BONE TOMAHAWK (2015)

Set in the 1890's American West, BONE TOMAHAWK is a well made low-budget western about a quiet frontier town that wakes up one morning to find two of their citizens and one stranger missing and a stable boy gutted.  What the hell happened?  The last thing anybody knows is the local doctor was treating an injured prisoner while under the watch of a deputy.  Now they're all gone and the dude tending the horses was found with his innards pulled out.

After a little investigation, Sheriff Kurt Russell discovers that (I guess, unknown to him until just now) only a few days ride away there is a tribe of cannibalistic cave dwellers!  Sounds like something that a local sheriff would need to know about, but whatever.  Finally Sheriff Russell, another deputy and two townsfolk (including the female doctors husband) head out on horseback to rescue the kidnapping victims.  Things don't go quite as planned...not that they really had much of a plan at all.

Slow pace that actually fits the story, amazing cast, nice camerawork, cannibal indians that flip around like Cirque du Soleil performers, one gruesome kill scene, an injured guy with a broken leg suddenly appearing in a cave so high up a cliff face that everybody else has to be pulled up on a rope, unsatisfactory ending that hints at a sequel, Richard Jenkins' using some kind of annoying "old man" voice that got old real quick, beautiful scenery, Zahn McClarnon with way too small of a role.

Overall, BONE TOMAHAWK is a good film with a promising story that outstretched its budget (I would have dropped the broken leg bit and changed it so it was Sheriff Kurt's first week on the job after being brought in from out of state).  Worth a watch for fans of gritty westerns, but nothing to pull yer pud over.

BACKDRAFT (1991)

New fireman William Baldwin (oh god...I'm already bored) lives in some big shadows.  His father was a legendary firefighter who died in a fire that ended up on the cover of Life Magazine and his older brother (Kurt Russell) is the toughest, manliest firefighter since John Wayne clubbed an oil well fire to death with his penis in HELLFIGHTERS. Even worse...he's been stationed to the same firehouse as his brother.  All kinds of predictable brotherly competition and firefighting ruggedness happens next. There's even a musical montage!

BACKDRAFT is mildly entertaining and actually more fun to laugh at than it is to take serious, but then something interesting happens and we're introduced to a mystery arsonist who's killing people using a technique called "backdraft".  It seems that the fire is somehow held inside a room magically and then when the victim opens the doors the fire backdrafts all up in their shit and punches them like 50 feet through the air.  It also makes a howling noise like a dragon having sex with an iceberg.  Fire investigator Robert De Niro is sent in to investigate the murders...and that's the best part of the movie.  While De Niro was onscreen, rambling about how fire is an actual living thing I was totally into it.  It was silly as fook, but still compelling.  His scenes with firebug Donald Sutherland were the highlight of the film.  Unfortunately though, these scenes only make up a small portion of the film.

Overall, BACKDRAFT is very dated, the story is in dire need of a re-write, the special effects are alright, the firefighting scenes are unbelievable, the entire thing looks like a movie, the acting by the impressive cast (not Baldwin) was above average (...I especially liked Sutherland.  He was doing some serious Hannibal Lecter from THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS channeling).

Not the greatest thing I've even seen, but it was an interesting ride and a fun look back at early 90's big studio action/dramas.  We also get to see the guy from IRON EAGLE's pubes!!!

Update: Just watched the 2006 DVD release of the film and I noticed that the dude from IRON EAGLE's pubes are now missing! Weird, huh?

Part 2 - Backdraft II (2019)