Walter Hill's Good, Bad and Ugly

[Steve T Power]

Every week we each pick a good (All around GREAT flick), a Bad (Not really aspiring to greatness but still fun or endearing) and an ugly (trainwreck of a movie).

This is where we want to see your picks... Give us your Good, Bad, and Ugly for Director Walter Hill!

[mavrach]

Good: The Warriors - No love for this one? I thought it was a perfect 80's actioner from the first time I saw it.

Bad: Streets of Fire - Outside of the fun opening I couldn't get into this one. Objectively it feels like everybody should love or hate both this one and The Warriors for the same reason because they're really similar movies tonewise. I think I'm on the opposite side from y'all though.

Ugly: Another 48 Hours - I thought this was a disaster when I was a kid and haven't bothered with it since.

[Gabriel Girard]

Bad: Streets of Fire - Outside of the fun opening I couldn't get into this one. Objectively it feels like everybody should love or hate both this one and The Warriors for the same reason because they're really similar movies tonewise. I think I'm on the opposite side from y'all though.

That's weird since I loved Streets Of Fire and couldn't get into The Warriors. Guess they're not so similar after all.

[mkiker2089]

Good - Lethal Weapon 3
Bad - Lethal Weapon (sort of)
Ugly- Lethal Weapon 4 (sort of, it's not unwatchable)

Good - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Bad- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Ugly - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

[Gabriel Girard]

Good - Lethal Weapon 3
Bad - Lethal Weapon (sort of)
Ugly- Lethal Weapon 4 (sort of, it's not unwatchable)

Good - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Bad- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Ugly - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

????

[cdouglas]

Good: Southern Comfort - Hill at his peak; his finest work as far as I'm concerned.

Bad: Geronimo: An American Legend - Technically polished and featuring a lot of talented people, but I've found this one pretty uninvolving both times I've seen it. Vastly less interesting than his work on Wild Bill and Broken Trail.

Ugly: Another 48 Hours - Hard to believe the same team which made the first film was also responsible for this one. A big missed opportunity for Hill career-wise.

[Gabriel Girard]

Bad: Geronimo: An American Legend - Technically polished and featuring a lot of talented people, but I've found this one pretty uninvolving both times I've seen it. Vastly less interesting than his work on Wild Bill and Broken Trail.

Interesting choice Clark. I found Geronimo to be both moving and gorgeous. I liked how it treated the American Indians as real people with complex personnalities and not just like the noble savage or murderous savage stereotypes. I hover between it and The Long Riders as my favorite of his westerns. Wild Bill on the other hand is very much an interesting failure. Too dour,too incoherent, too long; the best thing about it is Jeff Bridges' performance. I haven't tried Broken Trail yet since we're focusing on films; but it's on my watchlist.

While you're here can I request Sights and Sounds episode focusing on Ry Cooder?

[cdouglas]

Bad: Geronimo: An American Legend - Technically polished and featuring a lot of talented people, but I've found this one pretty uninvolving both times I've seen it. Vastly less interesting than his work on Wild Bill and Broken Trail.

Interesting choice Clark. I found Geronimo to be both moving and gorgeous. I liked how it treated the American Indians as real people with complex personnalities and not just like the noble savage or murderous savage stereotypes. I hover between it and The Long Riders as my favorite of his westerns. Wild Bill on the other hand is very much an interesting failure. Too dour,too incoherent, too long; the best thing about it is Jeff Bridges' performance. I haven't tried Broken Trail yet since we're focusing on films; but it's on my watchlist.

While you're here can I request Sights and Sounds episode focusing on Ry Cooder?

I like Geronimo in theory and appreciate what it's attempting to say, but it just falls completely flat for me on a dramatic level. Wes Studi's Geronimo is quite good, but for marketing reasons, we're forced to follow the saga of bland protagonist Jason Patric (who I don't dislike in general, but who never really finds anything to bring to the table in that one). I won't disagree with the notion that Wild Bill is an interesting failure, but at least it's interesting. The performances are enough to carry me through any rough patches on that one.

As for the request: I will try to cook something up. I only have a handful of Cooder scores in my collection, so I'll see if I can diversify that a bit before I put something together.

[mkiker2089]

Good - Lethal Weapon 3
Bad - Lethal Weapon (sort of)
Ugly- Lethal Weapon 4 (sort of, it's not unwatchable)

Good - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Bad- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Ugly - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

????

To which? I assume you mean Lethal Weapon since few consider Indy 4 to be anything other than ugly.

Granted LW1 isn't bad, but to me it's weaker than the subsequent movies mostly because it spends so much time pursuing a story that was ultimately scrapped. LW4 isn't exactly ugly either but it's the weakest in my opinion because it feels lost. Like the script wasn't fully polished or something.

[Andrew Forbes]

Good - Lethal Weapon 3
Bad - Lethal Weapon (sort of)
Ugly- Lethal Weapon 4 (sort of, it's not unwatchable)

Good - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Bad- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Ugly - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

????

To which? I assume you mean Lethal Weapon since few consider Indy 4 to be anything other than ugly.

Granted LW1 isn't bad, but to me it's weaker than the subsequent movies mostly because it spends so much time pursuing a story that was ultimately scrapped. LW4 isn't exactly ugly either but it's the weakest in my opinion because it feels lost. Like the script wasn't fully polished or something.

The subject of the discussion is Walter Hill, not ranking random franchises.

[Andrew Forbes]

Also, your placement of Lethal Weapon 3 above Lethal Weapon makes me dizzy.

But, as mentioned, that's a completely different discussion.

[mkiker2089]

I see, I wasn't paying attention.

[Attrage]

Oh, why Walter Hill, Steve, why??

Okay, GOOD for me, begins and ends with The Warriors. First Walter Hill flick I ever saw and so as well as being a kick-butt movie it has nostalgic value as well.

BAD - Extreme Prejudice (don't get me wrong, I like it, it just doesnt have the sort of re-watch value I expected it to)

UGLY - Gaaaaaarrrrgh. I can't do it man. Ugly is anyone who comes up to me and says, "hey man, that director Walter Hill? Don't you reckon his movies like, totally suck?", because "ugly" is what their face will look like once I'm done pummelling it.

[Gabriel Girard]

UGLY - Gaaaaaarrrrgh. I can't do it man. Ugly is anyone who comes up to me and says, "hey man, that director Walter Hill? Don't you reckon his movies like, totally suck?", because "ugly" is what their face will look like once I'm done pummelling it.

I guess that means you've never seen Supernova, Red Heat or Another 48 Hrs (our choices for ugly).

[Gabriel Girard]

UGLY - Gaaaaaarrrrgh. I can't do it man. Ugly is anyone who comes up to me and says, "hey man, that director Walter Hill? Don't you reckon his movies like, totally suck?", because "ugly" is what their face will look like once I'm done pummelling it.

I guess that means you've never seen Supernova, Red Heat or Wild Bill(our choices for ugly).

fixed

[Andrew Forbes]

Red Heat is glorious. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an actual Iron Curtain.

[J.M. Vargas]

Great podcast gents, which makes me ashamed to say I haven't seen every Walter Hill available out there. You make "Southern Comfort" sound really bad-ass and must-see. Of the Hills that I've seen:

Good: The Long Riders (the rare case of stunt-casting that works and helps elevate an already-tight western into a great one)
Bad: Red Heat (you can see a great action buddy movie on the outlines of the screen, then Belushi mugging ruins everything)
Ugly: Another 48 Hours (could have easily swapped places with Red Heat, but Eddie Murphy's ego was still not humble-enough to take the "Harlem Nights" fiasco in stride). And sue me, but I find "Supernova" a boring and dull flick but hardly ugly (ducks).