Bay Area Houston

Find the original 1973 movie on DVD featuring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Rent it. Watch it. Save yourself $9.53.

In the original movie they were able to show how the human body would deteriorate after years in solitary confinement. In the new one Charlie Hunnan, at the end of the movie looked like he did at the beginning. Somehow he had all of his perfect teeth, his sanity, and a nice haircut throughout the movie. It was almost laughable to see Charlie coming out of a 5 year confinement and slowly turning into the camera looking as if he was in for only a few days. They really missed this moment. In the original I can remember McQueen sticking his head out of his cell, spitting out a tooth, and laughing in a crazy way. There was nothing in this movie that showed the aging of Charlie.

His acting was just so-so but you expect that from Jax…I mean Charlie. He can’t seem to get out of the Sons of Anarchy role. Contributing to this Chibs from SOA, Tommy Flanagan, had a very short cameo. Charlie was the right person to play Steve McQueen. At times, maybe on purpose, he actually looked like McQueen in a few scenes.

Wasn’t worth 2 hours and $9.53 especially at AMC with no reclining seats.

Wait for it to hit DVD.

This is an action packed movie which could have been a lot better if I had sat in the last row or the film director had invested in stabilizers for his cameras. This wasn’t a very memorable movie, to the point I cant remember much about it and for good reason. It just wasn’t that good. The ending added a great twist that made you wonder “What the hell was that about?” and “Why did I pay $8 to see it?” and “Where the hell did I park my car?”. Memorable.

Mark Wahlberg was saddled with a character with anger issues and mental conditions, the exact characteristics needed in a FBI/CIA agent. (not!) Besides flying off the handle and long winded explanations to his adversaries and team members, he has a bad habit of snapping a rubber wrist band to control his outbursts. It doesn’t work very well and it was annoying. Very annoying. Throughout the entire damn movie! For god’s sake take a downer!

One of the best part of the move is Rhonda Rousey. She was knocked off early so we were spared her horrible acting abilities. Rousey has a habit of looking like she is faking a bad ass snarl on her face right up to the point she gets her ass knocked out, twice. She needs to stick to the WWE where bad acting and fake snarls are requirements for a wrestler.

Overall this was just a notch above a straight to DVD movie.