The Fugitive (1993)

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BisexualMMA said:
It isn't Predator or The Running Man, and certainly not The Terminator. But I think it greatly surpasses what his contemporaries and peers were doing around that time. Van Damme and Seagal had already entered the territory they now occupy. Stallone was starring in shit like D-Tox and Avenging Angelo, which didn't even get serious theatrical releases.

You're right, I think we'll forever disagree about the objective quality of Collateral Damage. I think it's...solid enough, and a little better than Eraser, not out of place next to the 6th Day, better than Raw Deal, and I'd rather rewatch it than Terminator 3. Nothing to write home about, but not a black mark on his record.
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Well like I just was telling moreorless, I think Eraser was better. I'd also rather re-watch T3, which I actually don't think is a terrible movie, than to have to sit through Collateral Damage again. I don't remember much about The 6th Day, but I do remember thinking that it also was disappointing and pretty shitty. End of Days was probably the best movie he made during that phase of his career.

I would agree with you that he was doing better than Sly, Van Damme and Seagal, though. Then again, that's not saying a whole hell of a lot. ALL of those dudes' careers was on life support around that time.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
You know, while I would say that Eraser was a more entertaining film than Collateral Damage, I remember thinking that it too was disappointing. Ironically, I also remember exactly when and where I saw that one for the first time, too. I went to the theater with my parents and some friends of theirs. They went to see Courage Under Fire, while I went to see Eraser.

As for Arnold not making the transition well, you make an interesting point. He's an over-the-top dude, both in his movies and in real life. It would be interesting to know how things would've gone for him career-wise if he had never gone into politics. What kind of movies would he have given us during those years?
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Really as well his talent is much more as a physical actor, stuff like Conan, the Terminators and Predator did actually show a good deal of ability in terms of selling emotion non verbally even if he often sounded goofy delivering lines.

Honestly even End of Days for me didn't really feel like a natural Arnie film, it was decent mostly due to Bryne's great scenery chewing but I think it would have worked better with a different lead.
 
moreorless87 said:
Honestly as well beyond being larger than life I think the quality of the writing in a lot of those 80's Arnie films is underrated. Really I think you had a situation after Blade Runner flopping were Hollywood didn't want to make arty sci fi anymore so a lot of the concepts that would previously have gone into such films actually ended up in actioners like Arneis stuff or Robocop. You look back really dispite the rep as "Reagan actioners" at those films were often very strongly anti establishment, little glorifaction of the US armed forces and the antagonists were generally US capitalist fascists rather than future/space commies.
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Arnold's action movies were some pretty high-concept stuff, especially relative to American Ninja, Out for Justice and Bloodsport. Stuff like The Running Man, The Terminator, Total Recall and Predator involved a lot more creativity and intelligence than "dude avenges brother by entering martial arts tournament or cleaning up the streets."
 
@BisexualMMA I'm going walk back my statement about Arnold being in a better spot than Sly around that time.

We're talking the late 90s through the early 00s. During that time period Sly made Cop Land, Get Carter and Driven, all of which I think are better than anything Arnold did during that time. Driven in particular gets no respect but I actually think it's a cool movie. I never did understand the critical disdain for that one.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
@BisexualMMA I'm going walk back my statement about Arnold being in a better spot that Sly around that time.

We're talking the late 90s through the early 00s. During that time period Sly made Cop Land, Get Carter and Driven, all of which I think are better than anything Arnold did during that time. Driven in particular gets no respect but I actually think it's a cool movie. I never did understand the critical disdain for that one.
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Nothing Arnold did sunk to the level of Avenging Angelo. People were wondering if Sly should just retire.

Cop Land is the best thing either of them made in perhaps a 20 year span, but it was 1997. By 2002, it was looking like that was Sly's death rattle, career wise.

Driven and Get Carter... Yeah, they're both okay. They're Collateral Damage okay. I think CD is probably the most rewatchable movie of the three, as a whole. But both Driven and Get Carter have at least one or two scenes that really stand out, and which I really like. Get Carter as a movie overall is actually a pretty tough slog, but the scene where Mickey Rourke beats him into the living death is one of my favorite scenes from any Sly movie.
 
BisexualMMA said:
Nothing Arnold did sunk to the level of Avenging Angelo. People were wondering if Sly should just retire.
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That's one I never did see. It SEEMED like a piece of shit, so I skipped it. But that's just one movie.

BisexualMMA said:
Cop Land is the best thing either of them made in perhaps a 20 year span, but it was 1997. By 2002, it was looking like that was Sly's death rattle, career wise.
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Well we discussed Eraser and that was 1996. So Cop Land falls into that same timeframe. 2002 may not have been a good year for him, but it's just one year and two movies that we're talking about here. He had made Driven just the year before that.

After 2002 he mostly went quiet until he made Rocky Balboa. But after 2002, the only major role Arnold had was T3 and then it was off into politics.

BisexualMMA said:
Driven and Get Carter... Yeah, they're both okay. They're Collateral Damage okay. I think CD is probably the most rewatchable movie of the three, as a whole. But both Driven and Get Carter have at least one or two scenes that really stand out, and which I really like. Get Carter as a movie overall is actually a pretty tough slog, but the scene where Mickey Rourke beats him into the living death is one of my favorite scenes from any Sly movie.
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I didn't love Get Carter, but I for damn sure liked it more than Collateral Damage. I think Driven is better than both of them. I'd actually give Driven about a 7.5/10. I even bought that one on DVD at one point.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
That's one I never did see. It SEEMED like a piece of shit, so I skipped it. But that's just one movie.
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At the time, D-Tox + Avenging Angelo was one hell of a one-two punch. It was like Rousey vs Holm and Nunes.
 
BisexualMMA said:
At the time, D-Tox + Avenging Angelo was one hell of a one-two punch. It was like Rousey vs Holm and Nunes.
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I want to say I MIGHT have seen D-Tox and remember thinking that it certainly wasn't very good, but it also wasn't terrible.

I may very well just be making that memory up though and never did actually see it.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
I want to say I MIGHT have seen D-Tox and remember thinking that it certainly wasn't very good, but it also wasn't terrible.

I may very well just be making that memory up though and never did actually see it.
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People were wondering at the time... Sly teams up with director of I Know What You Did Last Summer? Is this a fit? Sounds kind of desperate. Plus they couldn't even decide on a title. D-Tox? Eye See You? Either way, the title is a stupid pun. And then it didn't really even get to theatres. And this was before Avenging Angelo, which was released like a burp after dinner at Planet Hollywood.
 
BisexualMMA said:
People were wondering at the time... Sly teams up with director of I Know What You Did Last Summer? Is this a fit? Sounds kind of desperate. Plus they couldn't even decide on a title. D-Tox? Eye See You? Either way, the title is a stupid pun. And then it didn't really even get to theatres. And this was before Avenging Angelo, which was released like a burp after dinner at Planet Hollywood.
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I didn't even realize it was directed by the IKWYDLS guy. That's kind of hilarious. Though that WAS kind of a big horror movie around that time. Probably the most successful of the Scream rip-offs?
 
shadow_priest_x said:
I didn't even realize it was directed by the IKWYDLS guy. That's kind of hilarious. Though that WAS kind of a big horror movie around that time. Probably the most successful of the Scream rip-offs?
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It probably was the most successful of that genre. But the question at the time was...take a director that targets teens, and have him film "I Know What You Did" but with all old guys?
 
BisexualMMA said:
It probably was the most successful of that genre. But the question at the time was...take a director that targets teens, and have him film "I Know What You Did" but with all old guys?
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So it was like a slasher film, but with Sly?
 
shadow_priest_x said:
The%2BFugitive%2BPoster-01.jpg


I've been tying up some loose ends lately, in terms of movies that I should've seen years ago but just never got to for whatever reason.

Some of y'all know I just recently watched Die Hard and Lethal Weapon for the first time. I also took care of Alien: Resurrection, since it was the straggler in the series that I never did see.

Well tonight it's The Fugitive.

This is a solid film. And it also reminded me that there was a time when Harrison Ford actually gave a fuck.

I think it's pretty obvious that he doesn't much care these days, at least in terms of continuing to hone his craft and push the boundaries in terms of his performances. I believe he even said in an interview a few years ago that these days it's all about the money. If you want to give him a dump truck full of cash then he'll come be in your shit. Otherwise, he's not interested.

But this is a good film. I almost said a good action film, but is it really action? There actually is relatively little action when you break it down. A few set pieces, that's it. It's more of a thriller. Maybe we'll go with action-thriller. But yeah, this is good and Harrison Ford is good in it, as is Tommy Lee Jones as his foil.

I was surprised to look at the director and not recognize the name. Andrew Davis? Never heard of the guy. So of course I looked to see what else he did and the answer was a bit surprising.


andrew_davis_treasure_island.jpg

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Apparently before The Fugitive he made Above the Law and Under Siege with Steven Seagal. I guess that was enough to land him the job as the director here. But his output since this film has been very uneven. On the upside, there was A Perfect Murder and Holes. But on the downside, he also made Chain Reaction (that 90s film with Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman) and Collateral Damage.

His last film was The Guardian, that Coast Guard movie with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher that came out in 2006. I never saw it, but the RT score is not very good. It made $97 million worldwide, but without knowing what the budget is, I have no idea if that's a solid take or not. At least one article I ran across called it a bomb, though.

Andrew Davis has not made a movie since. and it's always strange to me when a director can make a film like The Fugitive--which is largely regarded as a classic--and be on top of the world, and then he can turn around and make films that are mediocre at best and run his career into the ground.

Anyway, yeah. . . Thoughts on The Fugitive?
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I enjoyed The Fugitive. A good cast that showed a lot of chemistry. I thought Tommy Lee Jones stole the show. See the "sequel"....whatever it's called. I enjoyed it. US Marshals maybe? Anyway, I liked it more than The Fugitive.

You JUST saw Lethal Weapon and Die Hard?

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<DisgustingHHH>
 
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