Anyone else bitten by the 'Eastwood Collection' bug? (1 Viewer)

[Frank@N]

Stopped by Saturday Night Matinee and found more EC titles on sale.

Got 'Honkytonk Man', 'Pink Cadillac', and 'Any Which way You Can' for $6.99 per title.

Also saw 'City Heat', but I'm not sure it's worth $7.

SNM is the same as FYE/Coconuts/Strawberries.

 

[Frank@N]

These titles were directed by Clint, but the EC seems to be actor-only:

Mystic River (2003)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
Bird (1988)
Breezy (1973)

 

[Frank@N]

Still on the fence about 'City Heat', here's some comments from IMDB:

"By most accounts, Clint Eastwood hijacked his long-awaited teaming with fellow superstar Burt Reynolds and the credits bear this out. After showing writer-director Blake Edwards the door, Eastwood recruited the more malleable Richard Benjamin to direct (in his autobiography, Reynolds said Benjamin was "terrified" of Eastwood), ordered Edwards' script be given a rewrite by Joseph Stinson whose only other credit was the previous year's Dirty Harry film, "Sudden Impact," brought in key players from his Malpaso crew (notably Fritz Manes as producer and Lennie Niehaus as composer), and even dumped Edwards' title, "Kansas City Jazz," in favor of the equally imaginative (I'm kidding) "City Heat."

Despite Dirty Harry's takeover, "City Heat" emerges as a showcase for Reynolds. He has the most screen time and the zippiest dialogue, but playing against a typically wooden Eastwood also heightens the opportunity for Reynolds to reap laughs with his more extroverted approach. The contrast between the two is very entertaining.

Critics were quick to dismiss this Christmas 1984 release as a bomb which it certainly appeared to be beside the Eddie Murphy blockbuster, "Beverly Hills Cop," in release at the same time. It is disappointing (Edwards would likely have given it more class), but by no means a dud. It breezes along at a comfortable pace, mixes its laughs evenly with action, and should make for a satisfying indulgence for fans of the two stars."

"All the problems others have related here are true, plus one more: Reynolds was hit in the face by a stunt man with a real chair while filming the opening diner fight scene. Reynolds' jaw was broken and he had a severe medical condition causing pain, headaches, and dizzyness. Reynolds was a trouper and finished the movie (he is quite funny in it), but one of the reasons the movie is so short and incoherent is that the injured Reynolds couldn't work very long in the film (notice: in the final fight, "Reynolds" is wearing a wolf mask -- because that's not Reynolds.)

It's too bad, really. Once upon a time, Eastwood and Reynolds were both co-equal major superstars, and it would have been exciting to see them paired together. The opening diner scene and a few later exchanges give us a tantalizing glimpse of how good "City Heat" could have been had it not be jinxed from the start."

"City Heat is really nothing more than a remake of the Eddie Murphy film 48 Hours set in 1933 Kansas City. Clint Eastwood plays the tough-as-nails policeman and Burt Reynolds plays the accident-prone private detective. This might have worked better if more action had been put into the script instead of comedy. Eastwood and Reynolds seem to almost sleepwalk through their roles, and the supporting players like Madeline Kahn and Irene Cara are forced to rely on characters that stereotype characters we might have seen in another movie. In the shootout scenes, the bad guys are barely able to aim their guns, and Eastwood cannot miss. The worst scene has to be where Reynolds breaks into a bad guy's hangout dressed as the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood. What the heck was that all about? Even die-hard Eastwood and Reynolds fans are likely to be disappointed by this one."

 

[Frank@N]

Just realized that I passed on Clint's two movies from 1984 (City Heat & Tightrope).

Maybe this was a bad year for Clint. Some thoughts on Tightrope:

"There's a great, disturbing, nerve-jangling thriller just ready to materialize in TIGHTROPE, but the writer/director, Richard Tuggle (making his directing debut here), doesn't go far enough with the material. What we've got here is the perfect playground for a crime drama using dopplelanger recognition between cop and criminal, with both sharing the same disturbing impulses of violence, with one acting it out while the other walking a delicate tightrope, just a step away from teetering off and falling into the depths of madness, like the killer has.

Unfortunately, Tuggle introduces aspects like these without ever developing them, giving us hints and surface presentations of the film's intentions, leaving us with a well-cast, good-looking thriller with no place to go. TIGHTROPE is overlong by about 20 minutes, and the plodding pace only helps accentuate the plot holes and inconsistencies. Too many times, Clint Eastwood's Wes Block is made out to be too much of an inept patsy. (The nadir point of inanity is when he lets the killer's ally walk into a deserted warehouse to collect his money, without following him in or giving him any sort of backup. If Block had used discretion and tact, and followed him in, he surely would have had the killer.)

Luckily, Eastwood's great screen prescence gives the film some much-needed distinction; looking older and flabbier than usual, he convincingly makes for a beat-out old cop, vulnerable to his darkest, seediest impulses, where, living in New Orleans and near the French Quarter, sin is that much easier to attain. Alison Eastwood makes a fine, naturalistic debut as (you guessed it) Block's daughter, while the talented character actor Dan Hedaya (who's a great Richard Nixon in DICK) is wasted in the obligatory role of Block's partner.

In the 90's, Eastwood started taking some chances in his work, allowing himself to play flawed characters who did some very flawed things -- they didn't just think about it, they did it. Here, there's way too much contemplating and not enough follow-through on the intentions set forth to garner our attention. We wait for what's promised, and remain waiting after TIGHTROPE finishes its stiff 115-minute running time."

 

[Robert Crawford]

Frank,
Seven posts in a row from the same poster is really over the top. Also, if you want to discuss the merits of Eastwood films, please do so in the proper forum which is Movies. Thank you.






Crawdaddy

 

[Frank@N]

Good point, I'll have to have a look at one of those 'Adventurer' boxsets...

 

[Todd Robertson]

I see one of the bridges just about every day during travel for work. If I could just get my hands around the throat of the idiot arson-freak. You know landmarks from the film were destroyed? How could you burn down a covered bridge?:frowning:

Francesca's House was also torched. It was a sad, sad day. Bastards.

Soon all Iowa will have left in the FOD ballpark.

 

[Scott Hamilton]

For some reason In the Line Of Fire and The Beguiled are part of the Collection 6 DVD set yet they are not Warner titles.

I found this site that shows it

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clin...od_collection/

I am just wondering if they changed the packaging? Does anyone have the set can confirm this?

 

[Frank@N]

That is a very odd product, I've never seen it in retail.

I was inclined to doubt it existed, but the Amazon reviews are very specific.