This film means well. It tells the age-old story of an elder (an older brother in this case) trying to prevent a younger family member following him into a life of crime. Many of the elements from these stories are present, and some of them are handled well. And it’s funny, at times.
Tag: Action
Edge of Tomorrow (2014, Doug Liman)
Let’s get this out of the way: the premise – a science-fiction/action version of Ground Hog Day – is dumb. This is basically the film version of playing a video game, albeit condensed into 2 hours. But if you can get over that (and over the presence of Tom Cruise)… SPOILERS!
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015, Francis Lawrence)
I think, on some level, this is a superior film to the previous entry. I mean, for one thing, all that previous film did was set things up. This (sort of) knocks them down. I will say that, as far as these things go, this series is a little less politically naive – I stress …
Behind Enemy Lines (2001, John Moore)
A while ago I read something (perhaps at AV Club) that said this movie was underrated. I decided to “give it another chance,” wrongly thinking I had seen it already.
Outrage (2010, Takeshi Kitano)
Is this a comedy?
Bellflower (2011, Evan Glodell)
First of all, it’s really, really hard to like a movie when you don’t like any of the characters. (And I mean any.) And it’s hard to like a movie when you don’t understand why anyone does anything. These people drink all day and spend money. (And do some drugs too.) One of them appears …
Deadpool (2016, Tim Miller)
I think it’s safe to say that this is the best Marvel film outside of one or two of the X-Men sequels – the recent ones have been shockingly good. This film is funny – it’s not just mildly amusing, like Guardians of the Galaxy – and it manages to preserve the rather elliptical nature …
Big Game (2014, Jalmari Helander)
One day, I really will live tweet or live blog a movie, instead of posting my comments after the fact. I’m sorry to say that my comments below don’t have time stamps. SPOILERS! (As if that matters…)
Awaken aka A Perfect Vacation (2015, Mark Atkins)
Is this where B-movie (and C-movie) actors go to die? This movie features Darryl Hannah (though she has few lines) Edward Furlong (!!!!!!!!!!!!) Vinnie Jones (but of course) Jason London (!!!) The Robert Davi (seriously!) David Keith (!) and Christa Campbell (you’d know her to see her)
Furious 6 (2013, Justin Lin)
This is another brainless, witless addition to the series featuring ridiculous, over-the-top stunts and poor attempts at humour.
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014, Ridley Scott)
Hollywood maybe the only film industry that could view Exodus as the premise for an action movie. And make no mistake, that’s what this is. Sure, we get attempts at making this about something else – faith vs. reason, appears to be a poorly stated theme, for example – and there is character development in …
Watchmen (2009, Zack Snyder)
This is an admirable, ambitious attempt to adapt what is, for many people, The Greatest Comic of All Time. (I know others prefer some other comics, but I know that this was the first comic given serious treatment as literature by non-comic book fans.) I was mostly impressed by the attempts at fidelity and the …
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller)
It’s been years since I’ve seen the original trilogy in any kind of thorough way – since Thunderdome used to be on TV all the time, I’ve seen parts of it more than the other two – and I have to say I wasn’t keen on this movie. I hate remakes / reboots in principle …
Total Recall (2012, Len Wiseman)
Let’s get the good of this totally unnecessary remake out of the way: The production design is fantastic, worthy of Blade Runner – which it is (very) heavily inspired by – the Fifth Element, Minority Report and the equal of respected modern sci fi epics like Pacific Rim. It’s better than the original, I would …
Zero Dark Thirty (2012, Kathryn Bigelow)
Much like Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, this is a film that, at least in part, seems to aim to tell the “human” story – or the “ground truth” – of a particular conflict the US is involved in. In this case though, it’s obviously something of a little more import.
Snowpiercer (2013, Joon-ho Bong)
It’s great when genre flicks get celebrated and take on a life of their own. And I’m glad that a reasonably smart one such as this has become such a big thing (at least online). But while Snowpiercer is highly entertaining, like so many “high concept” action films, it’s flawed and it’s also kind of long …
Tokarev aka Rage (2014, Paco Cabezas)
Somewhere in this movie is an interesting comment on these mindless revenge thrillers starring middle aged men rampaging through American or European cities, usually because a child was killed or abducted. I can see the germ of that idea. And it’s an idea I love. I want to see that movie.
Battleship (2012, Peter Berg)
I briefly decided to live blog this one twitter, the first time I ever tried, but frankly I just got tired. It’s hard to know what to do with this film, produced by a toy company, “based” on a board game, and full of every single Navy movie cliche in history.
Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013, J.J. Abrams)
I was somewhat of a Star Trek fan in my youth: I watched The Next Generation pretty much all the time it was on – both new episodes and reruns – I watched DS9 and Voyager and I watched enough reruns of the original series, to the point where I probably saw a small majority …
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012, Timur Bekmambetov)
Based on the title and on some moderately positive reviews I read at the time of its theatrical release, I was actually kind of looking forward to this despite – perhaps because of – its poor box office performance. But I don’t really know where to begin.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012, Christopher Nolan)
Please note that if you are one of the few who haven’t seen this movie, like I was yesterday, this review contains some mild SPOILERS.