Author: Dave Franklin
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Shaky Starts: Part One
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Read more: Shaky Starts: Part OneSometime in my early youth, I realized I would one day have to work for a living. This seemed unfair, especially as I already had a mumsy and a da-da to provide everything. Later at high school a counselor asked me about my dream job. I truthfully replied it was to not have a job.…
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Creepy Shit
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Read more: Creepy ShitI s’pose there’s only one time I had the shit creeped outta me. Granddad was in a nursing home and one night we got the call that he was on the way out. I went with dad and sat in a room as death came to play. Granddad was wired, unaware of his family alongside…
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Unforgiven (1992)
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Read more: Unforgiven (1992)For whatever reason, the Western became very sick in the 1970s, one of its shuddering last breaths taken when a scar-faced Clint Eastwood jumped behind a Gatling gun to let loose merry hell in the brilliant Outlaw Josey Wales. There was nothing of much note after that, the genre pretty much given the coup de…
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Where’s My Froggy?: A Top 10 (ribbit) List
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Read more: Where’s My Froggy?: A Top 10 (ribbit) ListYou probably find it hard to believe but I write all my Ruthless articles surrounded by aromatic candles immersed in a freestanding claw foot bath. Well, I say write but what I actually mean is dictate. Indeed, all of my honey-coated missives are transcribed by a slightly drunken Catholic schoolgirl called Samantha. Her proofreading skills…
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80’s Action Is No Laughing Matter: Part 2
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Read more: 80’s Action Is No Laughing Matter: Part 2Chuck Norris in Firewalker Loathed by the critics, Chuck’s first shot at comedy in 1986 was a box-office dud that helped finish off his benefactor Cannon Films. Good work, son. Plusses: I couldn’t really follow the premise, but we end up with two adventurers and a pretty bird trying to find buried treasure in Central…
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80’s Action Is No Laughing Matter: Part One
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Read more: 80’s Action Is No Laughing Matter: Part OneYou’ve heard the sayings. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Variety is the spice of life. A change is as good as a rest. And so on. Well, for most actors it’s straightforward to enjoy a wide range of roles, but action stars do have a tendency to plough the same bullet-ridden furrow.…
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The Last Hurrah #4: Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974)
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Read more: The Last Hurrah #4: Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974)“My grandfather’s work was doo-doo! I am not interested in death! The only thing that concerns me is the preservation of life!” Mel Brooks’ 2021 autobiography All About Me! is an irritating, surprisingly poor read. It’s lame, politically correct, bland and devoid of interesting anecdotes. I don’t think there’s one word of criticism aimed at…
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The Last Hurrah #3: Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008)
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Read more: The Last Hurrah #3: Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008)Oh Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey! Was the elfin Toni Basil singing about Mickey Rourke, handsome, talented bastard that he was? Probably not, but after his terrifically understated performance in the 1981 classic Body Heat as a reluctant advice-giving arsonist I guess it’s possible. At that point…
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The Last Hurrah #2: James Caan in Misery (1990)
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Read more: The Last Hurrah #2: James Caan in Misery (1990)Caan did much better than a lot of actors, but his lengthy career still manages to give off a whiff of disappointment. There was never any doubt about his ability, typified by an early performance as a brain-damaged ex-ball player in 1969’s The Rain People. Here he’s very good at doing what he can with…
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The Last Hurrah #1: Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979)
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Read more: The Last Hurrah #1: Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979)It’s always a mystery when a gargantuan talent falls off a cliff. How can an auteur like Coppola, a man who ruled the cinematic landscape of the seventies by combining searing art with the most fantastic consistency, fail to make another great movie after 1979? A mesmerizing gift can’t just evaporate, can it? I mean,…