In 1999, The Pang Brothers made film called BANGKOK DANGEROUS. People liked it. It added luster to the Brothers’ reputation. They moved on to make other action flicks in Asia with great success and other kinds of flicks in America with less success. At some point the Brothers looked at one another, and this is… Read More »
RIGHTEOUS KILL
The best performance in RIGHTEOUS KILL is not given by either of its storied leads, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. It’s not given by the solid supporting cast of Donnie Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, Carla Gugino, and Brian Dennehey, who all add a raffish interest while still seeming to pull their punches in an attempt… Read More »
OUTLANDER
Beowulf meets Erich Von Danikan in OUTLANDER, a somber tale of Vikings, monsters, and stalwart warriors. Written by some of the same folks responsible for the UNDERWORLD franchise, it boasts the same gray look, spirit, and energy. The sci-fi portion of the script comes early and is then more or less left by the wayside.… Read More »
THE AMERICAN
George Clooneys charisma and powerful screen presence have never been more integral to a film, nor used in a more futile effort, than in THE AMERICAN, a virtually silent opus that trades on Clooneys unassailable ability to seduce the camera. Based on Martin Booths novel, A Very Private Gentleman, it is less a action thriller… Read More »
IP MAN 2 — LEGEND OF THE GRANDMASTER
IP MAN 2: LEGEND OF THE GRANDMASTER finds the eponymous master newly landed in Hong Kong after the turmoil of his escape from Japanese-occupied Foshan. While the film as a whole is a graceful, yet lethal, dig at chauvinism as well as imperialism, that is no impediment to it also being both an engrossing drama… Read More »
CONTRABAND
CONTRABAND is based on the award-winning Icelandic flick REYKJAVIC-ROTTERDAM, and it is directed by the star of that film, Baltasar Kormakur. The setting has been changed from the cold North Atlantic to the sultry climes of New Orleans and Panama. The lead is now played by Mark Wahlberg. Yet the reason for the remake is… Read More »
CHERNOBYL DIARIES
CHERNOBYL DIARIES returns to many of the tropes that have made co-writer/co-producer Oren Peli famous for an exceptionally effective kind of low-budget, high-terror flicks. Unfortunately, this one isnt quite the creep fest that his PARANORMAL ACTIVITY suite was and is. While those films, particularly the first, retain a freshness that keeps the creepiness going at… Read More »
CLOUD ATLAS
CLOUD ATLAS is an ambitious film plagued with problems that garbles its overarching themes. Some of these problems stem from its makers attempting to adapt the six novellas of the original book into a film with a running time of only(?) three hours. Others are of a more puzzling nature, troublesome and unforgivable for being something… Read More »
DEAD MAN DOWN
DEAD MAN DOWN begins and ends in a blaze of gunfire. In between if focuses on the smoldering anguish of two people longing for revenge, and fighting their better natures in order to achieve it. Though rife with elements that will get it categorized as an action flick, this film aspires to be a psychological… Read More »
CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE
The problem with CRADLE 2 GRAVE, aside from the cutesy “2” in the title is very simple. Not enough Jet Li. There’s also not enough Mark Dacascos, but that’s another issue and I will get to it. As for why Li isn’t on screen every possible moment, I think I have the answer. Someone got… Read More »