Facade

This should have been a good film. Fine actors, a fair story line, violence and guns a plenty.

I hope no-one in Law Enforcement sees this one.

How did the Sheens get their police jobs? Incompetent doesn't describe their performances. I'm a big fan of shootouts, especially the John Woo style with vast expenditure of ammunition, but these were insultingly bad.

Charlie does justify his appalling aim in a scene with his wife where he tells her that he is coming home to his family rather than spending time at the firing range. (He should have spent half the film there if you ask me)

There is a scene where it occurs to me that someone had reduced the powder loads in their ammunition to the point that they bounce off car body panels at 5 metres. (This also explains why the guns jam, there isn't enough power to work the action)

I could have done better. Even I could hit a van at 5 metres!

Watching this will have you squirming with embarrassment for the Sheens, and wanting to help them shorten the film by an hour by actually aiming at things.

I have been watching the unrated DVD version, which has a different ending to the cinema version, as it has been restored to a "director's cut". The plot is fairly simple, 'Nam vet's friend is paralysed by vicious gang, 'Nam vet kills gang, finds he likes it, and becomes a vigilante, cop chases 'Nam vet. The film seems dated now, and the hero sports the kind of hair cut that would cause you to fall over laughing, rather than cringe with fear. There are some nasty images here: a head is chopped off, people are tortured with a soldering iron dipped in vaseline (I don't know what the vaseline is for, but I thought it was odd) and there is an attack with a small rake that I've never seen on film before.

Personally, I didn't enjoy it very much. I'm sure that I've seen it before, although the violence was toned down, and managed to forget it all except one scene (more later) that I have always remembered, but couldn't place.

I couldn't really recommend this film, I watched it all, and wasn't impressed.

Most memorable scene?

This is the film where the detective cooks his hot dog by suspending it from two forks connected to his desk lamp- remember it now?

First off, I'm a big fan of comics made real (we don't talk about The Phantom though!!), and I enjoyed this film. I was a bit irritated at the obvious priming for a sequel that was going on throughout the film, leaving me expecting more, there was certainly time, as the film is quite short. I can't say too much, without spoiling the plot, but I couldn't really see why Magneto was doing what he was, when the more obvious course of action was how the film ended anyway.

Facade

Why didn't Magneto use his powers to bend Wolverines little adamantium skeleton? I would have!