Post by stefancrosscoe on Oct 16, 2021 8:14:59 GMT
Having just seen the cheesy horror b-movie Mutator (1989), I gotta say, it was a pleasant surprise to finally be able (not sure if I have seen him in a similar big leading performance before) of witnessing the always memorable Brion James as not only the main lead, but the hero of the day as well.
It was almost a bit "weird" to get to see such a colorful "bad" guy, who is always a guaranteed scene stealer, with so many of his classic sleazy and evil scumbag parts to show for, specially during the 80s and early 90. And while some might be smaller or bigger, you just never tend to forget about a Brion James performance, no matter how long or short his stay in a film ends up as.
Of course, I think he said it himself, time after time, that he loved doing that kind of "nasty" work, and few did it better than him, still it was kind of interesting and fun, to get to see him take on the heroic part for once, and I thought he handled himself rather well, even though the film itself was maybe not all that to show for, but yeah, for fans of James, I would not call it a "must see", but for a change in scenery, it might be a fun little 85-90 minutes of b-movie cheese to waste away with.
Anyway, of all the films and parts I have seen him do, I guess my all time favorite has to be his ridiculous over the top serial killer maniac part, as Max "Meatcleaver" Jenke, in the highly underrated supernatural late 80s slasher, The Horror Show (1989), aka House 3.
Now this movie is pretty much a one man Brion James show, and I think it is also was his favorite movie, and he sure looked like he had a blast putting poor Lance Henriksen and his family through hell and back.
Beside the many sci-fi and horror bad guy parts, I guess it is also hard to ignore his often great guest parts, in late 80s action films like Red Heat (1988) or Tango and Cash (1989), and where I believe he sadly got edited (more or less) out from a much bigger and important part, in the butchered version of Another 48 Hrs. (1990).
Also loved his hilarious asshole part in Striking Distance (1993), against Bruce Willis, and when you are in need of a "friendly" co-worker, you can bet Brion James would be right around the corner, happy to see you.
A few classic Brion James moments:
All in all, a truly gifted and highly memorable character actor, who I guess settled mostly in for bad guy/psycho villains, but also showed he had a great talent for comedy (specially within the black comedy genre) and sadly got wasted away in a lot of terrible or lousy films, but would always put in a good effort.
I often wonder if he could have ended up in a similar type of situation as another well known villainous movie charactor actor of the 80s and 90s, like Tobin Bell did later on his career, with the Saw film series.
It was almost a bit "weird" to get to see such a colorful "bad" guy, who is always a guaranteed scene stealer, with so many of his classic sleazy and evil scumbag parts to show for, specially during the 80s and early 90. And while some might be smaller or bigger, you just never tend to forget about a Brion James performance, no matter how long or short his stay in a film ends up as.
Of course, I think he said it himself, time after time, that he loved doing that kind of "nasty" work, and few did it better than him, still it was kind of interesting and fun, to get to see him take on the heroic part for once, and I thought he handled himself rather well, even though the film itself was maybe not all that to show for, but yeah, for fans of James, I would not call it a "must see", but for a change in scenery, it might be a fun little 85-90 minutes of b-movie cheese to waste away with.
Anyway, of all the films and parts I have seen him do, I guess my all time favorite has to be his ridiculous over the top serial killer maniac part, as Max "Meatcleaver" Jenke, in the highly underrated supernatural late 80s slasher, The Horror Show (1989), aka House 3.
Now this movie is pretty much a one man Brion James show, and I think it is also was his favorite movie, and he sure looked like he had a blast putting poor Lance Henriksen and his family through hell and back.
Beside the many sci-fi and horror bad guy parts, I guess it is also hard to ignore his often great guest parts, in late 80s action films like Red Heat (1988) or Tango and Cash (1989), and where I believe he sadly got edited (more or less) out from a much bigger and important part, in the butchered version of Another 48 Hrs. (1990).
Also loved his hilarious asshole part in Striking Distance (1993), against Bruce Willis, and when you are in need of a "friendly" co-worker, you can bet Brion James would be right around the corner, happy to see you.
A few classic Brion James moments:
All in all, a truly gifted and highly memorable character actor, who I guess settled mostly in for bad guy/psycho villains, but also showed he had a great talent for comedy (specially within the black comedy genre) and sadly got wasted away in a lot of terrible or lousy films, but would always put in a good effort.
I often wonder if he could have ended up in a similar type of situation as another well known villainous movie charactor actor of the 80s and 90s, like Tobin Bell did later on his career, with the Saw film series.