James Caan

Fast Charlie

by
Fast Charlie stands by a car

There’s nothing really fast about Fast Charlie, a relaxed, medium-weight saunter through thriller territory in the company of some fine people. Pierce Brosnan, now in his 70s but still with the 007 swagger and nonchalance, plays Charlie, a fixer for an aged gang boss who winds up on the wrong side of a rival gang boss in a turf war in New Orleans. The film is an adaptation of Gun Monkeys by Victor Gischler, a writer who puts a comedic spin on familiar crime-fiction material. And more information than what I’ve already written isn’t strictly necessary. You’ve seen this movie before. But the casting is good and includes James Caan in his very … Read more

Thief

by
Frank leans out of a car window

Know thyself, as the ancient Greeks used to say. 1981’s Thief is Michael Mann’s debut feature, one of James Caan’s finest films and though it’s neo-noir and set on mean streets (Violent Streets was its original title), it’s Greek to the bone – this hero is shot through with the tragic flaw of not knowing himself well enough. Caan plays the ex-con now running a car sales business who keeps his hand in by moonlighting as a jewel thief. He’s good, one of Chicago’s best. In an opening sequence Mann demonstrates how good, and that this film’s director has seen all the great heist movies, in a sequence wehre Frank (Caan) is shown … Read more

Elf

by
Will Ferrell and James Caan in Elf

A movie for every day of the year – a good one 17 December Saturnalia first celebrated, 497BC On this day in 497BC, the Romans consecrated the new Temple of Saturn and celebrated the feast of Saturnalia for the first time. Saturn was believed to be the god who had ruled in the golden age, when labour could be carried out without back-breaking work, when human beings were not plagued by iniquitous social division. The festival was celebrated with a sacrifice, feasting, partying and gift-giving and continued from 17 to the 23 December. It was a time of free speech and role reversal, of dressing up and hats, of masks and other disguises. … Read more

The Way of the Gun

by
Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro in The Way of the Gun

Having written The Usual Suspects, Christopher McQuarrie’s directorial debut was always going to generate a lot of interest. It also, when it finally did arrive five years later, generated a lot of disappointment, not least for McQuarrie, who wouldn’t direct another film until Jack Reacher in 2012. Which, looking back from more than a decade later, seems a bit unfair. In Usual Suspects fashion The Way of the Gun delivers blood and twists with a noirish inflection, and takes a pair of good-looking, tooled-up desperadoes (Benicio Del Toro, Ryan Phillipe), dresses them up in Tarantino attitude and pitches them into a plot constructed like a maze. Thing starts fairly easy, as the two … Read more