Logan Rides into the Sunset

Movie Reviewed: Logan

Director: James Mangold

Date: 25 January 2018

jamesintexas rating: ***



I think that it gets stars just for cursing.  Logan, a neo-western in the guise of a comic-book film, is director James Mangold's updating of the dated, PG-13 formula, and it is a welcome breath of fresh air.  A grizzled, beat-down Logan (Hugh Jackman) shines in as scuzzy, messy, and lived-in a performance as you'll ever see in this type of universe.  Protecting Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart, awesome as always) from those who would do him harm, he crosses path with a new, younger mutant, a version of himself many years ago in the form of Lara (Dafne Keen), mute but lethal, who is making a journey towards the Canadian border to find refuge.  Logan must make a decision to protect himself from bounty hunter Pierce (Boyd Holbrook) or make a run for it, against all odds.

Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant, and Eriq La Salle round out an excellent cast as supporting characters along the journey.  Some of the action sequences are delightfully wicked.  What fun this must have been for Hugh Jackman to do after many years of playing this character.  Its depiction of Logan as an Uber driver near the border in the near-future is inspired, and the film's constant nodding to the western genre is quite fun.  I found the ending to be a bit less inspired, but overall, the film delivers a thoughtful (at times) and fun end to a story that probably went on too long and didn't have enough great movies (I loved X-Men 2). 

Cop Land: Star Cast with Nonsensical Plotting

Movie Review: Cop Land

Director: James Mangold

Reviewed: 4 April 2014

jamesintexas rating-- **

An achievement in casting, James Mangold's Cop Land assembles a marvelous assemblage of actors, places them in the impossibly brilliant scenery overlooking Manhattan from across the river in New Jersey, and then saddles them to a moribund plot that results in sloppiness. In the film, Cop Land refers to a New Jersey town bought by NYC police officers through a special dispensation, and it serves as a sort of haven for them away from the job. The city sheriff is Freddy (Sylvester Stallone), a lovable loser type who is walked all over by everyone and is half-deaf as a result of a heroic act in his youth. When a police incident on the bridge separating New York from Cop Land results in headline-grabbing attention, Freddy begins to slowly wake up from his slumber, investigating suspicious activity, and conference with Internal Affairs officer (Robert DeNiro).

The film uses Ray Liotta, Harvey Keitel, Robert Patrick, and a cast of recognizable faces in the execution of an unwieldy story with too many strands and a terrible ending. I thought the last fifteen minutes defied so much logic that it was stunning. The idea of Cop Land is a good one; the reality is that it is a film that is really a mess.