God, I love Chicago—almost as much as Andrew Davis does.
I dunno why everyone hates on this film. It's a well-paced and well-shot eco-thriller that is still very relevant today because the story is centered around concepts of climate change, resource anxiety, corporate cover-ups, and the increasing fear of the Chinese. I do think it was a mistake to this as a big action movie, as I imagine that audiences at the time were expecting something more akin to…
I like this, but it's not much more than an early 1980s slasher—a fairly typical one at that. Notable for a few things: co-starring a young Joey Pants and Daryl Hannah, having no existing prints of the negative, and for being an early (shelved) Andrew Davis picture that they decided to release later to capitalize on Darryl Hannah's rising stardom (and Adrian Zmed too, but who the hell re that guy?).
There's some really beautiful on-location shooting with lots and lots of gorgeous natural lighting; this looks especially good in the Shout Factory clean-up of the film. Otherwise, it's kinda so-so in every other department.
One of the most Chicago movies ever made from one of our best Chicago directors. It's nice to see Mr. Norris in something that isn't a wacky martial arts action film. This one is a delightfully gritty crime thriller where Chuck is playing a stoic Good Cop, a real Midwestern Paladin, amongst a hive of corrupt Chicago police and their, well, code of silence with regards to brutality and bad police work. Chuck's character, Eddie Cusack, is the only cop…
Not as good as it should be, but Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones are great in this, even if the latter doesn't get nearly enough screentime. Director Andrew Davis stays loyal to his Chicago roots yet again by shooting and setting this in the Windy City and casting from his usual stock collection of "Chicago guys."
It's a perfect cable movie; a slow, quiet Sunday morning type of movie you decide to leave on when you flip the channel…