It's hard to like a racist cop who's also a drunk. Obvs.
Dave: I know this film is supposed to be one of the greatest films of all time, etc., etc., but I found it to be a bit of a snoozefest. There’s virtually no backstory, we have no reason to care about any of the characters (the protagonist is a dirty cop, a drunk, and a virulent racist), and half of the movie is too dark to see much of anything accompanied by mumbled dialogue that’s impossible to hear. Maybe the critics can play the dark, grainy shots as “atmospheric” and the garbled dialogue as “gritty realism,” but it just feels cheap and half-finished. Granted, serious action films were maybe not common before The French Connection, but since Face/Off was near the top of Time Out’s list of the best action films ever made, I’m not sure they were terribly common afterwards. Towards the end of the film, I found myself wanting a bridge to collapse and swallow up all the main characters just so the film would end. Sadly, there was action/chase sequence after action/chase sequence until finally the movie skids to a sudden and unsatisfying halt. (⭐️⭐️)
Because I was trying to keep myself entertained during this monstrosity, I ate *way* too much of this popcorn. The banana pudding mixed into the chocolate candy melt was a nice touch, but the artificial quality of the banana flavoring was only slightly offset by the sweetness of the candy melt. The crunchy banana chips and walnut pieces were a nice diversion, but they were too few and far between. With different proportions of ingredients (and a little salt) this might be a 5-star recipe. Even though I kept shoveling it in, it could have been a little better. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Joe: Fifteen minutes into the film, I asked Dave if I could turn on the subtitles. For the life of me, I couldn't understand a single word anyone was saying. The French Connection was mumblecore before mumblecore was even a genre. The plot was fairly unintelligible for the first hour, probably because I missed all the contextualization(?). Once Gene Hackman started running around and chasing people, it didn't really matter what the plot was. Action sequences get me every time. Having said that, the famous epic chase sequence that seems to capture the imaginations of cinephiles everywhere was merely ok; so much is made of the baby stroller sequence, but it's a blink-and-you-miss-it-moment. It's wild that Gene Hackman won an Oscar, it's wild that this film won another four Oscars (including Best Picture!), and though I'm spent most of this review grousing, I can't say I'm sorry I watched it. I just don't think it's worth the hype. (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
We've made several popcorns from this recipe book, and based solely on the author photo and bio, I'm going to stereotype Ms. Swank. And I won't feel bad about it, because I would literally bet my paycheck I'm right. She's a squeaky-clean Mormon who wears chunky scarves and rushes to a Starbucks for a PSL the nanosecond an oak leaf falls to the ground. She has a brood of children, moonlights as a representative for Doterra, and thinks ethnic food is "too spicy". She also thinks that banana chips with melting chocolate and chopped walnuts tossed together with popcorn is a clever idea. But it's cloyingly sweet and weirdly musty. (⭐️⭐️1/2)
Popcorn recipe from: Party Popcorn by Ashton Epps Swank. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014).
The French Connection on IMDB.
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