![]() It opens around 6 am one sunny morning when two undercover cops decide to follow a suspicious pedestrian, who notices them and takes off running. It takes place in L.A., with a great L.A. ![]() Peter Hyams (between OUTLAND and 2010: THE YEAR WE MAKE CONTACT) directs the shit out of it, and is credited as co-writer with Roderick Taylor (a recording artist turned rookie screenwriter who explored related themes many years later in THE BRAVE ONE). ![]() Kinda like MAGNUM FORCE without the badass shit, but still good. It’s a crime/vigilante movie with a message about the flaws of the justice system and the temptation to take short cuts toward justice. You can tell because it stars Michael Douglas. THE STAR CHAMBER is the most grown up thriller I’ve come across in this 1983 retrospective so far. DAFFY DUCK’S MOVIE: FANTASTIC ISLAND was directed by animation legends Friz Freleng and Phil Monroe, which may sound promising, but this is what they call a “compilation film,” or in TV terms, a “clip show.” The new animation is just a framing device for edited down versions of ten classic Looney Tunes shorts. ![]() But I’ve already written about those, so today I’m here to discuss some of their competition. For example the weird-ass Canadian sci-fi talking animal musical ROCK & RULE came out in April of ’83, and the George Lucas produced cut out animation movie TWICE UPON A TIME came out on August 1st. But the early ‘80s were that other weird time, the one when Disney had been so far out of the game that it left room for other people to try something different. Most of those were from a weird time when Disney had become so successful it encouraged other studios to take a swing at the animated feature game, with mixed results. I enjoyed reviewing ROCK-A-DOODLE, ROVER DANGERFIELD, FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAIN FOREST, TITAN A.E., and FREDDIE AS F.R.O.7, for example. That can be painful, but I find the airballs pretty interesting, because so much loving craft still had to go into them in those days. ![]() I like that because if they’re a classic it’s a good excuse to write about them, and if they’re not it’s a good excuse to watch them. When I do these summer movie retrospectives there’s usually an animated feature or two. ![]()
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