{"id":7650,"date":"2024-10-27T22:56:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T02:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=7650"},"modified":"2024-10-27T22:56:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T02:56:29","slug":"shakedown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/27\/shakedown\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakedown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Shakedown <\/strong>(1988)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes Rated R (strong violence, language, sexual references, nudity, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Glickenhaus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Glickenhaus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: James Horner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Lindley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 6, 1988 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Peter Weller, Sam Elliot, Patricia Charbonneau, Blanche Baker, Richard Brooks, Antonio Fargas, John C. McGinley, Thomas G. Waites, Larry Joshua, Jude Ciccolella, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Paul Bartel, James Eckhouse, William Prince.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $10M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0It\u2019s nice to know James Glickenhaus didn\u2019t forget his grindhouse roots while making the mainstream cop actioner Shakedown<\/strong>. An early scene is set at a shabby Times Square movie theater showing The Exterminator and The Soldier, two of the writer-director\u2019s early efforts. Remember when Times Square used to be lined with movie houses showing mostly exploitation fare? It was Movie Guy\u2019s visualization of heaven.<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, let\u2019s talk about Shakedown<\/strong>, the second time Glickenhaus worked under a major studio; his 1985 actioner The Protector was distributed by Warner Bros. It\u2019s one of those movies in which big, out-of-hand action scenes serve to compensate for lack of a coherent narrative. The plot has something to do with corrupt cops, an incriminating cassette tape and a crack dealer (Brooks, Law & Order) on trial for killing an undercover cop. He\u2019s being defended by Roland Dalton (Weller, RoboCop), a burnt-out public defender one week away from leaving this dream job to join a Wall Street law firm run by his fiancee\u2019s father (Prince, The Gauntlet). He\u2019s assigned the crack dealer\u2019s case, of course. The dealer claims he didn\u2019t know the victim was a cop and only shot him in self-defense. He refers to him as a \u201cblue jean cop\u201d. Dalton decides to look into it with help from his friend, renegade cop Richie Marks (Elliott, Road House). Together, they try to uncover the truth. The problem is the truth could get them killed. In fact, it almost gets them killed a few times.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A subplot has Dalton facing his ex-lover Susan (Charbonneau, Desert Hearts) in court. She\u2019s the prosecutor on the dealer\u2019s case. I\u2019d think this would constitute a conflict of interest of some sort, but never mind. They create further conflict by rekindling their romance. Frankly, I don\u2019t blame Dalton for hooking up with Susan. His younger fiancee (Baker, 16 Candles) is a blonde bubblehead; she thinks Jimi Hendrix is heavy metal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The highlight of Shakedown<\/strong> is, of course, the action. Although well-staged, they often stretch the limits of believability beyond the breaking point. They\u2019re far-fetched even for a loud, violent action movie. In one scene, somebody hangs onto the wheel of an airplane containing key villains as it ascends. He then plants a hand grenade and jumps to safety in the water below. There\u2019s also an exciting chase through Times Square as the heroes try to apprehend the bad guy who killed an informant on the orders of drug kingpin N.C. (Fargas, Starsky & Hutch). And let\u2019s not forget the amusement park scene with the runaway roller coaster. The action is simultaneously thrilling and laughably OTT.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The main problem with Shakedown <\/strong>is the screenplay. It too often goes off into tangents that have little or nothing to do with the main plot. It\u2019s not always clear what\u2019s going on. Characters\u2019 motives tend to be vague. This is typical of Glickenhaus; he never was a strong storyteller.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The two leads do a good enough job in their respective roles. Weller is in fine form as an idealistic lawyer who\u2019d be more at home in a hippie commune than a stuffy law firm. Elliott, always a pleasure to watch, is good as a gruff, disheveled cop who catches naps in 24-hour movie theaters. The actors have solid enough chemistry. Fargas\u2019 role isn\u2019t that big, but he makes the most of what little screen time he has as kingpin N.C. Charbonneau, as the prosecuting attorney, proves to be more than a match for Weller\u2019s character. Supporting roles are filled by Larry Joshua (The Burning), Thomas G. Waites (The Thing) and John C. McGinley (Wall Street).<\/p>\n

\u00a0I really like Shakedown<\/strong>; I just wish it had been stronger in the storytelling department. It\u2019s okay though because the scenes between the action set-pieces, especially those involving Dalton questioning whether or not he should go through with the wedding, don\u2019t really matter. We all know what he\u2019s going to decide long before he does. Thankfully, Shakedown <\/strong>is mighty in the area of action. It\u2019s fun because it\u2019s so ridiculous. It\u2019s the kind of action movie where you can shut off your brain because it\u2019s such a no-brainer.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shakedown (1988)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes Rated R (strong violence, language, sexual references, nudity, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Glickenhaus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Glickenhaus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: James Horner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Lindley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 6, 1988 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Peter Weller, Sam Elliot, Patricia Charbonneau, Blanche Baker, Richard Brooks, Antonio Fargas, John C. McGinley, Thomas G. Waites, Larry Joshua, Jude […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Shakedown-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\/7650","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=7650"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7671,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7650\/revisions\/7671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}