Charles Bronson

[Tristan]

I'm new to this site; it seems most B-movies involve sci-fi or horror. But I must let everyone know about the lost genre of B-movies: titled simply "Charles Bronson", which simply are any movies in Bronson's late ('80s-'90s) career.  Culimating with the wretchedly (and unintentionally) funny Death Wish 3, Charles Bronson is the predecessor in badassedness to Bruce Campbell. I highly suggest checking out all five Death Wish movies (well, the first one was an ok flick, don't know if you guys care for those), Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects, The Evil That Men Do, and anything starring Charles Bronson from that era.
Thanks guys, and here are some other greats i've found:
--Gymkata
--The American Ninja Series
--The Class of Nuke 'em High


---Tristan

[The Burgomaster]

Bronson made some very enjoyable B-movies (and some very enjoyable non-B movies).

My favorite Bronson flick is MR. MAJESTYK. The screenplay by Elmore Leonard probably has something to do with why this movie is so good.

10 TO MIDNIGHT should appeal to a lot of viewers on this site because it is about a Ted Bundy type serial killer.

MURPHY'S LAW has some great, ridiculous dialogue. The co-star is a young Kathleen Wilhoite. About 99% of her dialogue consists of swears and insults which are very forced and stupid.

THE MECHANIC is good, because you get to see Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent wearing some really embarrassing 1970s fashions (bell bottom pants and such).

ST. IVES is good if you want to spend the entire movie saying to yourself, "what the hell is going on?"

I think Bronson was at his best in supporting roles (MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, GREAT ESCAPE, DIRTY DOZEN).

But everyone MUST see him in HOUSE OF WAX (appearing as Charles Buchinsky). See the 3-D version if you can . . . it's great.

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[Dolph Lundgren]

Bronson's always the one action guy that I've been meaning to get into for quite some time now, but haven't as of yet.  The thing is, I always read split reactions based on all of his movies.  People either love 'em, or hate 'em.  Despite never really seeing any of his movies (except for the Mechanic, which was okay) Bronson's always seemed like a badass.  Never even watching most of his movies, I can still assume as much.  

A local video place has Death Wish 3 & 4 for around 3-4 bucks on VHS.  I'm thinking about jumping all over those two, because I've read that they're the most action-packed and b-movie like of the bunch.  Plus, I think they're done by Golan-Globus, although I could be wrong on that one.  And nearly anything by Golan-Globus is always worth watching.  Another movie I'm hesitant about is Kinjite.  How is this movie from a pure action standpoint?  I think this one was done by Golan-Globus too, who were kings of the action movie during the 80s and early 90s.  Basically, I'm looking for Charlie's most action-packed movies.  Another movie that looked cool was called Death Hunt.  I think this one has to do with a group of people (hunters, maybe?) chasing Bronson down.  That's always a cool premise to a movie, but how is the movie itself?  I'm trying to get into Bronson, but I have no clue where to start.  I know he's done some legit good movies (Death Wish, Magnificent Seven, etc.) but I'm looking for his b-movie action fests.  Any suggestions?

Nick

[Gerry]

and don't forget his very early performance in MASTER OF THE WORLD with Vincent Price!

[The Burgomaster]

Nick - If you want to start watching Bronson's movies, I suggest:

10 TO MIDNIGHT - Extremely violent and Bronson plays a typical hard-ass cop.

MR. MAJESTYK - Probably the best script that Bronson ever had (at least in a starring role). Not really "action packed," but there is enough action to keep the average fan happy. The movie is never boring, and Bronson plays it cool as he kicks ass. Don't let the "PG" rating fool you, it was made in the 1970s when "PG" was a lot more like today's "PG-13."

MURPHY'S LAW - Terrible dialogue, but decent amount of action.

However, DEATH WISH 3 is terrible . . . STAY AWAY!!!!!

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[Flangepart]

Not only was Mr. Majestyk good, but his oppisite number was the late, great Al Latteri (Spelling please?)...you know, The Sicilian Michael shoots in the resteraunt in the Godfather....

[JohnL]

>Another movie I'm hesitant about is Kinjite. How is this movie from a pure action
>standpoint?

It's more of a cop drama with Bronson after a guy who kidnaps little girls and turns them into prostitutes.

I think the first two Death Wish movies are the best. Part 3 is ok, but kind of far-fetched, in the end the entire neighborhood is at war, complete with machine guns and rocket launchers. DW4 I thought sucked. I knew it was going to hurt when Bronson tells his girlfriend "It's not the kids, it's the DAMN DRUGS!!!". It was too much of an anti-drug movie. DW5 was back to being ok.

10 to Midnight was pretty good too.

[Lee]

Murphy's Law-Pretty ridiculous but fun movie.

Death Wish 3-Even more ridiculous but still fun.

Red Sun-Combination Western and Samarai flick. Recomended!

[yaddo42]

DEATH HUNT is one of his more legit films, although the plot is very padded. Actually, Bronson is a loner trapper hunted by a posse and local Mounties after a personal conflict over a good deed turns violent. It's good to see him and Lee Marvin together in an action flick one last time. The fact that their ages were showing actually added to the grittiness of the film for me. A good adventure/chase film (co-executive produced by Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest and Jackie Chan fame) with great scenery. Can anyone tell me roughly where the scene with the anachronistic highway guardrail scene is in the running time? I always look for it but miss it.

Other Bronson flicks of note:
THE STONE KILLER - an overlooked cop drama, I recomend it.
HARD TIMES -  Bronson whipping some ass as a bare knuckle boxer in Depression era New Orleans.The man was in great shape for his early 50s. Costarring James Coburn, Strother Martin, and Robert Tessier.
FROM NOON TIL THREE - a strange, creepy western "romantic comedy" costarring Jill Ireland. Just has to be seen to be believed.
THE WHITE BUFFALO - Goofy, very fake looking title creature in a film that acts deeper than it really is. JAWS dressed up as a revisionist western with psuedo-mysticism from A MAN CALLED HORSE thrown in. Lots of people hate this one, but I like it, has a b-movie vibe going.
BREAKHEART PASS - MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS  meets a Louis L'Amour novel. Decent.

True Bronson B-flicks:
COLD SWEAT
TELEFON
LOVE AND BULLETS
THE FAMILY
BREAKOUT
BORDERLINE
THE EVIL THAT MEN DO
CABO BLANCO

[Chopper]

I saw the un-cut version of the Evil That Men Do and all i gotta say is that was one messed up movie!

[Squishy]

I caught "Death Hunt" on AMC (where it repeats every so often), and despite its budgetary limits I found it quite gripping. It's like "First Blood" without the whole Stallone problem.

Ugh. "The White Buffalo." Bronson, Will Sampson ("One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," "Orca"), Jack Warden, director J. Lee Thompson, Dino deLaurentiis, and  a cast of familiar walk-ons...and Carlo Rambaldi's ("King Kong," "Nightwing," "E.T.") mechanical albino buffalo on visible tracks in the phoniest snow ever filmed. What. A. Beautiful. Mess. Once it gets going--with a spectacularly fake rampage through an Indian village--it's a scream. Yaddo42 was close--but this isn't so much an imitation of "Jaws" as it is of "Jaws The Revenge." Gratuitous glass-eye hoodoo.

Among his Cannon pictures, I can't remember most of the titles. I ditched one the moment we were treated to the shotgun execution of several sobbing children (thanks a lot, guys), but the one in which he stops a stark-naked, throat-slashing killer by teleportation (!!!) was almost as hard to watch, even with the naked guy's snacks blanked out for TV. "Murphy's Law" was the only one of them I've watched all the way through, and his interaction with his "sidekick" made it tolerable.

Pointless and insultingly awful: "CaboBlanco" and "Love and Bullets." "Love" contains Rod Steiger's worst performance ever. I think that's saying a bit, too.

[yaddo42]

Of the Cannon films that Squishy mentioned but blanked on the titles, the first one sounds like MESSENGER OF DEATH, which has ST. IVES syndrome ("what the hell is goin on") with Mormonism thrown in. The second one is 10 TO MIDNIGHT which has already been covered.

ASSASSINATION is a very irritating flick, between Bronson being on cruise control the whole time, Jill Ireland overacting as the whiny First Lady, and the lackluster stunts. The whole film feels tired.

Never seen all of SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR, so I don't feel qualified to comment on what little I've seen.

THE VALACHI PAPERS is very slow going, that's about all I remember from it.

LOLA, now that's a film whose very premise creeps me out. Bronson and Richard Donner must leave that one off their resumes. Very cheap and grubby looking.

[Chadzilla]

Squishy wrote:
>
> Among his Cannon pictures, I can't remember most of the
> titles. I ditched one the moment we were treated to the
> shotgun execution of several sobbing children (thanks a lot,
> guys),

That would be the thriller Messenger of Death, said moment is the mysterious plot point that drives the movie (its linke the Mormons and Blond Atonement, whatever that is).  Routine stuff after that.

> but the one in which he stops a stark-naked,
> throat-slashing killer by teleportation (!!!) was almost as
> hard to watch, even with the naked guy's snacks blanked out
> for TV.

10 to Midnight.  One of the better ones.

>"Murphy's Law" was the only one of them I've watched
> all the way through, and his interaction with his "sidekick"
> made it tolerable.
>
> Pointless and insultingly awful:

My vote for that is the rancid Death Wish II, gruesome overkill with a sleazy, grainy look straight out of a 70s porno flick.

The final Bronson/J. Lee Thompson/Cannon flick (note all the above Cannon flicks, with the exception of DW2, were directored by J. Lee Thompson - DW2 was Michael Winner, another frequent Bronson collaborator) was Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects which was a real dip in the sleaze.  Bronson plays a Japanese hating copper (this came out when bashing the Japanese was all the rage in the US o A) who, in a moment of contrived irony, has to find a Japanese girl kidnapped by his nemesis, a brutal thug pimp.  In some of the sleaziest child abuse moments ever caught on film, we see this pre-adolescent girl gang raped (implied) then shopped around to various 'Johns' (one of which is a woman, so does that make her a Jane?).

To lighten this subject, Kinjite did cause the audience my friend and I saw it with to titter a bit.  One early scene is set in Tokyo, but the 'subway' stand in they used was actually the Civic Center MUNI station and the SF trolley cars!  As we sat there in a SF theater, we chuckled as the lead Japanese dude stepped out of Tokyo, into the downtown/Civic Center San Francisco MUNI station, climbed onto a MUNI car, then watched some poor lady get felt up and masturbated to climax by some total stranger on the crowded car*, despite the station platfrom being empty, only to have the car come to a stop at the CIVIC CENTER STATION again, where he gets off.  Oh, wait, they used a different camera angle, so it must be different!  Fricking hilarious, for San Franciscans that is.

The slimy dude masturbating the innocent woman (who can't scream and smack the guy because she will 'loose face', so she has to suffer the humiliation of coming silently amongst a tightly packed crowd of strangers, to further this poor extras humiliation, we get a nice shot of her crying in the car, all alone in her shame) moment leads to a slimy run in later in the movie, when the lead Japanese guy cops a feel on Bronson's teenaged daughter on a crowded bus.  Just what that all meant in relation to the kidnapped Japanese kid gang banged into child prostitution is beyond me.

For the record, my favorite Bronson/Cannon movie is Death Wish 4: The Crackdown.

[The Burgomaster]

THE VALACHI PAPERS . . . what a piece of crap. At the beginning, there is a scene where Bronson gets attacked in the prison shower. At one point, you can clearly see that he is wearing a bathing suit.

Not for ONE MINUTE did I believe that Bronson was an Italian hit man. A horrible example of mis-casting.

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