Remember that weak rumour about ‘Son Of Scarface’ with Cuban Link as Tony’s son? That could have been worse than the ‘Carlito’s Way’ prequel with Diddy. And De Palma’s remake opus was state-of-the-art trash anyway, great as it is. But a sequel to ‘Raging Bull’ is, according to IMDB, in production. What’s up with that? Apparently It’ll be a “…unique combination prequel and sequel that explores “before the rage” and “after the rage” of world middleweight boxing champ Jake LaMotta’s tumultuous life and times.”
Sounds like it’s either some kind of viral campaign for something or other, an outright lie, or part of a new Onion movie, all down to the Rocky-style, matter-of-fact numerics. Hope the soundtrack is on Scotti records too. Were this true, this ill-fated motion picture, like an amateur painter deciding to have a stab at a new Sistine Chapel on a whim.
Admittedly, this production has one killer app – William Forsythe. A beady-eyed performer with a frequently forgotten range of intensities, it’s not necessarily hard to see him as Jake LaMotta – think back to Cockeye in ‘Once Upon A Time In America’ where he holds his own against De Niro and Jimmy Woods or his double-act with John Goodman in ‘Raising Arizona’, as well as a strong role as a bungling burglar in ‘Palookaville’.
On the defiantly popcorn front, a sweaty cracked-out protagonist in ‘Out For Justice’ (the only action film to open with a quote from Arthur Miller?) where, were he not facing off against Seagal’s hardrock sleepwalk of a performance, he’d receive plaudits for his manic performance as Richie Madano, and ‘Ice’ in ‘Stone Cold’ alongside the equally reliable Lance Henrikson is a crazed character too – again, part of an early ’90s phase where he went beyond the call-of-duty against some wooden adversaries, in that case ex-US football star Brian Bosworth. He makes a convincing Sammy Gravano in Gotti too. This however, is a whole other level of bull.
Working on the enforcing side of the law, in ‘Extreme Prejudice’ he’s convincing too, and Rob Zombie evidently took note when he was casting ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ where he owns the film as Sheriff John Quincey Wydell – Forsyth is always value-for-money. But William alone can’t make me root for this project. It won’t be a contender in any way, shape or form compared to its predecessor. Hollywood – stop the madness. A sequel to ‘Stone Cold’ on the other hand, would be a beautiful thing…
Edit – And cheers to Tom who pointed out my glaring omission of William’s role as JD, the Chevy El Camino driving character in ‘American Me’ which definitely has the edge over his Sammy portrayal.
