Hard Rain (1998)
It’s Die Hard…
in a flood. To be precise: a flooded town.
Is the main character an average Joe?
He just a simple armored truck driver.
Sidekick?
No, he does meet some townsfolk who could be his sidekick but nobody comes to fill that position.
Any personal problems?
He just saw his colleague and uncle Charlie being shot dead in front of him and it turns out he was working with the bad guys also. He had seen better days.
Is the lead character there by coincidence?
His truck was the target and he was just doing his job. So no.
Are there any friends or family in danger?
The only relative in the movie gets shot dead in the beginning, he does care for a woman (Minnie Driver) in the movie who serves as a love interest and has to be saved from time to time.
What’s at stake and why aren’t the authorities doing anything?
An armored truck full of Money. It was just supposed to be a simple heist but the flood and the persistence of one man made it more of a man chase. The authorities are on their way but it takes a while before the national guard can do anything. There is some local law enforcement but the sheriff turns out to be corrupt and tries to take the money.
Any charismatic villains?
We have Morgan Freeman and they don’t get more charismatic than him. As a bonus we get Randy Quaid as the sheriff who decides that he has the right to an early retirement.
Is it any good?
This is one of those movies like Cliffhanger that stray further from the template which makes it automatically better than a lot of other entries listed here. There are some nice action sequences and overall it’s a fun movie, but nothing groundbreaking. It was one of the last high profile movies of Christian Slater who would not much later pop up in Uwe Boll Movies and DTV-sequels like Hollow Man II
They are planning a remake, I would go for Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Joe Manganiello, Milo Ventimiglia, Tom Welling, Chris Evans, Chris Pine, Chadwick Boseman, Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Runner, Derek Theler, or D.J. Cotrona as Gabe Walker; and Billy Zane, Kevin Spacey, Dominic Pace, Alec Baldwin, Gil Banks, Hugo Weaving, Robert Knepper, Brian Van Holt, Travis Fine, Skeet Ulrich, or Dash Mihok as Qualen.
I think there is a way to improve The Taking of Beverly Hills, like instead an undercover Fed helped crippled a militia group and imprisoned many members including their leader. But the leader’s brother and a few members of the group plant bombs all over Beverly Hills, and threaten to set them off if the leader is not released, and the undercover fed seeks out the bombs while his partners buy him time.
Blast is good, but it would be worthwhile to note that, Agent Lisa Reed (Vivica A. Fox) finds out that Michael Kittridge (Vinnie Jones) is actually a mercenary named Skyler Talbot and had killed the real Kittridge and stole his identity to throw off authorities.
I would like to see Christmas Rush. Anyone know where to find it?
There are some sites that list it as streamable, but I don’t know how legit they are. If you own an XBMC player I would advise you to look on that network.
What is an XBMC Player? I have never heard of one.
In most cases they are mediaplayers running Android. Because they run Android they can download an app named XBMC from Google’s Play Store. XBMC allows you to search and stream movies
Don’t forget the other scenarios like Terminal Rush, Interceptor, Crash Dive, Counter Measures, 12 Rounds: Reloaded, 12 Rounds: Lockdown, Project: Shadow Chaser, Command Performance, Demolition University, Cyberjack/Virtual Assassin, Final Voyage, and Air Rage.
For Speed 2: Cruise Control, it should have been Direct to Video, and not a sequel to Speed. The lead villain should have been a pirate instead of soft ware designer turned mad bomber trying to blow up a ship.
Every time I see “Air Force One” I remember that in the Tom Clancy novels, the character of Jack Ryan becomes president. This film could have been part of the saga starring Harrison Ford, if he had continued it.