Treat-Williams Movie Reviews

Truth be told, that was what I was expecting years ago when I first saw the movie. I was only 13, and thinking I was about to see an action film when I really wasn't could have eaily bored me silly. But I was pleasantly surprised.

Human Cargo is a thriller about a naive but likeable businessman in a world of corruption where he has no power, and is quickly overwhelmed.

The cultural representation of the Arabs is fair I guess, I did some research and any extreme culture clash moments were a result of the particular men the hero was dealing with. As an american film, it certainly has an American bias, and we feel as lost as McDonald in this strange land. The suspense of the culture bearing down on him is palaptle, the american "haven" that he retreats to it like base in a game of tag. Even if you aren't much for legality, this film will have you with McDonald every step of the way as he gets more and more over his head.

Treat Williams is the man. He's a truly underrated actor and has real screen presence. He has a mature charisma and a great yelling voice.

My only complaint is the gratuitous nudity in the beginning. If it had some reason for being there, or if the rest of the film had some, it might be acceptable, but it is just there, (and not erotic, by the way)

Totally original, filled with suspense, great acting, and a paranoid atmosphere, HUMAN CARGO is a great film

Treat Williams is good as usual. Angie Everhart is OK - but I don't know why she was there, and some of the bad guys are pretty bad actors. The fight scenes are ok - even if they are a little predictable. A "special effect" explosion at a dam is pretty funny looking. There's some decent nudity, the classroom fight scene is funny, and a kid falling on some spike at the dam was cool too. The final battle with the bad guy was cheesy - and like the other reviewer said - why would a racist have a asian henchman?! The twist with Everhart is a little unexplainable as well.

Treat Williams is good as usual. Angie Everhart is OK - but I don't know why she was there, and some of the bad guys are pretty bad actors. The fight scenes are ok - even if they are a little predictable. A "special effect" explosion at a dam is pretty funny looking. There's some decent nudity, the classroom fight scene is funny, and a kid falling on some spike at the dam was cool too. The final battle with the bad guy was cheesy - and like the other reviewer said - why would a racist have a asian henchman?! The twist with Everhart is a little unexplainable as well.

Treat Williams is good as usual. Angie Everhart is OK - but I don't know why she was there, and some of the bad guys are pretty bad actors. The fight scenes are ok - even if they are a little predictable. A "special effect" explosion at a dam is pretty funny looking. There's some decent nudity, the classroom fight scene is funny, and a kid falling on some spike at the dam was cool too. The final battle with the bad guy was cheesy - and like the other reviewer said - why would a racist have a asian henchman?! The twist with Everhart is a little unexplainable as well.

Are we actually meant to feel sorry for the plight of a terrorist? Even though it's a fellow country man, no-one would condone the killing of innocent people. This appears to be what Harrison's character struggles with in this movie as he has a dilema of wethering to kill Pitt or not.

This movie may go down well in America due to strong Irish roots, but in Britain, where these acts of terrorism were faced on a weekly basis, it will bomb.

This double pack is good value for money and I can see it going down really well with Harrison Ford fans. The sad fact is though, these two movies, just like Seven Days, Seven Nights' are designed for the cinema. Good on the big screen, wouldn't want to own them though!

Widescreen a must, Dolby 5.1 sound and DTS (thinking of my fellow horror fans of the Dolby Theater sound persuasion), deleted scenes, etc.

Edit:
I have actually found this film on DVD, poor transfer.........but cheap. Oh well, better than VHS.

Well, perhaps Jennifer Connelly had something to do with it. She did, of course, since she has enough sexuality to tempt Gandhi; but I think what really kept me interested was a strong desire to see Nick Nolte's character with his swagger and his billy club and his sharp pointed leather shoes and his fedora and the endless cigarette dangling out of his mouth get his just deserts. I also was intrigued at the sheer depravity of Tamahori's depiction of the L.A. police department circa 1950 and their women who seemed to get off especially well when their men recalled the violence of their day. Note that Jennifer Connelly's character becomes arouses after seeing Nolte beat up her sickie boyfriend and inject a needle into his neck. Indeed, in an early scene Melanie Griffith becomes quite tender with her big strong man as he tells her of some violent deed he had pulled off that day. By the way, Bruce Dern's (uncredited) take on the police commissioner reminds me distinctly of a real life past LA Police Chief whose name temporarily escapes me.

It is also possible I wanted to see John Malkovich's interpretation of a mad nuclear scientist/general, a rendering which doesn't kick in until later in the film. (We do get a peephole view of his technique with Connelly very early on, and he seems quite taken with his work.) I would evaluate Malkovich's cynical, ironic performance as good if this were the first time I had ever seen him. However, while he was slimy and despicable enough to actually make Nolte's character look good in comparison, I was a little disappointed since he seemed more mannerism than substance; and indeed I've seen those mannerisms before. I think the edgy Malkovich style always works better when it is combined with something redeeming as it was in, for example, Valmont (1989) and The Ogre (1996).

While the LAPD are depicted as thugs, amazingly enough by the end of the film they don't look so bad when compared with the US Military who are out in the desert playing with their atomic toys while using young recruits as radiation guinea pigs, led by a reincarnation of Dr. Strangelove. Incidentally, Tamahori, anxious to get the audience into the hospital ward with all those victims of radiation sickness, doesn't even bother with a reasonable plot device. He just has Nolte and his sidekick spot the unmarked building, demand to know what's inside, and when the military guys say it's off limits, bust heads, go inside, gawk and read a chart. The effect of this scene was to put the head-busting, face-kicking and other brutalities of L.A.'s finest into perspective. What's a little roughhousing with the citizenry compared to inducing radiation disease on army privates?

I had the sense as I stayed with this monstrosity that perhaps future generations will watch this and say, that was how it was in mid century America. ...

Bottom line: avoid.

Well, perhaps Jennifer Connelly had something to do with it. She did, of course, since she has enough sexuality to tempt Gandhi; but I think what really kept me interested was a strong desire to see Nick Nolte's character with his swagger and his billy club and his sharp pointed leather shoes and his fedora and the endless cigarette dangling out of his mouth get his just deserts. I also was intrigued at the sheer depravity of Tamahori's depiction of the L.A. police department circa 1950 and their women who seemed to get off especially well when their men recalled the violence of their day. Note that Jennifer Connelly's character becomes arouses after seeing Nolte beat up her sickie boyfriend and inject a needle into his neck. Indeed, in an early scene Melanie Griffith becomes quite tender with her big strong man as he tells her of some violent deed he had pulled off that day. By the way, Bruce Dern's (uncredited) take on the police commissioner reminds me distinctly of a real life past LA Police Chief whose name temporarily escapes me.

It is also possible I wanted to see John Malkovich's interpretation of a mad nuclear scientist/general, a rendering which doesn't kick in until later in the film. (We do get a peephole view of his technique with Connelly very early on, and he seems quite taken with his work.) I would evaluate Malkovich's cynical, ironic performance as good if this were the first time I had ever seen him. However, while he was slimy and despicable enough to actually make Nolte's character look good in comparison, I was a little disappointed since he seemed more mannerism than substance; and indeed I've seen those mannerisms before. I think the edgy Malkovich style always works better when it is combined with something redeeming as it was in, for example, Valmont (1989) and The Ogre (1996).

While the LAPD are depicted as thugs, amazingly enough by the end of the film they don't look so bad when compared with the US Military who are out in the desert playing with their atomic toys while using young recruits as radiation guinea pigs, led by a reincarnation of Dr. Strangelove. Incidentally, Tamahori, anxious to get the audience into the hospital ward with all those victims of radiation sickness, doesn't even bother with a reasonable plot device. He just has Nolte and his sidekick spot the unmarked building, demand to know what's inside, and when the military guys say it's off limits, bust heads, go inside, gawk and read a chart. The effect of this scene was to put the head-busting, face-kicking and other brutalities of L.A.'s finest into perspective. What's a little roughhousing with the citizenry compared to inducing radiation disease on army privates?

I had the sense as I stayed with this monstrosity that perhaps future generations will watch this and say, that was how it was in mid century America. ...

Bottom line: avoid.

To say that this movie is unoriginal is an understatement. It more-or-less puts us into the exact same situation as the first film, only done worse than before. When his brother is murdered by a violent street gang called the Brotherhood in a carjacking, mercenary Karl Thomasson (Williams) decides to take on two roles. The first is to take care of his brother's daughter. The second is to become a subtitute teacher for his brother's Brooklyn high school class, which some of the Brotherhood thugs attend. He suspects that the school's auto shop teacher, Warren Drummond, is involved in a car-stripping operation with the Brotherhood and its violent leader, Lil' B. Naturally, it's up to Thomasson to teach the tough class while working to take down Lil' B and Drummond's operation with his mercenary pal Joey 6 and a janitor named Johnny Bartee.

The most dissapointing aspect of this movie is the acting. Before you say, "It's a B movie, so what do you expect?", consider the cast involved in this film. Treat Williams may be a direct-to-video actor for the most part, but considering his number of Emmy nominations and his achievements in "Everwood", you'd expect a little more from him. He simply comes off as too nice a guy to be a hardened merc. Longtime Broadway actor and recent "Law & Order: SVU" cast member B.D. Wong doesn't fare much better as Drummond; he's either over-the-top or very dull. Michael Michelle ("ER") as teacher and love interest Kara Lavelle and Angel David ("The Crow") as Joey 6 are both OK, but wasted for the most part. Daryl Edwards, who plays Johnny Bartee, ends up becoming very annoying in this film. And while rapper Guru (of Gang Starr fame) is one of the most gifted hip-hop lyricists around, he's no actor, and he really embarrasses himself as Lil' B in this movie.

Aside from the weak acting, the movie doesn't really do much with its characters or plot. The relationship between Thomasson and the gang-bangers in his class (one of the better points of the original film) never works at all, especially his attempt to connect to Mase (Eugene Byrd of "8 Mile" fame). At one point, Thomasson throws Mase's stereo out the window because he's playing rap music really loud in class. Mase gets angry and attacks him with a switchblade, but after Thomasson subdues him and leaves him in charge of the class for a moment, Mase later apologizes for what he did. In the space of one class, Mase changes from "I'm-a cut you up real good" to "yeah, I was wrong". Right.

There are other problems, too, including some ridiculously unrealistic action sequences. How does somebody manage to survive an attack by gang-bangers firing automatic weapons at them from BOTH SIDES of a narrow corridor? Beats me, but Thomasson, Joey 6, and Bartee do somehow. Equally bad is the scene where Drummond kills Lavelle by shooting her at point-blank range and then wipes her blood off his hands on a stuffed teddy bear AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME. Oh, yeah, and I'm still very puzzled as to how they got that laser trick to work on the Brotherhood when laser sources are very easy to spot at any range. The hoods in Brooklyn may not be Ivy League material, but I really didn't think they all have the intelligence levels of rodents.

In the end, "Substitute 2" never works as well as its predecessor did, or as well as many such movies in general. The poor acting and weak plot make it hard to like. If you want to see a movie in this genre done right, see the first film or "187" with Samuel L. Jackson. You can definitely do better than this film.

I should have rented it, not bought it. I'm still glad I got to watch it, but unlike the original I'll probably never watch it again.

To say that this movie is unoriginal is an understatement. It more-or-less puts us into the exact same situation as the first film, only done worse than before. When his brother is murdered by a violent street gang called the Brotherhood in a carjacking, mercenary Karl Thomasson (Williams) decides to take on two roles. The first is to take care of his brother's daughter. The second is to become a subtitute teacher for his brother's Brooklyn high school class, which some of the Brotherhood thugs attend. He suspects that the school's auto shop teacher, Warren Drummond, is involved in a car-stripping operation with the Brotherhood and its violent leader, Lil' B. Naturally, it's up to Thomasson to teach the tough class while working to take down Lil' B and Drummond's operation with his mercenary pal Joey 6 and a janitor named Johnny Bartee.

The most dissapointing aspect of this movie is the acting. Before you say, "It's a B movie, so what do you expect?", consider the cast involved in this film. Treat Williams may be a direct-to-video actor for the most part, but considering his number of Emmy nominations and his achievements in "Everwood", you'd expect a little more from him. He simply comes off as too nice a guy to be a hardened merc. Longtime Broadway actor and recent "Law & Order: SVU" cast member B.D. Wong doesn't fare much better as Drummond; he's either over-the-top or very dull. Michael Michelle ("ER") as teacher and love interest Kara Lavelle and Angel David ("The Crow") as Joey 6 are both OK, but wasted for the most part. Daryl Edwards, who plays Johnny Bartee, ends up becoming very annoying in this film. And while rapper Guru (of Gang Starr fame) is one of the most gifted hip-hop lyricists around, he's no actor, and he really embarrasses himself as Lil' B in this movie.

Aside from the weak acting, the movie doesn't really do much with its characters or plot. The relationship between Thomasson and the gang-bangers in his class (one of the better points of the original film) never works at all, especially his attempt to connect to Mase (Eugene Byrd of "8 Mile" fame). At one point, Thomasson throws Mase's stereo out the window because he's playing rap music really loud in class. Mase gets angry and attacks him with a switchblade, but after Thomasson subdues him and leaves him in charge of the class for a moment, Mase later apologizes for what he did. In the space of one class, Mase changes from "I'm-a cut you up real good" to "yeah, I was wrong". Right.

There are other problems, too, including some ridiculously unrealistic action sequences. How does somebody manage to survive an attack by gang-bangers firing automatic weapons at them from BOTH SIDES of a narrow corridor? Beats me, but Thomasson, Joey 6, and Bartee do somehow. Equally bad is the scene where Drummond kills Lavelle by shooting her at point-blank range and then wipes her blood off his hands on a stuffed teddy bear AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME. Oh, yeah, and I'm still very puzzled as to how they got that laser trick to work on the Brotherhood when laser sources are very easy to spot at any range. The hoods in Brooklyn may not be Ivy League material, but I really didn't think they all have the intelligence levels of rodents.

In the end, "Substitute 2" never works as well as its predecessor did, or as well as many such movies in general. The poor acting and weak plot make it hard to like. If you want to see a movie in this genre done right, see the first film or "187" with Samuel L. Jackson. You can definitely do better than this film.

I should have rented it, not bought it. I'm still glad I got to watch it, but unlike the original I'll probably never watch it again.