Not quite the outright remake of The Wild Bunch it's often written up as, but still by some distance Walter Hill's most explicit homage to Sam Peckinpah. Based on a story by John Milius, 1987's Extreme Prejudice pitches upright Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (a suitably monolithic Nick Nolte) against old buddy Cash Bailey (a colourfully demented Powers Boothe), a former DEA enforcer turned major drug baron who's flooding the US with massive amounts of cocaine from his Mexican fortress, where he's surrounded by a small army of heavily-armed desperadoes.
The fundamental tension here isn't whether bipolar salesman Barry (Adam Sandler) will end up with doe-eyed English executive Lena (Emily Watson). No, the question here is one of authorship. At a snappy 97 minutes, detailing Sandler's eccentric but essentially loveable dufus, his explosive temper and wacky air-miles scam, it fits neatly into the Sandler lineage. Yet, with Sandler's broader antics leavened by long tracking shots and static arthouse takes, the film is recognisably the work of pop-auteur Paul Thomas Anderson.
High time a documentary paid tribute to the undervalued golden-era Motown house band—The Funk Brothers—who played on more (and better) hits than anyone else. The (surviving) old dudes remain innately fluid. The choice of guest vocalists here, however, as they trot through some of the greats, could've been better. Bootsy Collins babbling "Cool Jerk", fine. Chaka Khan hollering "What's Going On", unsubtle but fine. But Ben Harper (twice?), and Joan Osborne (twice)?
