Since its release in 1994, Frank Darabont’s movie has enjoyed huge DVD sales. This is in spite of its clearly ridiculous premise, which sees Tim Robbins escape from jail with nothing more than a toffee hammer. These rumours have yet to be substantiated.Īnother film singled out for an inordinate amount of praise, prison drama, The Shawshank Redemption, was nominated for seven Oscars. There are rumours that Ronald McDonald, who only has a brief cameo in the final film, was originally given a much bigger role, but this was ultimately cut out due to his unremitting use of obscene language. In fact, Mac And Me‘s cast, whether human or otherwise, shows remarkable constraint, turning in nuanced, gentle performances. Mac And Me can’t hope to compete with the sky-high antics of Brody and his sexy helicopter, but neither does it have one actor that overshadows the rest of the film. It’s the helicopter’s performance, I suspect, that earned the lasting respect of internationally famous film critics such as Roger Ebert and James King. The helicopter may not have been blessed with the ability to speak, as the black Jensen Interceptor of Knight Rider was, but it stole every scene in which it appeared with a simmering, silent charisma. Both characters were upstaged, it has to be said, by the sterling performance of Blue Thunder himself. This unofficial Jaws spin-off sees Chief Brody take to the skies in a high tech helicopter, which he later uses to kill Alex DeLarge out of A Clockwork Orange. What Raffill’s actually doing is using a repeating motif that binds the narrative together, like the repeated close-up shots of eyes in a Dario Argento movie, or explosions in a Michael Bay film. Raffill even inserts tins of Coke into almost every single scene, something that many critics have wrongly described as cynical product placement.

Stewart Raffill, meanwhile, makes no attempt to hide the less plausible aspects of Mac And Me, and instead revels in the possibilities that a Coca-Cola-addicted alien can provide. Malkovich’s behaviour is extremely odd when subjected to closer scrutiny, and the notion that a fully working gun can be whittled entirely from a block of cheddar cheese is quite ridiculous, now I think about it. In retrospect, it should have been obvious that Eastwood’s supposed documentary was actually a contrivance. Who’s Mac? Who’s me? What is the relationship between Mac and Me? They’re questions that can only be answered by watching the classic movie.Ĭlint Eastwood’s documentary about his time as a presidential bodyguard may have lost the power it held over audiences in the early 90s (John Malkovich has since admitted that his obsessive attempts at assassinating the most powerful man in the world were faked for the camera), but it’s nevertheless a touching portrait of an ageing Secret Service agent’s attempts to retain the energy and virility of his youth. Mac And Me, on the other hand, is an extremely clever title that, rather than making promises it doesn’t plan to keep (shame on you, Costner, shame on you), chooses to pose more questions than it answers. Speaking as someone who carefully scanned every frame of the theatrical cut’s hundred and seventy-five minutes, and later scrutinised the two hundred and thirty-six-minute director’s cut for evidence of lupine activity, this blatant piece of false advertising is particularly galling. At no point does anyone dance with a wolf, let alone the pack of wolves its name implies. Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves was one such film, winning no fewer than seven Academy Awards, and appearing in the American Film Industry’s list of 100 greatest movies.Īlthough it’s quite true that Costner’s movie is a beautifully made drama about a Civil War veteran’s relationship with a Native American tribe, there’s no getting away from the fact that its title is a flagrant, barefaced lie. Where The Godfather was filled with lingering shots of oozing gunshot wounds and ornery old men muttering about respect, Mac And Me was alive with vivacious scenes of people dancing, a young boy rolling down a hill in a wheelchair, and an alien drinking industrial quantities of Coca-Cola.Įvery so often, a film comes along and seduces critics into a frenzy of histrionic praise.

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