Why I'm looking forward to a potential 'Beverly Hills Cop IV'

Last night, amid all the chaos in the world, I decided to lighten the mood by revisiting one of my favorite characters and franchises -- Axel Foley in the first two Beverly Hills Cop films. I have only seen the third one once, years ago, and if memory serves it was a colossal failure that wasn't in the first two movies' league.

For years now there has been talk of a new Beverly Hills Cop project. First as a fourth film, then as a TV series, and eventually a film again. After seeing Murphy's comeback in last year's Dolemite Is My Name, I have no doubt that the comedy legend still has some comedic gas left in the tank, and with Foley being one of his beloved characters, a reboot makes a lot of sense.

The good news is Murphy seems enthusiastic about the material. He's been trying to get a new Foley film off the ground for years. After the success of the Dolemite film and the good will being generated by his upcoming sequel to Coming to America, conditions seem ripe to make this happen, although the coronavirus has delayed it (as it has every major, in the works project right now).

The first film is a classic -- both a great old school cop movie and a wonderfully charming hang out comedy. Murphy is credible is action scenes and really gives a well-rounded performance that's likable and whipsmart.

Some people consider part II a bit of a letdown but it works for me. It's got Tony Scott at the helm. which means it looks incredible, and the action is much harder edged. It's not really reinventing the series, but it's stylish, enjoyable and a great time capsule movie of when Murphy was sitting on top of the world.

When earlier iterations of a fourth film got bandied about I remembered hearing it could be one of those movies where Murphy is passing the torch to a younger sidekick. I really hope that isn't the direction they go in.

Murphy is still in his 50s, he looks great and has still got starpower to spare. I think a movie about an older, wiser Axel Foley can work without shoehorning in some up and comer -- or even worse some wannabe heir apparent (like Kevin Hart...)

I would also just like to a return of the good old fashioned cop movie. I haven't seen Bad Boys III but something in that vein feels fresh almost because it's been so long since it used to be stale. I miss stuff like the Lethal Weapon franchise. These were movies that were pretty grounded in a recognizable reality with stars who looked and dressed like real people.

There have been some honest stabs at action comedies in recent years -- I would argue Hobbs & Shaw is one. But most, like Kumail Nanjiani's Stuber, have sunk like a stone. And really this is a bad period for the American comedy in general.

Last year, there wasn't a pure comedy in the top 30 movies! Unless you count Knives Out, which is very funny, but also as much of a mystery as it vehicle for laughs. And I consider the Jumanji movie more of a kids movie.

It may come as surprise to people -- especially younger folks who don't know what the fuss is all about -- but Beverly Hills Cop was one of the biggest hits of all time when it came out in 1984 -- and it ranked number one that year, ahead of another iconic comedy blockbuster -- Ghostbusters.

For some reason, comedies are not seen as financially risky and out of fashion. Sure, the Marvel movies and Star Wars films tend to have solid laughs in them, but that's not why you're there.

There definitely aren't many comedy actors who are on an unmitigated hot streak right now. I'm not a fan, if you can tell, but Kevin Hart was having a moment for a while but he no longer feels like 'the man.' Will Ferrell also occupied that pole position for a while, until you realize he hasn't really killed in a movie since Anchorman 2.

I'm intriguing by Pete Davidson's upcoming collaboration with Judd Apatow -- he feels like someone who could be big with the right project, but he could never be what Eddie was.

Murphy was the Michael Jordan of mainstream American comedy, and I want Beverly Hills Cop IV, should it ever happen be sort of like his The Last Dance, a reminder that no one does this kind of movie better than he did, then and now.

Whatever happened to unconventional looking lead actors?

In recent weeks I happened to watch movies from the 1990s starring John Candy and Tommy Lee Jones. These were films where they were very much the selling point and at their peaks that made sense -- they were huge stars. Of course, John Candy sadly passed long before his time.

And Jones has now settled comfortably into being a reliable character actor -- the last time I feel like he was a headliner was maybe in 2007 (where he had the one-two punch of No Country for Old Men and In the Valley of Elah).

What stood out to me watching these great performers was that they were also decidedly not conventionally attractive.

Women are, with few exceptions held to a very different standard. There are a few rare exceptions -- Kathy Bates, Melissa McCarthy and more recently Frances McDormand -- of actresses who through their sheer talent are able to overcome certain sexist biases about who can carry a movie. But overwhelmingly there is a preference from studios for young, traditionally beautiful women.

With men there has always been a much wider spectrum of acceptable looks. In part we have the '70s to thank for that, when actors who were less than hunky -- think Walter Matthau -- were major stars. Even leading men like Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino, while sexy in their own way, by no means looked like the kind of square jawed glamour pusses that usually populated Hollywood movies.

This trend continued for years and then suddenly seemed to stop. Besides the occasional Paul Giamatti vehicle now and then, it seems as though there's been a shift back to the conventional.

This may be partially comic book movies' fault. The model now for most of those films is that actors who get cast in them bulk up to achieve as close to physical perfection as they can -- and since comic book characters or almost always unrealistically gorgeous, pretty boys like Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine are going to have an advantage.

Don't get me wrong I like all these actors -- and they have more than demonstrated that they are more than a pretty face. But there is something very cool and exciting about seeing someone who doesn't fit the mold -- male or female -- becoming a bonafide star.

I wonder if Whoopi Goldberg or Gene Hackman or Dustin Hoffman or Joe Pesci were trying to make it as fresh faces now if they would have the same opportunities. Their talent is undeniable, but today it's hard to imagine -- for instance -- a short Jewish guy starring in his own drama vehicles that regularly are the biggest grossing films of their respective years (as was the case with Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man).

This didn't happen overnight -- and to be fair -- if you look at the top ten star rankings over the years, there are far more George Clooney-types than there are say Robin Williams.

Comedians do seem the exception that proves the rule -- Adam Sandler is not many peoples' idea of a sex symbol -- but as big comedies seem to be frequently falling out fashion it feels like the future might belong to the so-called pretty people.

And as someone who isn't -- I find that a little sad. It's fun sometimes to be aspirational and awed by stars on screen, but sometimes it's fun to be able to relate to them too.

Nowadays, I am always on the lookout for an against-type acting choice -- for instance, few people would have tapped Robert Downey Jr for Iron Man, now it seems like a no brainer. There aren't many on the horizon -- but an ugly boy can dream can't he?

Flashback 1980: My top 10 favorite movies from 40 years ago

I've said this before and I'll say it again -- if I have to pick a personal favorite year for movies it would be 1980. Three of my all time favorite movies came out that year -- which gives it a leg up -- also it carries over that auteur-driven flavor of the 1970s into a new decade.

The films of 1980 offer something for everyone -- amazing blockbusters, hilarious comedies, stirring dramas...

A lot of really terrific movies just missed the cut here, hits like Ordinary People. American Gigolo, Private Benjamin, and The Blue Brothers, as well as misunderstood greats like Heaven's Gate and Cruising.

I've been looking forward to making this list for a while because I feel so passionately about these pictures and revisit many of them on a regular basis. It's hard to believe these movies are as old as they are, especially since they all hold up so well. Basically these movies being 40 makes me feel very old.

10) The Elephant Man - After his breakthrough debut with Eraserhead, director David Lynch demonstrated his versatility with this comparatively straightforward telling of the moving and tragic life of John Merrick, a severely deformed man who went from being a circus sideshow to the toast of London. John Hurt gives an incredibly touching performance under very heavy makeup. And Lynch brings his eccentric flair to material that could have been sentimental in a lesser director's hands.

9) 9 to 5 - The classic and highly influential women's liberation comedy has only grown in stature since its release. Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton make a perfect, unlikely trio and Dabney Coleman is not perfect as their sexist pig boss. Delightfully silly but also full of very sincere and serious observations about women are mistreated in the workplace, with a satisfying finale that's irresistible.

8) Stir Crazy - My personal favorite of the Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor pairings finds the duo getting accidentally fingered for an armed robbery while on a cross country road trip and thrown behind bars. Wilder is the consummate optimist while Pryor is his apoplectic best friend. Lots of very funny set pieces and wonderful chemistry between the two of them (even if they apparently were not close in real life). Pryor's subsequent comedies largely lacked bite, but this one is a banger.

7) Airplane! - The biggest comedy of the year in a particularly strong year for them is packed with more jokes than perhaps any movie ever made.  A note perfect parody of disaster films, with a terrific cast playing straight (including Leslie "Don't Call Me Shirley" Nielsen and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and delivering increasingly looney lines and content. Endlessly quotable and and entertaining, this is the goal standard by which all future parody films should be measured.

6) The Stunt Man - A little seen masterpiece about the magic of movie making featuring one of Peter O' Toole's most electrifying performances as a maniacal director who hides a fugitive from the law on his movie set (as a stunt man) because he thinks it'll add more tension to the project. Unpredictable, funny and fierce -- this deserved to be more widely seen then and now. One of my favorite movies about movies.

5) Dressed to Kill - Brian De Palma's salacious homage to Psycho is very problematic today but no less entertaining, stylish and scary. Some of the director's most thrilling visual sequences on display here, as well as sympathetic performances from Nancy Allen and Angie Dickinson and the heroines of the story. A particularly gnarly killing starts a mystery involving psychotherapy, sexual identity and just sex in general. Tawdry to be sure, but you can't look away.

4) Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese's brutal and strangely beautiful biopic about a pretty repugnant person -- boxer Jake LaMotta. Robert De Niro won the Oscar for his physically transformative performance as the deeply jealous, emotionally unstable man whose stubbornness and sensitivity was his downfall. Many critics consider this the greatest film of the decade and it's not hard to see why -- it's a honest telling of some of the darker sides of the American dream. Success often yields excess and we rarely see the fallout like we do here.

3) The Empire Strikes Back - The most satisfying of all the Star Wars films -- it's got the Han-Leia romance, Luke's training at the feat of Yoda, the introduction of Lando Calrissian and the emergence of Darth Vader as one of the most formidable villains of all time. A fast-paced, charming and magical movie experience. Literally every scene is famous on some level of another and the sci fi fantasy world building is unparalleled. This may be the peak of this franchise now and forever.

2) Caddyshack - This just might be my favorite movie comedy of all time. It's a laid back hang out movie -- a series of ambling vignettes loosely held together by a coming of age story about a young caddy. But the film's broader theme of the snobs vs the slobs has always been deeply appealing to me, and there may be no better foursome in comedy feature than Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight and Bill Murray, all of whom are unforgettable and perfectly cast as eccentrics who populate the fictional country club of Bushwood. I'll always treasure this proudly un-PC fan favorite.

1) The Shining - This should come as a surprise to no one who knows me -- but of course my favorite movie of all time would top this list. The craziest thing about Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece is how savaged it was by critics when it was first released. Today, it could be his most influential film (besides maybe 2001). Everything about this puzzle of a motion picture has become iconic -- even the pattern on a rug! -- and with good reason. It's one of those rare movies where you can something fresh and fascinating out of it upon every new viewing which ensures that it'll remain a vital piece of cinema for many years to come.

PAST TOP 10 FAVORITE LISTS
1974 #1 movie - The Godfather Part II
1975 #1 movie - Nashville
1976 #1 movie - Taxi Driver
1977 #1 movie - Star Wars
1978 #1 movie - The Deer Hunter
1979 #1 movie - The Jerk
1984 #1 movie - Ghostbusters
1985 #1 movie - Fletch
1986 #1 movie - Blue Velvet
1987 #1 movie - The Untouchables
1988 #1 movie - Coming to America
1989 #1 movie - Batman
1990 #1 movie - The Grifters
1994 #1 movie - Pulp Fiction
1995 #1 movie - Heat
1996 #1 movie - Fargo
1997 #1 movie - Boogie Nights
1998 #1 movie - The Big Lebowski
1999 #1 movie - Eyes Wide Shut
2000 #1 movie - Nurse Betty
2004 #1 movie - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005 #1 movie - A History of Violence
2006 #1 movie - Casino Royale
2007 #1 movie - There Will Be Blood
2008 #1 movie - The Wrestler
2009 #1 movie - Inglourious Basterds
2010 #1 movie - The Social Network

'Empire Strikes Back' at 40: Everyone's favorite 'Star Wars' movie

Obviously, I'm being a little facetious ... there are plenty of people who prefer the original Star Wars (a.k.a. A New Hope), and there are even some who stan for Return of the Jedi (although I suspect that this more due to childhood nostalgia rather than quality, although I too love that film).

Because the new trilogy ended on a disappointing note, impressions of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi have been downgraded a bit. Both are great, worthy Star Wars films but for a myriad of reasons I don't suspect they will ever threaten to supplant the original trilogy in the minds of fans.

The less said about the prequels the better.

Although 1977's 'A New Hope' usually makes the AFI top 100 lists and is the film from this franchise that is usually singled out as the classic -- and that makes a lot of sense. It was and remains groundbreaking popcorn entertainment. Before George Lucas started fiddling with it, it also had an edge to it, too. Still, the film had its limitations mainly because of the budget the writer-director was afforded. No one expected much from the movie and the studio didn't put much into it either.

That all changed with The Empire Strikes Back -- sort of -- despite Star Wars becoming at the time the highest grossing film ever, there was widespread skepticism that a second entry would replicate its success. Still, there were more resources put into The Empire Strikes Back and it shows.

Lucas stepped away as the chief writer and director, which also opened up new avenues of creativity. The screenplay was written first by a late Hollywood legend Leigh Brackett, and then was goosed up by up-and-comer Lawrence Kasdan (who would go on to write and direct Body Heat).

The dialogue feels looser and the actors seem less stiff too. Think about it -- Star Wars movies don't typically wow you with the quality of their line readings -- but The Empire Strikes Back, which has romance, laughs, danger, intrigue, whimsy and inspiration in it -- is one of the most quotable movies ever made.

I think because of this -- and the ways in which the film expands our understanding of the universe (only The Last Jedi ever approached its attempts to mythologize 'the force') that this film remains the most worshipped film in the franchise, especially by Star Wars fans.

I believe far too much is made of its supposedly 'darker' tone. Yes, it ends on a bit of cliffhanger after a brutal fight between Luke and Darth Vader. But I never feel sad watching this movie, nor do I ever feel like the story ever gets truly sinister.

It's certainly a moodier picture. I have, for instance, always been impressed by the nuance of the Yoda 'performance.' Frank Oz created a really fully-fledged character who can be funny and charming but also bitter and full of regret. His arc is arguably the most intriguing, especially since he is the one character who seems to see that all our heroes are doomed from the start.

When I revisit this movie -- which is often -- I think of the scene where he lifts Luke's ship out of the swamp and I think it's one of the most moving, grandest sequences in all of cinema. It's a magical moment.

It's crazy to believe that this movie I grew up with (it came out two years before I was born) is turning 40. It doesn't feel dated in the least. In fact, every Star Wars movie that has come after it and that will come after it has been trying in vain to recapture its glory.

Woulda Coulda Should casting fantasies for no real reason but covd

DeNiro on the Wall of Fame in 'Do the Right Thing'

As an unapologetic film nerd, I've always been fascinated by stories of original casting choices. Those nearly locked in actors or actresses who for whatever reason drop out or pass. Very rarely are they superior to who finally ends up in the finished film. But it sometimes fun to fantasize.

Like how Sean Connery was originally offered the role of Morpheus in The Matrix, and Will Smith was under consideration for that lead and Django Unchained.

Apparently, many a leading man passed on Misery before Rob Reiner took a chance on James Caan, and that actor scored a late career triumph. I've always been particularly intrigued by the jockeying over the lead role in Apocalypse Now, or lack thereof.

Steve McQueen was apparently Francis Ford Coppola's first target for the role eventually played by Martin Sheen, but he balked at the time commitment, as did apparently Caan, Pacino, Nicholson and nearly ever other big time leading man at the time.

Here are a ten more of my favorite coulda woulda shoulda casting situations...

1) Al Pacino in Pretty Woman - I've always found it fascinating that the movie that made Julia Roberts a household name was originally conceived as a grittier affair. I could see Pacino in that, a hard R version of this story, but not showing up with a bouquet on a fire escape. Pacino did eventually team up with director Garry Marshall on the romantic dramedy Frankie & Johnny.

2) Robert De Niro in Do the Right Thing - Director Spike Lee knew what he was up to when he originally offered the role of Sal to De Niro before settling on Danny Aiello (who gives a career best, Oscar winning performance in the film). It's no slight to Aiello, but De Niro being arguably the most iconic Italian-American actor at the time would have been incredibly symbolically compelling in that part and naturally his starpower would have enhanced the profile of the film

3) Chevy Chase in Animal House - Every time I watch National Lampoon's Animal House I can't help but be distracted by the fact that Tim Matheson's Otter is so clearly written for Chase and his smartass persona at the time. That's because it was. Director John Landis talked him out of taking the part because he thought Chase was too old to play a college student (although no one buys Belushi as one either) and wanted the movie to be more of an ensemble than a star-driven vehicle, but I feel like it would have been so cool to see him and his frenemy Belushi trading comic shots.

4) Bill Murray in The People vs. Larry Flynt - I remember hearing once that the filmmakers behind this biopic about the power of free speech were considering two actors for the lead -- Murray, and the actor who eventually played the role, Woody Harrelson. It's hard to quibble with Harrelson, who gives perhaps his best performance in an Oscar nominated role, but this film could have been an earlier showcase for Murray's dramatic chops and he might have been more believable as the problematic porn king.

5) Mickey Rourke in Death Proof - I feel like I am not imagining this -- I remember straight up seeing an early teaser poster promoting Rourke as the star of Tarantino's car-centric modern noir. I have no idea what went wrong. Rourke has been cryptic, but has hinted at clashes with the director (who also had wanted to cast him in Pulp Fiction). Of course, the infamously difficult Rourke has based on countless great roles that would have fit him like a glove. Instead, Kurt Russell got to experience the career renaissance that Rourke would a year later with The Wrestler.

6) Steve Martin in Eyes Wide Shut - It's been well-documented that Stanley Kubrick was an enormous fan of The Jerk, so much so that he would re-enact scenes from it on set. Apparently in the early development of Eyes Wide Shut, he was looking at Steve Martin for a potential leading role. It's unclear if he would have played the Tom Cruise part or the role eventually inhabited by Sydney Pollack. I think either part would have been super intriguing with Martin in it. In the Cruise role, some of the darkly comic elements would be more enhanced and in movies like The Spanish Prisoner, Martin demonstrated a great facility with quiet menace. It's a shame these brilliant talents never had an opportunity to collaborate.

7) Warren Beatty in Kill Bill - This one was very close to being a done deal. Tarantino, who's always been a huge fan of the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls era of cinema, would naturally want to work with the man behind Bonnie & Clyde. Beatty was appearing in films very infrequently at this point and it would be a great resurrection of his persona. Also, no shade to the late David Carradine, but the seductive side of the Bill character would be more plausible too. This apparently came down to Beatty no wanting to commit to the long shoot. I'd love for him to appear in a Tarantino movie, if for no other reason to keep the dreadful Rules Don't Apply from being his last screen credit.

8) Michael Keaton in Splash - Beatty was also long circling this one before it ended up being a then newcomer Tom Hanks. Hanks is adorable and charming as always but another actor who was apparently offered the lead opposite Daryl Hannah: Michael Keaton. The actor has demonstrated that he and director Ron Howard can do fantastic work together (Night Shift and The Paper) and I believe he could better convey the eccentricity of a man who falls in love with a mermaid.

9) Eddie Murphy in Ghostbusters - This probably would have been too much comedy dynamite in one movie, but Murphy was originally the person Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis had in mine when they scripted the character of Winston Zeddemore. By the time the film went into production it was clear that Murphy was too huge to play a secondary role and so Ernie Hudson got the part and totally made it his own. I have always thought a Murphy-Murray collaboration would be electric, even now that they've aged. Maybe one day we'll see it.

10) Sylvester Stallone in Pulp Fiction - This may just be a rumor and not something that ever got very far, but Stallone was supposed to be under consideration for the role of Butch that Bruce Willis ultimately played in the movie (Stallone has confirmed that he too was offered the Russell role in Death Proof). Given his Rocky persona, it would have been really cool to see Stallone play a darker version of a boxer (who unintentionally kills someone in the ring) and show off the dramatic skills he eventually would in CopLand and Creed. Certainly, he could stand to work with better directors than whoever the hell was responsible for Last Blood.

It's ok to like a movie: Films I enjoy that most people hate

Last night some friends and I did a virtual rewatch of the 1986 Eddie Murphy hit The Golden Child (it's currently streaming on Amazon Prime).

The bizarre mix of fantasy and broad comedy was critically reviled when it came out and if memory serves it's no particularly well-regarded by its own star -- but I like it, in spite of itself.

A lot about the movie doesn't work -- there are dull stretches with few laughs and the plot is ludicrous at best, culturally insensitive at worst. But it's still Eddie Murphy in his charming prime and he frequently makes something out of nothing.

I can't really defend it. I can't argue that it's this underrated gem that is ripe for rediscovery. It's clearly trash but I am such a huge fan of 80s-era Eddie (without excusing the misogyny and homophobia) that I am partial to it, even if it can't hold a candle to Beverly Hills Cop I & II, Trading Places, 48 Hrs. or Coming to America.

Watching it got me thinking about other movies I get a kick out fo that virtually no one else does. We all have movies like this I suspect. Films that just play differently for you than they did for the critics and most audiences. Of course, just like there is probably no such thing as a movie that everyone likes -- there is probably no film that everyone hates.

Here are 10 guilty pleasures that I really can't fully explain but I'll try...

This poster rules

Convoy - It's widely considered to be one of director Sam Peckinpah's weaker efforts (although it was one of his bigger commercial successes). It's true that it plays more like self parody of his style but I am sucker for this era's sexy, virile version of Kris Kristofferson. The CB craze is one of the odder fads of the late '70s and this represents its zenith.

Firestarter - Drew Barrymore demonstrates her clear limits as a child actress and the movie plays like a Cliff Notes version of what I imagine the Stephen King book it's based on contains -- but I love the movie's aesthetic from its surreal atmosphere to its banging Tangerine Dream score. A lot of really wacky elements are there and its never boring.

Deal of the Century - This William Friedkin black comedy gets a bad wrap. It's a pretty solid takedown of the rise of militarism in the '80s. Chevy Chase gets a leading role that hints at what his career could have been had he not saddled himself with family comedies. I know he and Friedkin clashed (shocker) and the movie bombed, but while it's not laugh out loud funny, it is very effectively made.

Ocean's Twelve - While I'll concede that it's the weakest of the trilogy and a total victory lap -- I still find this first Ocean's sequel fun and diverting. I've never been bothered by the infamous Julia Roberts being mistaken for Julia Roberts scene and it's more visually audacious than the original even if its plotting is immensely less satisfying than the first and the third entry.

Superman III - For everything that is wrong with this movie -- there's a lot to enjoy. Christopher Reeve's performance is truly excellent --especially when his 'bad' Superman faces off against the good one. And although Richard Pryor is definitely slumming it here there's something kind of incredible about him hijacking a big budget superhero movie. It's a movie I loved as a child and so it'll always be a film I have a lot of affection for.

Family Business - Another movie that for some reason I saw a lot of as a kid. It's definitely not held in the same regard as most of Sidney Lumet's great gallery of crime films -- and the casting IS insane (Sean Connery as Dustin Hoffman's dad? They are seven years apart and of course, look nothing like each other). But I have always found this film absorbing if a bit on the nose. I like almost ANY heist movie and this one certainly has stakes.

The Score - Speaking of heist movies -- this film, which was a bigger hit than a lot of people remember -- has always been one I've enjoyed. I think the clash between the different generations of Method actors -- De Niro, Norton and Brando -- largely works, even if Brando is barely trying. I buy De Niro as a master thief and I appreciate this film's dedication to showing the process nuts and bolts of trying to pull off a job like this. I know it's considered a disappointment, but I've always thought it was just fine.

Predator 2 - Clearly the original is the better film, but there's a lot of cool world building in this one, some entertainingly gruesome action and two fun lead performances from Danny Glover and Gary Busey. It certainly slaps more than any of the reboots and sequels that followed it. Again, I acknowledge that it's trash but it's pulpy, exciting trash.

McQ - There's some about the incongruity of seeing a very aged in John Wayne in the unexpected milieu of the 1970s cop movie that I find irresistible. Clearly the Duke was feeling the heat from Clint Eastwood's ascent and so this is his spin on the Dirty Harry mythos. By the time he's machine gunning bad guys on the beach I'm fist pumping even if I can't justify why.

Only God Forgives - A lot of folks were understandably let down by thus moody, gory follow up to director Nicolas Winding Refn's breakout film Drive. It's true that Ryan Gosling has never been stripped more of his innate charm. It's a relentlessly grim movie that aggressively tries to alienate its audience, but I, for some reason, have always dug it.

La di da: My 10 favorite performances by musicians in movies

This weekend I did a rewatch of the 1985 film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. While it remains probably the weakest entry in that acclaimed series (largely due to a weak detour into a lost boys-esque community that kills its momentum) it still has a lot of fantastic sequences and a real ace up its sleeve in Tina Turner as the nominal villain Aunty Entity.

Turner wisely recognized that she could never truly disappear into a role. She was too larger than life for that. For that same reason Rihanna, Beyonce or Madonna will always be themselves on screen whether they like it or not. But she picked a role that fit her badass persona like a glove.

In what was, until then, a very male-dominated franchise, Turner boldly pops out as an industrious and conniving character who runs a sprawling outpost in the post-apocalyptic future called Bartertown. And her scene-stealing work got me to thinking. What are my top 10 favorite performances by musical artists in a movie.

Now before I get started I am going make several caveats. I know. for instance, that Jennifer Lopez became as well known (if not moreso) for her career as a pop act after establishing herself as a movie star, but I always think of her as more of an actress than a singer. And so I am leaving off her brilliant work in Out of Sight and Hustlers. The same goes for Mark Wahlberg and Will Smith. I know they were technically both musicians, but their work as actors has so dramatically outshone what they did in pop rap that I am also casting them aside.

These are my 10 favorite performances by musicians -- in no particular order -- off the top of my head, I am sure I am forgetting some great ones but here goes...

Prince, Purple Rain -Yes, I know it's autobiographical and that Prince's strength as a performer on stage is what makes this movie special, but I've always thought people sleep too much on his performance as The Kid. He is often an unrepentant jerk but when you get a glimpse of his horrific home life and the toll it takes on him, it makes perfect sense that he's become the tortured artist he is.

Michael Jackson, The Wiz- All the caveats about Jackson as a human being aside, he showed tremendous promise as an actor in his one proper big screen role. According to director Sidney Lumet he was so immersed in this musical (and his role as the Scarecrow) that he memorized every other actor's lines in addition to his own. He best understands the material's tone of soulful whimsy.


David Bowie, The Man Who Fell to Earth- Who better (circa 1975) to play an alien who comes to earth in search of life saving materials for his ailing family back home but who winds up becoming an electronics mogul instead. Bowie was always a dynamic presence in every movie he was in and his best performance might be in The Hunger (1983) but I think this is his most memorable.

Ice Cube, Boyz n the Hood - The rapper has never had tremendous range, but he gives a beautifully understated dramatic performance in director John Singleton's masterpiece. His character, Doughboy, seems doomed almost from birth, not just because of his impoverished background but because he lives in the shadow of his football star brother Ricky. His final scene is one of the most affective I've ever seen.

Justin Timberlake, The Social Network - Even if like me you find Timberlake obnoxious, his cocky smugness was the perfect fit for the role of Sean Parker in director David Fincher's brilliant look at the rise of Facebook. He is a great foil for Andrew Garfield's more humane character and his downfall is just as satisfying in the film's last act.

Ronee Blakely, Nashville - By no means a household name then or now, this country singer is simply heartbreaking in Robert Altman's legendary take on 1970s Americana. She plays a star who is mentally fraying at the seems but who is forced to put on a happy face anyway, a choice that will prove tragic. She scored as Oscar nom for her performance.

Dolly Parton, 9 to 5 - For her film debut, Dolly shrewdly picked a part that played to her strengths. It helped that she was paired with two other great leading ladies she had incredible chemistry with: Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. As a trio of office workers who've been harassed and/or disrespected by their boss (the great, somehow still alive Dabney Coleman) they are characters you root for and adore. She's as funny and fierce as you'd ever want her to be.

Cher, Moonstruck - This is probably a no brainer, after all, Cher won the Oscar for this film. She is a terrific actress and the award was well-deserved. She gives this light comedy real feeling and passion. And the movie is one of the rare films that successfully de-glams a star enough to have their eventual return to form feel like a revelation...

Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born - ...This is the other that comes to mind. Lady Gaga completely submerges her off-screen persona to wonderful dramatic effect in Bradley Cooper's unjustly maligned remake. Granted, in this version, Cooper has the showier role, but Gaga is the breathtaking, especially during the first act where we see her character's talent just begin to blossom. There's a reason her rendition of the film's signature song remains a modern classic.

Frank Sinatra, The Manchurian Candidate - The iconic crooner more than established himself as a major actor over several years and this may be his most compelling, haunting performance. As a Korean War veteran suffering from a very acute case of PTSD you'd never know that he was the velvet voice behind dozens of hit standards.

'Wild Things' is a wonderful piece of trash cinema

I don't think the makers of 1998's Wild Things don't have let's a John Waters level of self awareness, but they seem to be at least somewhat in on the joke. Bill Murray certainly was, he delivers one a surprisingly compelling supporting performance here that revels in the film's atmosphere of sleaze.

I'll never forget the excitement this movie generated with teenage boys like me when it came out over 20 years ago. It didn't make much money but it's salacious sex scenes and ample nudity certain made an impression. A friend and I tried to get into the movie before we were of age, we failed and we re stuck seeing Titanic instead. When I eventually did see it, the movie -- as absurd as it is -- delivers.

It's one of those great trashy movies -- where people hurl profane insults at each other, slap each other and then somehow end up sleeping with one another within seconds. Wild Things is one of the horniest movies I've ever seen and I am not even made about it.

Of course, it is horrendously un-PC. If you think about the plot hard enough it's more than a little bit disturbing -- especially if we're to accept the conceit that Neve Campbell and Denise Richards are high school girls. Also, a word on Denise Richards. She's actually kind of fantastic in this movie. She has been justly maligned for years for her wooden The World Is Not Enough performance, but she has a real movie star presence here that she unfortunately squandered.

The movie feels like it's in the tradition of the great Russ Meyer movies like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. It's chock full of jaw dropping dialogue, ludicrous twists and back stabbing and gratuitous T&A.

They don't make movies quite like this anymore -- films that are almost engineered to provoke controversy and the clutching of pearls. Wild Things is to silly to be scandalous, but it also never even a little bit boring, which is more than you can say for a lot of movies.

Pretty Maids All in a Row

Here are some more hilariously trash-tastic movies I recommend:

Showgirls - I've recommended this one many times before, but seriously Paul Verhoeven's movie is more self aware than you might think. Of course it is one of the worst written films of all time, but come for Elizabeth Berkley's hysterics and stay for Gina Gershon's delightfully campy, scene-stealing work.

Pretty Maids All in a Row - A truly bizarre favorite of Quentin Tarantino's stars Rock Hudson of all people as a ladies man high school football coach who is also a serial killer. It's surreal and strange and I've never seen anything quite like it.

RoadHouse - Patrick Swayze has never been cooler (sorry Dirty Dancing fans) than he is this barroom brawl heavy melodrama set in a world full of world famous bouncers. Plus it's got Sam Elliott too!

Death Race 2000 - An early Stallone role -- even though this is really David Carradine's movie. It's a cartoonish romp about a futuristic cross country race where you get points by running over the most people and that's not even the craziest thing about it.

Alligator - The late Robert Forster gives a great leading man performance in this absurd horror film about a giant alligator emerging from the sewers and going on a rampage. The effects are charmingly shiity, but the film is smarter than you'd think.

Femme Fetale - The most Brian DePalma-ish of Brian DePalma movies. After briefly flirting with blockbuster filmmaking following the success of Mission: Impossible, the director returned to the kind of explicit, violent pictures that made him famous. This one may be his last great foray into cinema.

We need more movies where the bad guys win

The Vanishing

Some people love movies as pure distraction and escapism, in fact, my hunch tells me the majority of moviegoers probably do. Not me though. I like a good disturbing ending now and then, I guess because that feels more real to me. In the real world, the bad guys win. They win most of the time. They're winning right now as we speak.

This week, I revisited the classic spaghetti western The Great Silence. Spoiler alert -- it ends with a massacre perpetrated by the villain (a delightfully evil Klaus Kinski). The hero is gunned down and the feeling you're left with is unsettling -- but it's a powerful feeling.

Part of why Chinatown works so well is its devastating conclusion. Yes, there's the classic line -- "forget it Jake, it's Chinatown" -- but there's also the fact that the heroine is of the story is brutally killed and a pedophile has ridden off into the sunset with another likely victim. 

I can't remember the last time I saw a movie with an ending like that -- I guess Gone Girl. Of course, everyone remembers the ending of Seven if you've seen

it -- it's one of the best gut punches in movie history.

I'm talking about sad endings like Terms of Endearment -- although they can be cathartic too. I'm talking about finales that are brutally bleak like The Parallax View.

My favorite movie decade -- the 1970s -- was the peak of this kind of final scene. Think the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Again, these endings end up being the most memorable things about an already fantastic movie. Why? Because they did the unexpected. In the movies, we expect the hero to win or if they perish, they at least do it heroically.

This is part of why The Empire Strikes Back is widely revered as the greatest Star Wars film. As a fan,  you always remember how mind-blowing the Darth Vader reveal is. But more importantly the movie ends on an uncertain note. The rebels have escaped, but it's a hollow victory. And Vader is no less powerful than he was in the beginning.

Then there are the movies where the bad guy gets away like The Silence of the Lambs, The Usual Suspects or The French Connection. That conclusion makes those movies more haunting and they linger more in your imagination because they're relatively unresolved.

The godfather of all these kinds of movies is Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, whose shocking finale still blows my mind some twenty years after I first saw it in college. I consider Vertigo the master's best film, in part because it has a more realistic ending than most of his work -- albeit after a prototypically complex plot about mistaken identity and obsession.

Had Vertigo ended with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak in a loving embrace, it wouldn't be as special a movie, It would be a beautiful looking curio.

It inspired every thriller in its wake -- including the great foreign film The Vanishing, which has, arguably, the most disturbing defeat of a hero I've ever seen in a movie. I won't spoil that one for you, just see it for yourself.

I'm sure, like me, you have a lot of time on your hands.

'Call of the Wild' is a very cute movie, but falls short of greatness

The new version of Jack London's classic The Call of the Wild is one of those movies that serves a very useful purpose.

It is so aggressively inoffensive and straightforward that you can watch it will any family member of any age and get away unscathed. And it's been released early as a digital rental so it's there for the screening.

It's a very earnest adaptation with a moving, committed performance from a very game Harrison Ford at its center, but it doesn't rise above its kid movie constraints enough to become the standout movie it could have been.

As has been oft discussed -- the CGI in this movie is distractingly subpar --that was evident when the first trailers dropped. I have no problem with them not using a real dog -- the story couldn't be told without asking a dog to give too much of a performance than they're capable of, but this many years after Life of Pi so beautifully and effectively evoked a tiger, I am mystified by the choice to render the character of Buck like a mix of a cartoon and a real animal.

In some shots the effects are impressive but in others they feel cheap, which is odd considering the fact that this was a huge budget movie (and unfortunately it took a big hit from coronavirus at the box office) with the Disney folks involved.

So much of the film hangs on our emotional investment in Buck (and the other dogs he encounters) and while the animated character is cute enough, there's no life behind his eyes.

I kept thinking of the new Planet of the Apes movies which feature some of the best digital characterizations I've ever seen. They used motion capture to create their world, and Im not sure what happened here, but it's a bummer.

I also think the movie missed a very easy storytelling fix which could have made for a far more interesting movie. For some reason the choice is made to not only use Ford as the hero, but to also make him an omniscient narrator, a decision that feels lazy and illogical.

I think the movie would have been far more cinematic and engaging if it had no narrator at all -- it it were truly told from Buck's perspective. Sure, it might ask more of audiences to piece together the narrative based on Buck's adventures and encounters with other dogs, but it would have been a lot more interesting than having every single emotion and moment spelled out for you.

If you strip out that narration and let the story unfold in a less structured way, it would also make the conceit of people routinely talking to Buck as if he were a person less ludicrous in a way.

That being said, it's a sweet movie and if, like me, you are a dog lover it's hard not to be effected by the dramatic ups and downs of Buck's story. It's also wonderful to see Ford in fighting form at nearly 80 years old. He hasn't been in a movie since his fantastic supporting turn in Blade Runner 2049 and I've missed his grizzled premise. Here, he's playing one of the nicer characters in his filmography and he somehow seems handsomer and lighter on his feet than he has in years.

I'd love to see him continue to experiment with his persona instead of trying to force another Indiana Jones to work (I am increasingly beginning to doubt that a fifth film in that saga could or should happen... unless the MacGuffin is the Fountain of Youth). He's always been under-appreciated as actor and the fact that he is never awkward playing almost entirely off of a computer generated dog speaks volumes of his range and talent.

I just wish he had a better, more real-looking dog to work with.

If this film had trusted London's narrative movie and made the movie a little harder edged, I think families could have still had fun with it, and it might have resonated more.