HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Mighty Quinn, The Nothing To Do With Eskimos
Year: 1989
Director: Carl Schenkel
Stars: Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, James Fox, Mimi Rogers, M. Emmet Walsh, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Art Evans, Esther Rolle, Alex Colon, Tyra Ferrell, Carl Bradshaw, Maria McDonald, Fitz Weir, Baldwin Howe, David McFarlane, Bernie McInerney, Keye Luke
Genre: Action, Thriller, AdventureBuy from Amazon
Rating:  5 (from 1 vote)
Review: Xavier Quinn (Denzel Washington) is the police chief on this Caribbean island, well-liked but perhaps not receiving as much respect as he thinks is due to him. He has been friends with Maubee (Robert Townsend) since childhood, but they have taken different paths through life, Quinn becoming an upstanding member of the community and family man married to Lola (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Maubee turning to shadier dealings to get by. Today they almost run into each other on the road the cop is driving along to reach a mansion where he has just heard there has been a murder, but did his old pal have anything to do with it?

That's the central mystery here, though you can tell there's more than meets the eye when the owner of the mansion where the headless body was found (with the head separate) who claims Maubee is the culprit is played by James Fox. I know, it's hard to believe that a Hollywood movie would feature a posh Englishman as a villain, but here it is, and that point is underlined when Mr Elgin (Fox) puts his wife Hadley (Mimi Rogers) in her place by giving her a slap, right in front of the Chief. Our hero is not prepared to allow the moneyed classes to run rings around him, but there are more villains than that who have a finger in this pie.

In fact, there was a conspiracy tone to the plot which was far from overemphasised but nevertheless spoke to the eighties suspicions about the secret services and how they were as much the bad guys as those they were trying to bring to justice. However, for the most part you would be less likely to be caught up with that and more likely to be thinking if Denzel wouldn't have been better with a dialect coach, because to call his Caribbean accent wavering would be a distinct understatement. Nothing wrong with him in performance terms otherwise, he captured something of that famously laid back part of the world in his interpretation even as the Chief was growing more serious, but sheesh, those inflections.

Townsend was a little better, though given he was playing some kind of pixie who seems to live some kind of magical existence then he could pretty much speak how he wanted to if his character was living outside normal society: it would offer his acting a veneer of slightly otherworldly wisdom and a trickster sensibility. Of course, this also meant he wasn't actually in the movie very much, and being an interesting presence you did miss him when the narrative meandered at best as Washington negotiated the various colourful personalities who he came into contact with in his investigations, including reggae singers (who perform a customised version of the Bob Dylan title track) and a voodoo priestess (Esther Rolle) who threatens everyone who crosses her with a curse.

Perhaps the most vivid portrayal, certainly among the more devious souls in the film, was M. Emmet Walsh as an apparent photographer who reveals himself as knowing far more about the solution to the mystery than Quinn has realised, but then he was a past master at scummy bad guys by this stage and appeared well aware what he had been hired to do, filling that role admirably. Or not, he didn't play a very nice man. You know what I mean. As for Rogers, she would appear to be the leading lady, but actually had very little do, and even less when the kissing scene between her and Washington was edited out after audiences of both the actors' races complained, which is kind of dispiriting, not least because it might have lent the proceedings a bigger charge than was on the table. As it was, what you got was a fairly run of the mill thriller which was only memorable because of its setting on a sun-soaked island community, which wasn't even named as Jamaica in the film. Oh, and it was nice to see Norman Beaton as a cantankerous official, but that was about it. Music by Anne Dudley.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 4225 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Darren Jones
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
Graeme Clark
  Desbris M
   

 

Last Updated: