In 1989, Ridley Scott and Michael Douglas teamed up for the enjoyably stylistic, violent crime thriller BLACK RAIN.
Douglas is a NYC cop under investigation for pocketing drug money found at the scene of his crimes. He's a great, tough cop with a grey area at his core, if the internal affairs suits are right.
When Nick (Douglas) and his partner Charlie (Andy Garcia) are witnesses to a Japanese mob assassination on their Mafia counterpart, they are chosen to escort the killer back to Japan.
The two are immersed in the exotic underworld of Japan and teamed up with Japanese detective Masahiro, well played by the late Ken Takakura.
Director Ridley Scott wraps the whole film in 80's pastels, steam and atmosphere, dropping you into Japan. Watching the young, aggressive gang try to explode every tradition through murder and mayhem is fascinating, like a mashup of "The Raid" and "The Godfather".
The action scenes are plentiful and really well shot and staged by Scott and his team. Douglas is damn near perfect as Nick and Garcia is a great wing-man with a much more defined sense of right & wrong.
As the raging Yakuza gangland battle escalates, Douglas is determined to find justice and eventually revenge.
Some of the foreshadowing is pretty heavy handed and the NYC characters a bit cliche, but with Scott and Douglas at the helm, its never anything but a fast moving, fun ride into some very dangerous territory.
Douglas cornered the market for a decade or so on portraying men that work outside the law to get what they want. No one did it better and it's always fun to revisit.
BLACK RAIN is a perfect storm of 80's music, great photography, exotic locales and terrific action that blasts its way to an A.
Comments