I liked director Michael Winner's The Stone Killer but the more I thought of the style of this 1973 crime/action film my memory went right back to two other action films of a similar heritage and their respective directors/stars which made me feel like this film was more or less just a cheap imitation of the following two classic action movies. I am referring to director Don Siegel's 1971 crime/action classic Dirty Harry starring Clint Eastwood as Detective Harry Callaghan who reprized his role a few more times with even greater success. The other film I am remembering is director Peter Yates 1968 classic Bullitt which starred Steve McQueen as San Francisco Police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt.
When I was watching Charles Bronson drive recklessly through the city streets of New York as he was chasing actor Paul Koslo (the bad guy) who was riding a motorcycle, my mind immediately reflected on Steve McQueen's classic car chase scene with his 1968 Ford Mustang racing through the steep hills of San Francisco. Now THAT was a car chase that director Peter Yates made for the record books that audiences are still talking about more than 50 years later.
There was also an earlier scene in The Stone Killer where Charles Bronson who plays Detective Lou Torrey is interrogating a suspect in the police precinct behind a closed door and he punches the suspect a few times such that his suspect nicknamed Jumper (played by Jack Colvin) has his face swell up and Jumper tells Detecive Torrey "Heh, stop, you can't do that I know my rights" So Detective Torrey calls in the policeman stationed in front of the door and he asks his fellow officer if he sees any swelling or bruising on Jumper's face and the police officer says "not a thing". So we just witnessed police brutality by Charles Bronson. I bring this up because again I was reminiscing about the style that Clint Eastwood's character Harry Callaghan would dish out street justice. Clint Eastwood's style of dishing out his form of street justice was just so much more memorable than Charles Bronson's as Clint always seemed to deliver his beatings not only with gusto but you anticipated (maybe even salivated over) that Harry Callaghan was going to whup this bad guy and you didn't want to miss this next scene for anything.
I cannot say that Charles Bronson's delivery as detective Lou Torrey was memorable, but just adequate. I am not criticizing Charles Bronson who is one of my favorite action heroes (he has so many memorable and great films) but I blame a rather dull film on director Michael Winner who I believe was trying to emulate both directors Peter Yates (1968 Bullitt) and Don Siegel (1971 Dirty Harry & 1973 Charley Varrick) styles on the action screen.
If it were not for Charles Bronson starring in The Stone Killer I probably would have dropped my score down another notch or two. It's an okay crime/action film but not a memorable one. I rated The Stone Killer a 5/10.
When I was watching Charles Bronson drive recklessly through the city streets of New York as he was chasing actor Paul Koslo (the bad guy) who was riding a motorcycle, my mind immediately reflected on Steve McQueen's classic car chase scene with his 1968 Ford Mustang racing through the steep hills of San Francisco. Now THAT was a car chase that director Peter Yates made for the record books that audiences are still talking about more than 50 years later.
There was also an earlier scene in The Stone Killer where Charles Bronson who plays Detective Lou Torrey is interrogating a suspect in the police precinct behind a closed door and he punches the suspect a few times such that his suspect nicknamed Jumper (played by Jack Colvin) has his face swell up and Jumper tells Detecive Torrey "Heh, stop, you can't do that I know my rights" So Detective Torrey calls in the policeman stationed in front of the door and he asks his fellow officer if he sees any swelling or bruising on Jumper's face and the police officer says "not a thing". So we just witnessed police brutality by Charles Bronson. I bring this up because again I was reminiscing about the style that Clint Eastwood's character Harry Callaghan would dish out street justice. Clint Eastwood's style of dishing out his form of street justice was just so much more memorable than Charles Bronson's as Clint always seemed to deliver his beatings not only with gusto but you anticipated (maybe even salivated over) that Harry Callaghan was going to whup this bad guy and you didn't want to miss this next scene for anything.
I cannot say that Charles Bronson's delivery as detective Lou Torrey was memorable, but just adequate. I am not criticizing Charles Bronson who is one of my favorite action heroes (he has so many memorable and great films) but I blame a rather dull film on director Michael Winner who I believe was trying to emulate both directors Peter Yates (1968 Bullitt) and Don Siegel (1971 Dirty Harry & 1973 Charley Varrick) styles on the action screen.
If it were not for Charles Bronson starring in The Stone Killer I probably would have dropped my score down another notch or two. It's an okay crime/action film but not a memorable one. I rated The Stone Killer a 5/10.