A bizarre item, a war film, an 80s shoot-em-up action film, and a biker film all rolled into one, graham baker made one of my favorites of 2022, impulse, and both of these films operate under that same level of precise, stripped down filmmaking that i tend to love, and here it is in all of its purest forms, with no level of schmaltz or care for over-the-top emotional moments, just a film focused on its task at hand, a 87 minute film that is just focused on structure and design, baker's direction is fantastic, he formulates what is obviously an early 1990s film, but uses the excellent wide screen photography of the war films from the 1960s, the blocking on display is wonderful, along with his excellent care for the editing, and the precision involved, included with that is his use of music, the score is surprisingly great, but it is about how he doesn't utilize music in the war sequences and in the emotional, dramatic moments, most of this film plays with a great care for atmosphere, the film puts out a certain feeling that is easily transferrable, with impulse, baker also added a certain level of atmosphere but also a weird balance in that film and this where the romance almost seems to act upon the exteriors of the structure of the film, the romance isn't the goal for both main characters in these two films, it is about the goal of the story and how that story will effect the character, so structurally similar to top gun: maverick except it has all the fat trimmed out, a young hotshot has to face a superior who looks down at him, but grows his superior's respect, has a romance with a woman nearby, and has to teach a group of hotshots, and eventually gets involved in the mission himself, it is great stuff, the screenplay is structured with profficiency, and what it is great is that baker cares about the drama at hand, but he never overplays it, relentless and yet still slow and observational, exactly the opposite to equalizer 3, and a great film to watch after that for comparison's sake, also john stamos is great, he's got great charisma, with none of that swarmy irritation that his full house character provided, and teri polo is also a true movie star here, beautiful, but with a great sense of care for drama that was always, unfortunately underplayed in the meet the parents franchise, like i've said before, 'failures' from the past will always be more interesting in the future, and graham baker here proves to me that he's one of the precise, assignment directors who adds a touch to his films, precisely designs it through efficient blocking and editing, and finds a great film all the same.
