Word: hackmans
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...Gene Hackman plays Joe Moore, a master conman who is always prepared for any eventuality, (“I wouldn’t clear my throat without a backup plan,” he says). But he is getting old and would like to retire and live a calm, peaceful life with his beautiful wife and accomplice, Fran (Rebecca Pidgeon). This becomes an even better plan after he is forced to show his face on a security camera in order to complete a robbery without resorting to violence. But matters become complicated when his fence, Bergman (Danny DeVito), strong-arms...
...Replacements, starring Keanu Reeves as the quarterback of a pickup team during a pro players' strike and Gene Hackman as his coach, is dumb by any standard. But it does anatomize the prevailing view of unions in a country that was largely built by them...
...Replacements, written by Vince McKewin and directed by Howard Deutch, isn't wrong to make fun of rich jocks. But it never addresses the ethics of union busting. The replacement players don't agonize for a second about taking jobs from players who earned them. And at the end, Hackman elegizes the scabs: "They had been part of something great." Come on: these guys didn't dig the Panama Canal. They helped rich owners satisfy billion-dollar contracts with TV networks...
...Robert Dean, a D.C. labor lawyer involved in a violent union dispute involving the mafia. Dean receives incriminating evidence for his trials from his old girlfriend (Lisa Bonet of "The Cosby Show" fame), who works as an agent of a secretive, unknown informant namd Brill (a grizzled Gene Hackman). Dean lives the perfect American life with a loving wife, wonderful children, a beautiful house and his prized juice blender. But everything changes when a bird-watcher (Jason Lee) catches the execution of a venerable U.S. Congressman by the head of the National Security Agency (Jon Voight). Soon, Dean is unknowingly...
Despite Smith's stellar performance, the film's most interesting character is Brill, played wonderfully by Hackman. He is a dark and bitter ex-agent of the National Security Agency out for revenge against the institution that forsook him. His motivations are skewed, actions devious and intent unknown. In one moment he condemns Dean's ignorance and uselessness; in another he courageously saves Dean's life. The chemistry between Hackman and Smith is powerful, as the two reluctant heroes transform initial self-interest into teamwork. The ending is a contrived and coincidental as a novel by Charles Dickens, but does...