Obscure Movies I Love, pt. 5: Split Second

While I never cared for Blade Runner, Rutger Hauer has been in some pretty awesome movies. I am particularly fond of The Hitcher. Eventually, Mr. Hauer's career nosedived and he pretty much did only straight-to-video movies and video game voices (with a few notable exceptions).

Right before this happened, Hauer starred in a sci-fi action movie called Split Second, that absolutely bombed in the theaters. Why did it bomb? Well, the writing was pretty cheesy (the main character's name is Harley Stone, for god's sake), the monster was a direct rip-off of Aliens, and it was a pretty mindless action flick.

So why do I love it? Mostly for Rutger Hauer's over-the-top performance as a burned out, half crazy cop, and the interactions he has with his new by-the-book geeky partner. Yes, it's one of those movies, but in this context the loose cannon/by the book combo works well, and Hauer and Neil Duncan (who went pretty much nowhere after this) have an amusing chemistry that makes the movie watchable. Plus, Pete Postlethwaite who is good no matter what you put him in, and Kim Cattrall before she looked like a well-used leather hand bag.

It's out on DVD, but Netflix doesn't seem to have it. So if you spy it at your local video store, give it a shot.

You'll want bigger guns.

-Mattbear out.

Previously on The Inexcusable:

Obscure Movies I Love, pt. 4: Laurel Canyon

Obscure Movies I Love, pt. 3: the Jason Priestley double-feature

Obscure Movies I Love, pt. 2: A Shock to the System

Obscure Movies I Love, pt. 1: Diggstown

Up 'n' Down

I had a real up-and-down weekend.

Friday, I won our weekly poker game. Yay!
In the process, I pissed off one of my friends/opponents by breaking poker ettiquette. Boo!
I have since apologized for my behavior, and he apologized for storming out and yelling. Yay!
Plus, I finally got a house rule named after me. Boo/Yay!

Saturday, I officiated a wedding. Yay!
The bride was pretty much insane all day and everything was late. Boo!
The actual ceremony went well and everyone said I did great. Yay!

My Xbox 360 got the Red Ring of Death. Boo!
Microsoft says it's because I plug it into a surge protector and not directly into the wall. Boo!
They're going to cover it under extended warranty because they've admitted it's a production failure. Yay!
I won't have my 360 for 3-4 weeks. Boo!

Got my old '69 VW bus from my brother-in-law's place where it was stored. Yay!
By the time we got to Fall City, it was running on 3 cylinders, having spit out a spark plug (which it has done before) and I had to have it towed the rest of the way. Boo!

I think we're getting to the root of the problem.

Tom Cruise apparently isn't getting much sleep, what with a baby and acting and running a studio he bought, and all. But Cruise says, "I don't sleep much anyway."

You know who else doesn't sleep very much? Schizophrenics.

Just sayin'.

Whedon gives Fox another show to cancel

I am no Joss Whedon fanboy. I did not care one whit about Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel. But I did very much like Firefly and its movie, Serenity. So I do pay a little bit of attention to what Whedon is up to.

I am a huge fan of Eliza Dushku. She's a very talented actress, as demonstrated here:

So, I pay attention when Joss Whedon gets a new show, and it's going to star Ms. Dushku - as has happened with the new upcoming show Dollhouse.

An interesting premise for this show, a good director, a hot star, and possibly a good writer, and Fox has signed a contract for seven episodes. So, you know, they'll probably cancel it by the second commercial break because the show is too good for them, seeing as how they've axed other excellent shows in the past for no reason - a habit that has been known to piss me off.