So...I've been having some trouble trying to review this movie. You see, I actually wanted to review this movie a couple of years ago in November, back when I was still getting use to reviewing movies every week for this series. And I found a copy of this movie on YouTube, and I figured I'd watch it off there since I didn't have a physical copy of the movie at that time. But unfortunately, it got taken down before I could get to it, so I had to replace it with something else. And then last year, it was back on YouTube, so I tested the movie out, just to make sure that the movie played, and it did. So I put it back on the schedule, and I was gonna review it in November. But when I was about ready to type up the Reaction & Review for it, the video player for it wasn't working. I tried many times to get it to work, but the video player wasn't letting the movie play. So I had to take the movie off the schedule AGAIN, and replace it with something else that I had lined up. And I was about ready to just give up on reviewing this movie entirely. Thankfully though, I was able to find a copy of this movie at a local mini-mall that I go to every other week for about a dollar and I bought it. And I decided that I wasn't gonna bother trying it on YouTube again, because I don't want this movie to be put on the back burner again for something else.
So, now that I got all that bullshit out of the way, let's get into what I know about tonight's movie. Now, as some of you may happen to remember, a couple of years ago, I reviewed a movie called "McQ". A movie that not only starred John Wayne, but was also trying to cash in on the success of the "Dirty Harry" franchise. And, for the most part, I really enjoyed "McQ". But then again, I usually enjoy almost any movie with John Wayne in it. Well, 1 year later, after "McQ" was released, United Artists decided to try their hand at cashing in on Dirty Harry's success by releasing a similar movie starring John Wayne. But since they couldn't do a sequel to "McQ", seeing as how it was put it out by Warner Bros., they decided to title their character under a different name, thus is how we got "Brannigan".
Now, the one thing I can tell you about this movie is that unlike "McQ", where that entire movie took place in Seattle, Washington, this movie takes place overseas in London. Because John Wayne is being sent there, from America to the U.K., to extradite a criminal. So basically, it's premise is very similar to another movie that I covered a while back, which was "Coogan's Bluff". Where that movie involved Clint Eastwood's character being sent from the Arizona P.D. to extradite a criminal from New York. Which I'm totally fine with, because I do sorta enjoy these kinds of movies. And I'm hoping that John Wayne will be able to make this simple premise work.
On the other hand, I am a little bit sceptical here. Not because this is a completely different field for John Wayne to work with, because he's usually known for his Westerns and war movies, but it's mostly thanks to my repeat viewings of "Coogan's Bluff" that the movie has gotten steadily worse with each viewing. I'm hoping that "Brannigan" is not gonna fall into the same pitfall that "Coogan's Bluff" has, but there is that possibility. But then again, I have more of an attachment to John Wayne than I do Clint Eastwood. But still, I'm hoping for this movie to be decent. And the only way I'm gonna find out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Brannigan".
2 minutes later
You know, guys, I'm really liking this opening song here. I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but I'm really digging this opening song. It's actually kinda catchy.
20 minuies later
So, that big package that was delivered to Larkin was really only used to carry his unconscious body around? All right...I was sorta expecting, maybe, a bomb or what have you. But still, I wasn't really expecting them to use it as a body bag of sorts.
11 minutes later
Well, guys, I think I can now say that I'm really liking John Wayne's character in this movie. There's just something very charming about it that I can't quite explain. I might have an answer for it when I get to review this thing, but, like I said, it's just very charming to watch.
20 minutes later
Well, guys, if I was Brannigan right now, and he asked a guy to get something that he tossed in the water, I would probably do the same thing and push the guy in the water to go get it for me. At least I can say that Brannigan sure knows how to take the direct approach.
6 minutes later
O...K, I'm actually kinda surprised that whoever was targeting Brannigan not only set up a shotgun trap in his apartment, but also a bomb in the toilet! I never thought I would actually get to say something like that, but shit, that actually happened. I'm somewhat curious as to how the hell they were able to break into Brannigan's apartment, but I gotta give them credit for going the extra mile in making sure they took out Brannigan. And it was a little bit creative, too.
13 minutes later
You know, guys, if there's one pattern that I picked up from watching a lot of John Wayne movies over the years is that there's always some sort of a brawl, whether it's inside a pub, or a clay slide, or anything that involves fighting in general. It's just some sort of trait that has followed a lot of John Wayne's movies that just has that sort of familiar charm to them that I always seem to enjoy. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.
10 minutes later
All right, you know what? Even though that car chase ended in failure, it was actually a pretty cool chase. I mean, yeah, it sucks that the guy Brannigan was after got away, but the way that scene ended was pretty cool. So, gotta take the good with the bad in this case.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Brannigan". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Well, what to start with first? Well, before I do get into this movie, I'm gonna state right here that I'm gonna be much more lenient when it comes to John Wayne. Because I'm someone who usually lets a lot of things involving John Wayne slide with me. I'm still gonna try to give this movie a fair review, but I just wanted to let you guys know firsthand that I'm gonna be a little bit biased here because I am that much of a John Wayne fan.
So anyway, let's actually get into the review itself. And I'm gonna start with writing. Our story, on it's own standards, is a very basic cop movie. Where Brannigan is being sent from Chicago to London to find a criminal named Larkin, who disappeared from the U.S. to London. And very early on in the movie, Larkin gets kidnapped, and he's being held ransom for about 50,000 pounds. So Brannigan is working with the British police force to track down Larkin's kidnappers so that they can find them before the money is sent to them. And that, pretty much, is our entire plot. Which, again, for a premise this basic and standard, it works pretty well. In fact, I mentioned earlier that this movie's premise is very similar, if not, almost, the exact same plot that was in "Coogan's Bluff". However, I do feel like this movie handled it better here than how "Coogan's Bluff" handled it. And one of the biggest advantages that this movie has over Coogan is our characters. Just about every character here is very likable. Nobody here sounds like an unlikable douchebag, unlike in "Coogan's Bluff". Where in that movie, almost every character sounded like an unlikable twat towards Coogan. In this movie, everybody here has some sort of a personality and character that you can sorta care about. Brannigan is a somewhat sarcastic version of Dirty Harry, but John Wayne was able to give it enough of a spin where it's not a complete ripoff of Harry Callahan. However, that's just me delving into acting, which I'll get to later. And while this movie did sorta go into the methods between how America and the U.K. handles the way they do police work, it's not something that they bang you over the head with. It's brought about 2 or 3 times, and that's about it. For the most part, it focuses on our characters trying to find a way to get to Larkin before they decide to handover the ransom money to the kidnappers. And I feel like they did a pretty good job of handling it very well, where in "Coogan's Bluff" the main plot of that movie was mostly seen as an afterthought, and it just felt like it was a story that was somewhat haphhazardly written. But for the most part, the story here is perfectly fine, and our characters are, once more, very likable. I really couldn't pick out an unlikable character in this movie. I could, maybe, say that the villains kinda suck, in terms of personality, but that's pretty much it. And admittedly, it is something that was also from "Coogan's Bluff" that pretty much stays the same. But I would certainly take the positives of this movie more than what was shown in "Coogan's Bluff".
However, I am gonna jump ship into a negative that could potentially be seen as a dealbreaker. And that would have to go to the pacing. Because this movie for, like, almost the first hour doesn't really have much happening. And there's a scene in this movie that definitely could be seen as a pacebreaker. Now in order for me to talk about this, I have to bring up something that I mentioned earlier. I mentioned that this movie was trying to cash in on the success of the "Dirty Harry" franchise, and you can totally tell that this movie was captilizing on it in spades. And there's one scene, in particular, that really sold me that they were doing so. Because this scene is almost identical to what I saw in the first "Dirty Harry" movie. So, if haven't seen "Dirty Harry", there's a scene in that movie where Harry had to deliver ransom money to a serial killer known as Scorpio. And Harry had a set of instructions from Scorpio that he had to find a payphone within a certain amount of time, otherwise Scorpio would kill his hostage. I'm not gonna go into any more details than that, because I don't want to spoil what happens there. Now, the scene in Branngian is identical to a degree, but there is a difference. So this movie had a scene where they first had to make a ransom drop. And from there, we're watching as this unfolds where the police are hidden from sight while they wait for the ransom drop to happen. Now, while of all this is unfolding, you feel like this movie is trying to build itself up to something big, and you feel like there's gonna be some sort of payoff to all this. Because one thing leads to another with the mailman picking up the envelopes that first get dropped, then they deliver it to the post office, then a guy in a yellow helmet picks up the envelopes from the post office, takes them with him on his motorcycle, and he takes it out to the docks. So naturally, you might think that something is going to happen in all of this. Well, unfortunately, not much really happens. Because the payoff is incredibly underwhelming. Now that may have been intentional, because there is a scene afterwards which explains why that is, which I won't go into spoilers here. However, you do feel like you have been watching a pointless goose chase that leads up to a red herring. And that entire sequence goes on for quite a while, and it could be seen as the movie dragging itself a bit. Which, compared to "Dirty Harry", pales in comparison. Because with that scene I described in "Dirty Harry", you could actually feel a lot of tension going on and you would question whether or not Harry was going to succeed. Here though, there's not much tension involving this sequence. Again, it might've been intentional, but it still feels kinda underwhelming.
Honsetly though, there's not much here in terms of negatives. And even with my comparison of "Dirty Harry", it's not really going to be seen by those who haven't seen any of the "Dirty Harry" movies. Everything else I'm gonna mention is mostly going to be positives. Speaking of which, let's get into the acting. The acting here is really good. Everybody turns in a showing that is believable and sounds natural. There are two actors I want to make mention of. One of them is our main star, John Wayne. Like I mentioned earlier, he plays a more laid back sarcastic version of Harry Callahan. Now yes, Harry was also sarcastic, but it also depended on the movie that he was in. In, say, "Magnum Force" for example, his sarcastic character was pretty much gone in that movie, and wasn't brought back until "The Enforcer". Brannigan is pretty much a lite version of that character, but he has more of a charming and slightly rough personality that John Wayne was able to make work with, and he becomes very likable and influencial as well, because it kinda rubs off on Sir Charles, the police chief that Brannigan works with, later on in the movie. So from John Wayne, it's pretty damn good, even if it's not one of his best roles. The other actor I want to make mention of is John Vernon. For those who don't know, John Vernon played the character of Officer Mooney from "Killer Klowns From Outer Space". And he was great in that. He also played the Mayor from the first "Dirty Harry" movie, and he was pretty good in that one, too. However, I am disappointed with his performance in this movie. It's not that his acting was bad or anything. It's the amount of time that he was given that I'm more disappointed with. He plays our kidnapped villain Larkin. And unfortunately, Larkin is not seen for most of the movie after he gets kidnapped for ransom. And, to me, it's really disappointing, because I really thought he was going to have more of a role in this movie, other than just being used for ransom. You hear him, at least, a couple of more times through a radio, but that's about it. Anything else is not seen from him until towards the end of the movie. Which is, once again, very simliar to what I saw from "Coogan's Bluff", where the villain in that movie was also incredibly shitty. However, I'm still gonna give the edge to Vernon, mainly due to the acting. It may not be much, but I've always enjoyed his acting, no matter what movie he's in. So, at least, we have that. And like I said, the acting from everyone is pretty good throughout the entire movie. So that's definitely a postive from me.
There's not really much I can talk about in terms of special effects, outside of blood effects and explosions. The blood effects, what few there are in this movie, are pretty good. The pyrotechnics are done pretty well. The stunt work is also done pretty well, too. And I'm kinda surprised that John Wayne was able to pull off a couple of stunts on his own, especially when you consider that this was very late into his film career. In fact, I think this was about a year before his final movie, which was "The Shootist". So what little he was able to pull off in this movie was pretty good, overall. So really, I don't have much to say involving special effects outside of it being pretty decent.
Camerawork here is really good. The sound-mix is mixed fine. Lighting here is lit very well. The music here, at least for the score, is pretty good. A lot of it is orchestral music that sounds pretty good, even for the standards of 1975. So honestly, again, I don't have much to say in terms of music, outside of it being pretty good throughout the entire movie.
So, with all this in mind, am I able to recommend "Brannigan"? If you are a fan of John Wayne, and you haven't had a chance to see any of his movies that don't involve him on a horse or any of his war films, then yes, I can totally recommend it. If you're a fan of action movies, and you want to see how these kinds of movies were made back then that didn't involve buttloads of CG and special effects, then you'll probably find sometihng out of this thing, too. Well, unless if you're someone that just prefers plotless action movies, then this movie is not for you. As for myself, I really enjoyed watching this thing. But then again, as I have made mentioned at the start of this review, I am a very big fan of John Wayne, and I have to thank my Dad for that. Because he's the one who got me into watching John Wayne movies. And it's a bit of a somber moment too, because it was around this time of month, probably about 8 years ago, that he had unfortunately passed away. And I wanted to put this movie on the schedule around that time because it was something that I couldn't pass up on doing, mainly because it was a movie that I hadn't seen yet up until I started doing this Reaction & Review. And it's become sort of a tradition around this time of month that I watch more John Wayne movies. Speaking of John Wayne, I'm gonna go watch another one of his movies right now. And seeing as how I mentioned "McQ", I'm gonna go back and watch that one, because it has been almost 2 years since I last watched it for this series. And I'm somewhat curious as to see which of these two movies is better. So, I'm gonna go do that, and this movie is going to have a very nice spot on my DVD shelf, next to a bunch of other John Wayne films that I currently own.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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