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Joshua Tree, 1993
Santee (Dolph Lundgren) has been convicted for the killing of a police officer resulting from that officer stopping a truck that Santee and his partner were using to transport illicit goods. Following his conviction, Santree breaks out of custody and goes on the run, abducting deputy sheriff Rita Marek (Kristian Alfonso) along the way. But Santee isn't just on the run---he's out for revenge against those who led to his conviction.
Going into a movie like this, you're hoping for big dumb fun, and I have to say that for the most part I felt that it delivered. Santee punches (and eventually shotguns) his way through countless baddies, while Rita is conveniently a martial arts expert who gets to knock down her own fair share of toughs with well-timed roundhouse kicks.
The plot is half in service of Santee getting his revenge and half in service of developing the romance between Santee and Rita. On both fronts it does pretty well. Santee must jump through several hoops to finally land on the person who caused his misfortune. The main action set-piece actually occurs about halfway through the film, as Santee takes on a warehouse full of bad guys. While I felt myself slightly tuning out, I bet most action fans would appreciate this sequence. The plot itself is also decently twisty, if a bit predictable. It's one of those movies where the police chasing Santee are also starting to figure out what's up, and build some nice tension from the parallel investigations.
The romance element is a real mixed bag. Alfonso more than holds her own, and it's a huge compliment to her that Rita's attraction to Santee feels natural, considering how actively disrespectful he is to her and the danger he puts her in over and over.
But my gawd is this movie distractingly and almost pathetically horny. It creates visual inconsistencies and jarring edits to the point where it's like "Was this really worth it?" In one really subtle scene, Santee jams the barrel of a shotgun in between Rita's breasts, something that is shown in close-up. But the following wide shot shows the gun resting several inches down her chest. During two different scenes a body double is used, and it creates distracting edits as close-ups of the double inelegantly transition to shots of Alfonso. In one truly laughable part, Rita emerges from a shower with a full face of makeup (You're a wizard, Harry!). Moments that could have felt sexy and dangerous (like Rita undressing for a shower) lose their charge because of the insistence on blunt body close-ups. The film has some visual flair (see the image at the top of this review), so the "point camera at boobs" approach to the sexy stuff is disappointing.
Outlandish objectification aside, I did appreciate that Rita was a pretty tough character in her own right. I wish they'd done a bit more with the banter between her and Santee because too many of their interactions involve her asking smart questions and him saying some variation on "You talk too much." About the third time, it starts to strain credulity that she'd find it charming. Some of her best sequences are those where she's untethered from Santee, including a scene where she tries and fails to get help from a bunch of sexist yahoos at a rural bar.
I was looking for something a bit trashy and ended up with a movie a step above what I'd expected.
Joshua Tree, 1993
Santee (Dolph Lundgren) has been convicted for the killing of a police officer resulting from that officer stopping a truck that Santee and his partner were using to transport illicit goods. Following his conviction, Santree breaks out of custody and goes on the run, abducting deputy sheriff Rita Marek (Kristian Alfonso) along the way. But Santee isn't just on the run---he's out for revenge against those who led to his conviction.
Going into a movie like this, you're hoping for big dumb fun, and I have to say that for the most part I felt that it delivered. Santee punches (and eventually shotguns) his way through countless baddies, while Rita is conveniently a martial arts expert who gets to knock down her own fair share of toughs with well-timed roundhouse kicks.
The plot is half in service of Santee getting his revenge and half in service of developing the romance between Santee and Rita. On both fronts it does pretty well. Santee must jump through several hoops to finally land on the person who caused his misfortune. The main action set-piece actually occurs about halfway through the film, as Santee takes on a warehouse full of bad guys. While I felt myself slightly tuning out, I bet most action fans would appreciate this sequence. The plot itself is also decently twisty, if a bit predictable. It's one of those movies where the police chasing Santee are also starting to figure out what's up, and build some nice tension from the parallel investigations.
The romance element is a real mixed bag. Alfonso more than holds her own, and it's a huge compliment to her that Rita's attraction to Santee feels natural, considering how actively disrespectful he is to her and the danger he puts her in over and over.
But my gawd is this movie distractingly and almost pathetically horny. It creates visual inconsistencies and jarring edits to the point where it's like "Was this really worth it?" In one really subtle scene, Santee jams the barrel of a shotgun in between Rita's breasts, something that is shown in close-up. But the following wide shot shows the gun resting several inches down her chest. During two different scenes a body double is used, and it creates distracting edits as close-ups of the double inelegantly transition to shots of Alfonso. In one truly laughable part, Rita emerges from a shower with a full face of makeup (You're a wizard, Harry!). Moments that could have felt sexy and dangerous (like Rita undressing for a shower) lose their charge because of the insistence on blunt body close-ups. The film has some visual flair (see the image at the top of this review), so the "point camera at boobs" approach to the sexy stuff is disappointing.
Outlandish objectification aside, I did appreciate that Rita was a pretty tough character in her own right. I wish they'd done a bit more with the banter between her and Santee because too many of their interactions involve her asking smart questions and him saying some variation on "You talk too much." About the third time, it starts to strain credulity that she'd find it charming. Some of her best sequences are those where she's untethered from Santee, including a scene where she tries and fails to get help from a bunch of sexist yahoos at a rural bar.
I was looking for something a bit trashy and ended up with a movie a step above what I'd expected.