Star Pick with Justin Paul Kelly

There is no doubt that Tom Cruise has taken up much of the action attention over the past couple years with his possible finale of the Mission: Impossible franchise... which was released earlier this summer. Yet, there is another action franchise that also deserves some viewership –Jackie Chan’s Police Story, which started in 1985 and most recently hit theatres in 2013 (though there is talk of another one in the works). With parts one and two already reviewed here on Filmizon.com, here goes number three – which is sometimes called Police Story3: Supercop, but in North America is usually referred to simply as Supercop (1992). Directed by Stanley Tong – his first of six directorial collaborations with Jackie Chan, the star returns once more as Insp. Chan Ka Kui, this time often being referenced as the titular Supercop. Grudgingly sent by his longtime friend and boss ‘Uncle’ Bill Wong (Bill Tung) from his home in Hong Kong over to mainland China to help run a dangerous undercover sting on an underground drug smuggling operation, he must also leave behind his longtime girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung) for at least a month.

Sometimes you wonder how you missed a film back in the day. The 1990s were a wild age for silly comedy gold...the crop of Saturday Night Live at the time spawning an era of laughs on the big screen – Mike Myers bringing forth Wayne’s World and Austin Powers, Chris Farley and David Spade doing the buddy comedy thing in Tommy Boy and Black Sheep, Adam Sandler bringing Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, and The Waterboy to the world, Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan offering their famous tv skit to the big screen with Night at the Roxbury, and Molly Shannon showing that she truly was a Superstar. Yet somehow, after all of these years, I only just discovered Dirty Work (1998), a cult classic co-written and starring Norm MacDonald (the only film on his writing credits). Directed by, of all people, Bob Saget (yes, Mr. nice guy father Danny Tanner from Full House finally bringing his dirty stand up side out), it oozes 90s oddball comedy. Feeling like gazing into Norm MacDonald’s quirky meta-mind while he dreamily acts his way through an hour and twenty-two minutes of a never before seen comedy routine – if you love the guy’s eccentric shtick, then you’ll probably dig this, but if you’ve never been a fan, then this is probably not for you.

No one in their right mind would ever cast one of the biggest young starlets of the 1930s – Constance Bennett, to play an ordinary plain Jane secretary in a movie. . . but, of course, that’s exactly what Hollywood decided to do in 1930 with the Pre-Code romantic dramedy Sin Takes a Holiday, directed by Paul L. Stein. Bennett plays Sylvia Brenner, a near constant on-call secretary working late nights for a snooty playboy divorce lawyer named Gaylord Stanton (Kenneth MacKenna). Liking nothing better than playing the field with both married and unmarried women (though it seems like he prefers the former better), and then having some fun joking around with his group of friends, including the somehow even snootier barrister Reggie Durant (Basil Rathbone – this at the end of his matinee idol first run... making it big five year later... add another four years and he’d take on his most famous role of Sherlock Holmes), this lifestyle soon backfires on him after a divorcing dame client, Grace Lawrence (Rita La Roy), is looking for a proposal from him as she starts her immediate rebound.

This is not the first time this is being said here... but there is no denying that the James Bond franchise, which is one of my favourites, has been outplayed by other action franchises over the past few decades. With No Time To Die (2021), a glorious door opened wide with Ana De Armas... after a twelve minute cameo from the actress as Paloma got the fandom going crazy – a perfect avenue for a female spinoff as fans were clamoring for more. Outmaneuvered once again, it was not the Bond producers that speedily green lit a new production, but one of their main rivals who signed the actress up for an action saga with: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025), directed by Len Wiseman and co-written by action guru scribe Derek Kolstad (who has been involved with the first three John Wick’s, as well as the sole penman of Nobody). The other writing credit goes to Shay Hatten (who helped with parts three and four of Wick).

How do you wrap up a franchise like Mission: Impossible? That is, if this even is the final installment... as they’ve made it sound (while at the same time, stars not named ‘Tom Cruise’ pipe up and suggest that might not be so). It has been twenty-nine years, with different writers and visionary directors – from twisty Brian De Palma and the action hair stylings of John Woo, to the lens flares of J.J. Abrams and animation expert Brad Bird, it was only about ten years ago that the franchise decided to opt for The Usual Suspects scribe Christopher McQuarrie for the final four. To return to that opening question once more, you could end with a Sopranos’ style cliffhanger, simply make another entertaining movie like the many before – like Everybody Loves Raymond did it with its final episode, or try to tie everything up in a neat little bow by bringing everything together as the Daniel Craig era did with James Bond. Well, it is definitely more along the lines of the latter example, with some distinct differences.

Sometimes a movie just doesn’t fit perfectly within its own genre... going against a few of the tropes that define what something is, all while hitting enough of them to still be what it is – confusing! That’s the case with this latter-day Italian giallo, Mystère... sometimes better known by its English title Dagger Eyes (1983). Co-written and directed by Carlo Vanzina, the film opens with a rather impressive, though more crime inspired assassination in Rome... resembling the real life John F. Kennedy car killing. It will start a chain reaction of murders that will rock the Eternal City.