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[The Take Out Bandit]

Man, I loves me some Walter Hill movies! I reckon what he does best could be described as "Guy Movies". They typically involve simple cause and effect plots, with plenty of action and cool / funny characters. Not to mention chock full of familiar faces and your favorite tough guy™ heroes and thugs.

Let's take a look at some of his best flicks!

Streets of Fire

My personal favorite Walter Hill movie of all time. Imagine Final Fight set in a sort of weird 1930's - 1950's America. You've got Michael Pare' as the wandering hero Tom Cody who comes back to his home town to discover his girl has been kidnapped by a greaser gang lead by crazy biker Willem Dafoe! Plenty of action and a great soundtrack, it's a strange sort of musical that oozes testosterone.

The soundtrack was blatantly swiped by those crazy AZN's for the Bubblegum Crisis anime. You can also see posters for this film in Megazone 23! Japan has good taste in movies, biker Willem Dafoe approves!

Hard Times

Charlie Bronson plays a street fighter looking to make a few bucks during The Depression. He teams up with promoter Speed (James Coburn) and cool ass opium addict Poe (Strother Martin). This is a good no frills tough guy movie, and even the villains are likable. The huge bald guy Bronson has to fight is a bear of a man who kicks ass and never stops smiling. I take it he likes his work.

This was originally supposed to be released as The Street Fighter, but the beast from the east known as Sonny Chiba put a poopy face breathing act in that gig! So they had to change the title to Hard Times.

The Warriors

You've seen this one, no doubt. You probably didn't know it was another fine Walter Hill film! Gang violence glorification at it's best.

48 Hrs.

Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy! Nick Nolte plays the irascible screw-up bigot cop who needs to catch a cop killer and his partner (Billy from Predator!), resulting in him turning to former crime partner Eddie Murphy. Bishoptl and I are going to star in the remake.

Red Heat

"Danko!"

"You're welcome."

HAW!

You don't get much more bad ass than Arnold fighting several beefy dudes in the snowy parts of Russia with nothing but a loincloth! Victor Rosta! James Belushi was a good joker buddy for Arnold. You can also see the Wachowski brothers pals Gina Gershon and Laurence Fishburne here in bitty roles before they become known.

Last Man Standing

It's Yojimbo with Gangsters! Bruce Willis, Chris Walken, and Bruce Dern chew up scenery and sweat profusely.

Undisputed

Former boxing champ is sent to prison where he has to prove his worth against the current prison boxing champ played by Ving Rhames in the way that scares the majority of Red States here in Jesusland. OMG! Scary blackman - ROX! More scary Ving Rhames plz.

Peter Falk also owns as a scenile old coot mobster that arranges the fights and swears a lot. I want to be just like him when I'm old and decrepit!

Now you know, so check out some of these fine Walter Hill films at your local video store. ROCK ON!

 

[Flynn]

The Long Riders is an excellent Western.

Check that one out if you're a fan of Hill.

 

[android]

I saw the Warriors dvd at Walmart today for $12 can. How are the extra features on it?

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

The Long Riders is an excellent Western.

Check that one out if you're a fan of Hill.

Walter Hill? Western?!

ZOMG!

Holy crap, it's a family film - in it looks like it's got all of the Carradine's, both Quaid's. I'll definitely check this one out. Thanks.

The Driver is supposed to release on DVD this year. I want that one in a bad way. Granted, I've never seen it, but it's Walter Hill and involves a getaway driver. It's gotta spank The Trainspotter all sorts of ways.

I saw the Warriors dvd at Walmart today for $12 can. How are the extra features on it?

There's not much in the way of specials on it. I suspect if they go ahead with the remake they'll also release a Special Edition DVD to cash-in.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

The Long Riders is better than anything on that list. And I like a number of the films that you named. If you haven't seen it, do so. NOW!

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Well - I just watched The Long Riders and I don't have much good to say about it. It's a far cry from as good, or better, than the stuff I've listed previously. How you write such a dull movie about the James gang and the Pinkerton Agency - and have a swell director like Walter Hill direct it, resulting in this movie is beyond scientific comprehension.

Stuff happens, and some more stuff happens, and then there's a bunch of real siblings pretending to be old west siblings. I dunno. This is the kind of crap I expect Leguna to make with a budget. :X

James Keach was an awful Jesse James. His acting seemed to rely on two things - looking off into the distance, or looking like someone killed his puppy. No charisma. No personality.

There just wasn't enough character interaction, or interesting character development to put this movie in with the best westerns of all time.

There were plenty of good guys getting blown the hell off their feet scenes, and some respectable stunt work though.

I probably would have enjoyed it more if the Pinkerton agents had a bit more charisma, so when they started slaughtering these redneck fuckwits I could have gotten some enjoyment from it.

Well, I've got a new standard for bad Walter Hill movies. Undisputed moves up one notch, and The Long Riders takes it's place. :X

 

[Flynn]

Whoa.

Sorry you didn't dig it.

If you didn't like the Long Riders stay far away from Ridley Scott's The Duelists and Antonioni's The Passenger.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Eh, no problem.

At least it had the nice guys getting blown off their asses scenes.

I'm interested in The Duelists, but hopefully it's at least very stylish, or character driven. My main beef with The Long Riders is how they skipped over any sort of real character development. What's the point of having an ensemble cast like that and letting it rot?

Y'know - at times, The Long Riders almost reminded me of a half assed The Wild Bunch. Like Hill was channelling Peckinpah.

 

[karasu]

Undsiputed is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Undsiputed is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Yeah, I found Undisputed to be preditible and stupid.

 

[Warm Machine]

Supernova is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Fixed!

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Yeah, I found Undisputed to be preditible and stupid.

I don't think anybody was going to see Undisputed for the plot, that's sort of like going to see a Star Wars movie for the plot. Or like being surprised by the ending of Titanic. :lol

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I don't think anybody was going to see Undisputed for the plot, that's sort of like going to see a Star Wars movie for the plot. Or like being surprised by the ending of Titanic. :lol

So we were seeing it for what exactly? The stunning acting of Wesley Snipes? The incredible fight scenes? (You know? The ones we've seen in so many other boxing movies?) or for the stellar dialog?

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Big scary black men!

Fortunately, Peter Falk stole the show.