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‘The Corruptor’ — An Exciting, Lively 1990s Thriller
James Foley directs Mark Wahlberg and Chow Yun Fat in his surprisingly complex 1999 crime thriller
The late American director James Foley had an… interesting career to say the least. After graduating from the university of Southern California having dabbled in student short film production, Foley made a name for himself in two quite distinct ways in the early years of his career behind the camera through the mid 1980s to the early 1990s.
On one hand, Foley became popular because of his work with Madonna, co-directing a concert film of her Virgin Tour with Daniel Kleinman in 1985 and later directing Who’s That Girl (a poorly made and all around terrible romantic comedy with Madonna in the leading role), while at the same time Foley was also gaining intense critical acclaim for a series of much more serious films such as 1986’s At Close Range, 1990’s cult favourite neo-noir After Dark, My Sweet and (of course) the now iconic 1992 adaptation of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris and Alec Baldwin among others.
Foley’s career dropped off after this impressive early run, leading to the sloppy but undeniably fun (arguably so bad it’s good, though I dislike how widely this term is used in film culture…
