Episode description[edit | edit source]
The Eighty Six at Mills Multiplex - ★★★ (3 Stars)
Reviewed by Chloe M.
First of all let me just say that even though there’s an elephant in the teaser trailer for this movie, do NOT go and see it if you’re an “elephant fan”. There are TOO FEW ELEPHANTS. Other than this disappointment I thought it was alright, good chases, one or two really great fights, and, it’s always nice to see the boardwalk in a picture!! Eddy Chankul gave a great performance and so did Mason, because of course he did, he’s Mason, Lowry!
I saw the movie at Mills Multiplex and they had some sort of milk based crosspromotion going on which I didn’t mind, because I do need to drink more milk and this was sort of an action movie attached to a reminder. The screen was great and the seating was comfortable and the attendant only came in with the weird light two or three times to try and catch the person two rows down from me who was pirating the movie but they couldn’t. So I guess you could say, it was a bit of an action movie inside the theater too.
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
Helloooo Bluff City! It’s your main man with the frying pan, Jeff “The Chef” Moran, and I have cooked up for you another spicy Saturday night shlockfest, right here on Bluff City TV! It’s called The Eighty Six, and I’m telling you right now, do not sleep on this picture! It’s got Blake Blossom, that’s right, Blake Blossom from the TV! From the show with the alien baseball players! It’s got Eddie Chankul, straight from Thailand, the hottest name in martial arts today! It’s got Mason “The Face-in” Lowry! Ooh… I’m gettin’ a little warm just thinking about it! And oh! One more! It’s got Bluff City’s own, arms big as the ocean waves, muscles strong as roller coaster metal, the toughest dame to ever wear the name, Dione Gabro! Which reminds me, uh, Dione, if you ever wanna, uh, take a break from the movies, squared circle would love to have you. Come on in, love to call you a match, help you out with a finishing move or two! Ha ha! I’m kidding, I’m kidding, no self-promotion, the, uh, the producers have told me that a number of times!
In any case, The Eighty Six! This Saturday, on Bluff City TV! It’s got everything you need: corrupt cops! Crooked cops! Undercover cops! And a whole lot of soul, brother! Hoo! Gunfights and muscle busters, real estate conspiracies, and a smooth-talking white boy to boot. Oh, and did I mention? It’s based on a true story, too. Clarence B. Grimes, you hearda him? Of course you have. It’s a recipe for a blessed-ly good night! And you can trust that, or my name ain’t Jeff “The Chef” Moran! So tune in and turn on and order yourself a pizza pie, cause you are not gonna want to leave your couch! Play me out, boys! I gotta dance!”
Plot[edit | edit source]
The Eighty Six is a movie “based on a true story” prior to Millennium Black’s arrival in Bluff City. It is both set and shot in Bluff City, and is brought to you by The Milk Council.
Over the opening credits of the movie we see the rapid-fire flashbulbs of crime scene photos interspersed with fragments of conversations with Detective Sebastian Young (Mason Lowry) and Jamian Raine, an informant of Sebastian’s, setting up a meeting between Jamian and Chief Grimes. When Sargent Janis Stone (Dione Gabro) learns of the meeting, she is shocked, as it is widely known that the Chief is corrupt, and Jamian may be in danger. They look through Jamian’s file and notice that his papers have been marked as “86”, an internal reference used by corrupt officers to indicate that he has been killed.
On Friday a week later Janis, Sebastian, and Detective Max Lam (Eddy Changkul) drive towards to the Bluff City Zoo to speak to Van McLaren, one of Jamian’s friends. He greets them very unenthusiastically and says that he hasn’t seen or heard from Jamian in ten days.
Janis is surprised that Jamian would be absent for such a long period of time, as the zoo has a hippo about to give birth (something Jamian had been following very closely). Van hands over the key to Jammian’s place and tells them to check Jamian’s diary using password 451. Max asks if Jamian had spoken to anyone new recently, and Van says that Jamian frequents The Bash and that “there’s always new people there”.
They head to Jamian’s place, which appears undisturbed. Max says he believes that Jamian has left town to party but Janis insists that he would never leave with the hippo about to give birth. The team begins to search for clues, with Janis looking through the files on his computer and the other two searching the room. She finds his diary (a password-protected wordpad document).
The wordpad document is incredibly long and full of images, and takes a long time to load. Sebastian reaches around Janis to use ‘control + F’ to search for ‘chief’ (“my chief problem with Vegas is”/”the chief plot line of Rainbow Six is”/“the Kansas City Chiefs are gonna just do it this year”/”my chief concern with the pregnant hippo is”). They tab to the end of the document where Jamian references speaking to the chief.
Jamian seemed to believe that there was some kind of real estate deal to pave over the Cove and develop it into casinos (“they wanna turn the school into a casino”). Janis asks if they can make a copy of it, and Sebastian suggests that they can use one of Jamian’s CDs and overwrite it. They set the jazz drive to copy the diary file.
They hear the sound of someone fall outside, and Max looks out the basement window. He sees a group of beat cops, Elliot Jakowsky, Marty McKeen, and Oscar Season, and Janis says that they need to get out without anyone seeing them, since she wants to keep this off the books. She then starts flipping stuff over, telling Sebastian and Max to look for something to cover their faces, so they can make it look like a robbery.
Max finds a big plastic storage bin full of hippo masks, which Jamian has been designing for the birth of the baby hippos (“Bluff City Zoo: I Love Hippos” is written on the tongue of the hippo, with your face coming out of the hippo’s mouth. Jamian has priced these at $29.99).
The camera cut to the beat cops outside. The tall lanky cop kneels down to pick the lock and, hearing that, Janis kicks the door open. The force of it sends her to the ground, stunning the beat cops (“holy shit it’s a hippo!”).
Max draws his gun. The beat cops take cover, telling him to drop his weapon. Max tries to threaten them into backing off but they grab Janis, handcuffing her and begin dragging her towards the cop car. Still handcuffed, Janis fights the cops, easily breaking out of the cop’s hold on her and then breaks the handcuffs in half (Max: huh. That took longer than I expected.).
The jazz drive has finished copying, and they have a discussion about the legality of what they’re doing. Sebastian believes they should have called in their investigation, with the other two against the idea. Max puts the pig mask on one of the now-unconscious cops, and the group leaves.
They head to The Bash to try and find Evelyn Christo, Jamian’s contact. The bar is packed for dance night, with live music happening on stage (a cover of Keith Sweat’s ‘I Want Her’). Sebastian is mildly uncomfortable to be there, and walks up to the bar and tells the bartender to send a bottle to Evelyn “to let her know I’m here”.
Evelyn approaches Sebastian with the champagne and introduces herself, and the two begin flirting. Meanwhile, Max is down the bar, watching in shock as Sebastian’s charm appears to be working.
The three cops who were at Jamian’s place enter the bar wearing plain clothes and are clearly questioning people in the bar, heading towards the three of them.
Evelyn asks Sebastian about himself and he says that he works as a “numbers guy” for the casino and Evelyn says that there is going to be more work for him than before soon (“Bluff City’s going to be the next Vegas”), telling him about the planned casino developments. Sebastian, wanting to get Evelyn out of there before the cops see them, suggests that they go for a walk on the boardwalk.
As they walk towards the exit she bumps into a table, breaking a bottle, and drawing the attention of the beat cops. They don’t notice Sebastian, but they do see Max and Janis, immediately heading towards them.
Janis greets them, asking about Jakowsky’s taped up face. They tell Janis and Max about the break in, saying that they believe that it was “seven or eight” guys. They’re surprised that Janis is there since it’s not her kind of place, and she says that Max said he’d buy her a beer. The beat cops say they were out by the zoo, and ask Janis and Max if they know anything about the elephant man. Janis says she went to school with someone at the zoo, and tells them that Jamian’s mom called her saying that he’s missing and she was there looking into it as a favour to her, trying to brush off her investigation as casual.
The beat cops press the issue, questioning why Max is involved. Max says he’s doing it as a favour. The beat cops say that they don’t like Max’s tone, and Jakowsky and McKeen stand up (“you could be eighty-sixed too”). Max sips the last of his beer and leaves.
Out of the boardwalk, Sebastian and Evelyn are talking together. Sebastian directs the conversation towards the casinos again, asking if Evelyn has any contacts for the new establishments. She starts to reply, but as she does they are interrupted by the lights and siren of two boardwalk police carts who tell them that they cannot drink in public and that they will have to be arrested for a misdemeanor.
Sebastian, unwilling to reveal to Evelyn that he is a police detective, approaches with his hands up. They address him by name, and a flashback reveals that they have been following Evelyn. They tell Evelyn to come with them, and she asks Sebastian how the cops know his name (“names get around”). They tell her that Chief Grimes needs to speak to her, and she agrees to go with them.
As she’s walking away, Sebastian catches her hand and kisses it, covertly handing her a card (“parting is such sweet sorrow”). As she is driven away, the remaining cops surround him and hit him with a nightstick. Sebastian grabs that baton and hits one of the cops, but is hit by the other two cops.
Janis and Max exit the bar and see the attack on Sebastian (“what do you think, you think the kid’s got this one?” “no”). Max sees one of the cops going for his gun, and so he shoots first, hitting the hand of the cops reaching for his gun. The camera cuts to a burst of seagulls flying away as the shot rings out. Max shoots again, bringing the other cops down. Evelyn, who can only hear the sound, turns back, yelling Sebastian’s name.
Max helps Sebastian up, and Sebastian’s hand is shaking. Sebastian is upset at the display of violence. Janis approaches (“guess we’re in the shit now fellas”), and says that they won’t go to jail “if [they] make the chief go to jail first”.
The camera shows Chief Grimes, smoking a cigar at his desk as two people play chess in the foreground and others take bets on the outcome. Through the window, the Zoo Casino (an analogue to the Bluff City’s Menagerie) is visible, making it clear that Grimes, and therefore the police headquarters, operates out of a casino penthouse. Evelyn arrives and is guided into a seat across from him. One of the officers that brought Evelyn tells the chief that Evelyn was with Sebastian (“huh, the kid’s got spunk”).
Janis, Max and Sebastian regroup at the Firebird Gym. Tawny Buck (as herself) hands Sebastian a bag of frozen peas for his black eye (“you gotta learn to block kid”). Tawny tells Sebastian needs to get better at protecting himself, faking a punch at him, and Sebastian flinches, dropping the bag of peas which spills everywhere. Tawny expresses surprise that Max and Janis are associating themselves with Sebastian, and Max says he’s still learning.
Janis says they need more evidence against Grimes, as the diary isn’t enough, but that they might be able to get some by tracking down Jakowsky, McKeen and Season. Max agrees. Sebastian, having cleaned up the spilled peas, says that he believes that they need to find the people with the money behind Grimes, as they will be a weaker point than Grimes himself. Tawny agrees with this plan, as if the Porcheli family (analogue to Bluff City’s Veranda family) believe the chief’s hold on the town is slipping, they will withdraw their support.
Before they leave the Firebird Gym, Sebastian’s beeper goes off with a message from an out-of-town area code. Sebastian calls back, and Evelyn answers. The camera pulls back to reveal that she’s still in the chief’s office. He indicates to her that she should keep talking. Evelyn tells Sebastian that there’s a secret area that can be accessed by pulling a tusk on one of the animals in the Africa wing.
She hangs up, and asks Grimes if he will promise to keep his word and the chief agrees, implying that he would rather recruit Sebastian than kill him.
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Austin Walker
- Janine Hawkins (Detective Sebastian Young / Mason Lowry)
- Andrew Lee Swan (Sargent Janis Stone / Dione Gabro)
- Sylvia Clare (Detective Max Lam / Eddy Changkul)