{"id":1333,"date":"2024-07-26T19:08:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T19:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:43:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:43:37","slug":"murphys-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/26\/murphys-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Murphy’s Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Murphy’s Law <\/strong>(1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, nudity, sexual content, alcohol abuse, drug material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: J. Lee Thompson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gail Morgan Hickman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Marc Donahue and Valentine McCallum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alex Phillips Jr.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 18, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Charles Bronson, Kathleen Wilhoite, Carrie Snodgress, Robert F. Lyons, Richard Romanus, Angel Tompkins, Bill Henderson, James Luisi, Clifford A. Pellow, Janet MacLachlan, Lawrence Tierney, James Thor, Mischa Hausserman, Cal Haynes, Hans Howes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $9.9M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0We all know what Murphy’s Law is. It states anything that can possibly go wrong, will go wrong. Then there’s Jack Murphy’s Law. It\u2019s simple: “Don’t f*** with Jack Murphy.” It\u2019s a good rule to live by seeing as Jack Murphy is played by Charles Bronson (Death Wish).<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Jack is at a low point in his life. He’s a burnt-out, alcoholic cop whose wife (Tompkins, Prime Cut) left him for the manager of the strip club where she performs nightly. He frequently shows up to watch her perform even though it disgusts him. He\u2019s in the crosshairs of a powerful mob boss, Frank Vincenzo (Romanus, Mean Streets), who swears revenge on Murphy for shooting his brother, a violent sociopath wanted for murdering a woman. It\u2019s a lot, but it\u2019s nothing compared to the s*** storm that\u2019s about to rain down on him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Somebody from Murphy\u2019s past is about to turn his life upside down. Joan Freeman (Snodgress, Diary of a Mad Housewife), a psychotic killer recently released from prison, is back in town. She wants revenge on everybody who had a part in putting her there, especially the arresting officer, our friend Jack Murphy. She retaliates by murdering the ex-wife and framing Jack for it. He\u2019s arrested and placed in lock-up where he\u2019s handcuffed to Arabella McGee (Wilhoite, Private School), a young, potty-mouthed car thief he nabbed earlier for stealing and smashing his car.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Before you can say “JAIL BREAK!”, Murphy escapes from custody still handcuffed to McGee. He drags her along as he steals a police helicopter and crash lands on a barn belonging to pot farmers. They manage to get away, of course. Now Murphy has to figure out who\u2019s doing this to him and why while Freeman continues her killing spree.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As far as Bronson actioners go, Murphy’s Law<\/strong> is pretty good. It\u2019s not one of the most pleasant films ever made, but Bronson isn\u2019t exactly known for that kind of thing. Directed by J. Lee Thompson (10 to Midnight), it\u2019s brutal and dark and populated by sleazy, unlikable characters like the private eye (Tierney, Reservoir Dogs) hired by Freeman to gather info on her intended targets. His attempts to extort more money earn him a gunshot in the mouth. Although he\u2019s only in it for a few minutes, it\u2019s always cool seeing an old vet like Tierney show up no matter how briefly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s nothing especially original about Murphy’s Law<\/strong>. It\u2019s predictable right down the line with no surprises. The revelation of a dirty cop in Murphy\u2019s unit is anything but revelatory. You know right away this guy is a rat. It\u2019s also no surprise that Murphy and McGee will come to like each other after a period of trading barbs and insults. She has a real mouth on her, this girl. She calls Murphy names like \u201cdildo nose\u201d and \u201cbutt crust\u201d. She tells him to \u201csuck a door knob\u201d and \u201cgo jump a flagpole\u201d. Is it any wonder he threatens to wash her mouth out with soap in the final scene?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bronson gives his usual stone-faced performance. It\u2019s hard to tell the difference between hung over Murphy and functioning Murphy. Wilhoite can be annoying at times. A lot of what comes out of her mouth is childish. Snodgress overplays it to the hilt as a psycho serial killer. At times, you’re tempted to laugh at her performance. Then she goes and kills somebody in cold blood. It’s hard to believe she was once nominated for an Academy Award, but she\u2019s not the only respectable actor to accept a role in a film they know is trash.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Murphy’s Law <\/strong>is an entertaining enough action flick, purely B-level. It’s no better or worse than most of Bronson’s later movies. It has some cool scenes like when Murphy shoots the mob boss\u2019 brother in an airport as he attempts to flee to another country. The finale is pretty good with Murphy taking on all his enemies (mobsters, dirty cop and Freeman with a crossbow) in one fell swoop. Incidentally, it occurs inside the Bradbury Building, the same place where the rooftop climax of Blade Runner took place. Now that\u2019s really cool!<\/p>\n

\u00a0I will close with a rather funny anecdote about something that happened at the theater. I saw it on a Saturday afternoon (April 19, 1986) with my dad. There was an older couple sitting a couple of rows ahead of us. They didn\u2019t look like they belonged. Throughout the film, the woman appeared uncomfortable while the husband got more and more aggravated. Finally, he leans over to her and says “I thought James Garner and Sally Field were supposed to be in this.” The wife responded, “Dear, that’s Murphy’s Romance.” That\u2019s when he said, \u201cThat\u2019s it! We\u2019re leaving!\u201d I had to laugh at that one. The takeaway is always make sure you\u2019re at the right movie. Murphy’s Law <\/strong>is strictly for the action fans. All others need not apply.\"\"<\/p>\n

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Murphy’s Law (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannon\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, nudity, sexual content, alcohol abuse, drug material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: J. Lee Thompson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gail Morgan Hickman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Marc Donahue and Valentine McCallum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alex Phillips Jr.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 18, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Charles Bronson, Kathleen Wilhoite, Carrie Snodgress, Robert F. Lyons, Richard Romanus, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Murphys-Law-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1932,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions\/1932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}