who played little Pearl in the picture and is still with us at the age of 96); a look at Nathaniel Hawthorne on film; and the trailer from a 1965 re-release.

Movie: ★★½

STALAG 17 (1953). It’s easy to see why this World War II yarn from Billy Wilder (who earned a Best Director Oscar nomination for his efforts) was a resounding success upon its release. Different than most of the more baldly jingoistic WWII flicks that had preceded it, it combined hard-biting drama and broad humor in a manner not usually seen in war flicks of the period. Today, the drama survives intact but the humor proves to be a serious drag. Set in a POW camp, the film stars William Holden as Sefton, whose self-serving actions alienate him from the other American soldiers held in the same barracks. When it becomes apparent that there’s a German spy among the POWs in Stalag 17, all suspicion falls on Sefton, who’s forced to out the enemy informant before the other GIs turn vigilante on him. Holden won the Best Actor Oscar for his unsentimental turn as the S.O.B. P.O.W., but while he’s typically solid in the role, it’s shocking to note how little screen time he ultimately commands. Instead, Stalag 17 functions as an ensemble piece, which is fine when it focuses on the taut dramatic aspects of the tale but detrimental when it breaks the mood by centering on the slapstick antics of two buffoonish soldiers played by Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck. Strauss’ incessant mugging as Animal inexplicably earned him an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor, yet I suspect his role is even larger than that of top-billed Holden.

Extras on the 4K UHD + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by supporting actors Richard Erdman and Gil Stratton and playwright Donald Bevan (who co-wrote the original stage show on which the film is based); audio commentary by film historian Steve Mitchell and author Steven Jay Rubin (Combat Films: American Realism); a making-of piece; and a look at the real prisoners of Stalag XVII B.

Movie: ★★★