Reviews

Do you remember that Demi Moore film version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER where they added sex, violence, and a happy ending? If you do remember that, this movie is pretty much the same thing. It's a remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic 1954 film about four desperate men transporting highly volatile nitroglycerine over rocky terrain to extinguish a South American oil drill fire. That film was intelligent, well-crafted, and featured some of the most suspenseful scenes in film history. This remake takes that masterpiece, dispenses with any subtext, and pours on muscular action in the vein of THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS franchise. As dumb as that sounds, it's entertaining enough. Also, I'll admit to having a soft spot for the ridiculous Demi Moore Hawthorn films (it may have my favorite John Barry score), but if you want an actually good remake of the Clouzot film, check out William Friedkin's 1977 version, THE SORCERER, which manages to equal Clouzot's original in both intelligence and nail-biting suspense.

Not quite as good as I remember (and nowhere as great as Gregg Allman's magnificent mane of blond hair), but strong performances by Jason Patrick and Jennifer Jason Leigh as undercover Texas NARCS make the film compelling. The film is also greatly aided by a cast populated with terrific dirtbag characters. Gregg Allman is a standout as the near-mute local drug dealer they are trying to take down, but my favorite dirtbag is an overall-wearing William Sadler as a creepy pill popper who wants to "party" with Leigh in a very uncomfortable scene. But you also get Max Perlich, who I totally forgot about but who seemed to be in everything in the 90s, along with Sam Elliott, and everyone's favorite sweaty redneck Dennis Burkley, who was in everything from WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE to STEWARDESS SCHOOL to classy stuff (still playing a dirtbag) like MASK or THE DOORS. And Special K. McCray is super memorable as a terrifying velour wearing drug dealer who forces Leigh into shooting up, but looking at his filmography, he only ever appeared in two other movies. Overall, the performance by Patrick and Leigh makes the film, but watching a 1990s recreation of the 1970s if also pretty fun, even if the film is a little too "this is your brain on drugs."

I was pretty excited to see this movie. I'd just recently rewatched Mario Van Peebles' first film as a director, NEW JACK CITY, and it was much stronger than I remember. I enjoyed NEW JACK CITY when it first came out, but found it over-directed, though I did appreciate that its core was straight out of classic Warner Bros gangster movies, ALA Cagney and Bogart, but updated for a modern political context, particularly among the African American community. Van Peebles followed that movie up with the western POSSE, which also had an activist political edge to it. Nearly 30 years later, Van Peebles returns with OUTLAW POSSE, not a sequel, but maybe a spiritual sequel (probably due to a rights issue), playing another equally cool and anachronistically hip cowboy who returns after 20 years to seek a hidden cache of stolen gold before assorted other bad guys can get. The film starts strong with a cool spaghetti western vibe, but that quickly fades as the story slows to a rather dull pace. Still, Van Peebles brings some exciting visuals to the proceedings and many uber-cool actors appear in bit parts, probably more as a favor to Van Peebles than for a paycheck in this modestly budgeted film, which is pretty cool of them. Whoopi Goldberg, Cedric the Entertainer, Edward James Olmos, Allen Payne, Neal McDonough, and M. Emmet Walsh in his final film role all appear in bit parts. Overall, OUTLAW POSSE is worth watching for fans of westerns and/or fans of 80s/90s throwback nostalgia, but it's nothing brilliant and I'm not sure I'll ever feel the need to rewatch it.

I love how this film is not a loving homage to the Mad Max films like DOOMSDAY was, but is instead a loving tribute to the many low-budget ripoff films, like EXTERMINATORS IN THE YEAR 2000 or BATTLETRUCK or my personal favorite WHEELS OF FIRE. I loved these moves as a kid and love them just as much today. Author Brian Keene had a great observation that these warriors-of-the-wasteland films offer the same sort of wish fulfillment to Gen-X that westerns offered Baby Boomers, with a man alone in a lawless world finding their way. This film taps into that more than any other by making the main character a teenager and somehow manages to be a film you could describe as "sweet" which is not how you would describe almost every other Mad Max ripoff, which were nearly all decidedly pretty rough. Anyhow, this film is an unbelievable treat for anyone who loves these types of films. Below is my review from the first time I watched TURBO KID in 2016.

5-14-16 Turbo Kid (2015) **** A love letter to 80s post-apocalyptic films is kind of "Mad Max" meets the "BMX Bandits," though I think this film was likely more honoring goofy post-apocalyptic films like "Solarbabies" or "Hell Comes to Frogtown" than "The Road Warrior." Regardless, this tale is set in the distant future of 1997 when acid rain makes drinkable water a scarce resource, our teen hero finds a special red outfit and decides to become a superhero of the wastelands. He meets a cute girl named Apple, who then gets captured by the evil Michael Ironside, who plays Zeus (in a very similar role to what he played in "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" as Overdog). The film is slickly made and presents a beautifully shot acid rain-soaked wasteland. Probably best of all is a terrific 80s-style score by Le Matos, which I plan to listen to repeatedly (and that theme song is 80s AMAZING!). My main complaint about the film is the unneeded gore. I consider myself a bit of a gorehound and quite enjoy some Tom Savini or Rob Bottin special effects now and then, so it isn't that I'm opposed to a gory movie, but the tone of this film was so light and silly (very nearly a family film) that the blood and gore seemed very out of place, even when it was done in a very comic Peter Jackson over-the-top sort of way. Also, most of the warriors-of-the-wasteland films to which this movie is paying homage were never all that gory. Yes, they were violent, but they were rarely what I would call gory. Still, that's a minor quibble considering warriors-of-the-wasteland post-apocalyptic films of the 80s are probably my all-time favorite subgenre, anytime a film is wanting to revisit this unique setting, I'm all for it! I can't wait to see what comes next for writer/directors François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell (which apparently is a short film called "Ninja Eliminator 4: The French Connection").

Francis Ford Coppola (THE GODFATHER, APOCALYPSE NOW, THE CONVERSATION, BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, etc.) is an inarguable master filmmaker. Since 2000 he's only made four films and I haven't seen any of them until now. Originally released as TWIXT, this version, B'TWIXT NOW AND SUNRISE, is a re-edited director's cut of the film that's shorter than the original. I never saw the original cut, so I can't compare, but I can say I enjoyed this oddball low-budget film. Val Kilmer plays a barely famous horror writer stopping by a small town for a book signing and then becomes intrigued by a local murder mystery involving a young girl and possibly vampires. Kilmer is good, as always, and Bruce Dern plays the colorful over-the-top sheriff (and wannabe horror novelist). There's also a great supporting cast that includes Elle Fanning as a ghost/vampire/murder victim, David Paymer as Kilmer's agent, and Joanne Whalley (Kilmer's real-life ex-wife) playing his ex-wife, which is delightfully meta and funny. The entire film feels like Coppola is doing a goof and just having fun. After watching the behind-the-scenes documentary by his granddaughter Gia Coppola, I feel even more convinced of that or maybe it's just that Coppola runs a very casual relaxed set. It doesn't feel as substantial or weighty as his other work, but Coppola is a master filmmaker and you can see it in his frame compositions, the way scenes cut together, and the dreamlike quality he brings to the film, even if the material seems rather light and inconsequential. Overall, I'm not sure I'd recommend this film to anyone outside of Coppola or Kilmer die-hards, but I count myself as one on both parts, so this film worked for me.

Grim slow-burn Southern Noir is just too grim to enjoy or to enlighten. A down-on-her-luck single mom is hooking her way across the south going from truck stop to truck stop, daughter in tow, trying to get back home to Mississippi. When she's arrested and then assaulted by a dirty cop, she shoots him in self-defense and then goes on the run. As with most noir thrillers, things spiral downward from there. There are loads of secondary characters and subplots that probably worked for a novel but should have been eliminated or trimmed down for a film, which is probably a result of the novel's author adapting his work and not wanting to let anything go. However, in the film's favor, Willa Fitzgerald, who plays the hard-luck single mother, and who is a new actress to me is fantastic. Even though I felt somewhat distant from the material, she draws the audience into her character and is now an actress who I can't wait to see in more films. I also very much appreciated the look and style of the film and director Nadine Crocker's choice to focus on actors and atmosphere over showy camera stylistics, which is atypical of most neo-noirs. She too is someone who I want to see more of and plan to watch her one previous film. Mel Gibson is another standout, playing the religious father of a recently released ex-con. Overall, DESPERATION ROAD is well crafted and features some stellar dialogue by Michael Farris Smith, but is rather meandering, so unrelentingly grim it was hard to enjoy, and a slow-burn film that failed ever catch fire. Still, it's worth checking out.

Not as bad as I was expecting. Nowhere as good as I was hoping. Slightly better than meh. Director/Co-Writer Zach Snyder (DAWN OF THE DEAD, SUCKER PUNCH, MAN OF STEEL) originally pitched this to Lucasfilms as a new Star Wars trilogy, but when they declined, Netflix took him up and produced this lavish space opera, telling the story of a small farming village on the outskirts of the galaxy coming under the heel of a fascist high tech galactic empire. When the villagers decline help the empire (here called the Imperium) they are told they will return at the end of the season, take all of their crops, and leave them to perish. That's pretty much the same set up as THE SEVEN SAMURAI, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN , and even Roger Corman's excellent Star Wars knockoff BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (which a young James Cameron did the special effects for). A young village woman, who turns out to be a former high ranking Imperium soldier hiding out after betraying them, goes on a mission to find mercenaries to help the villagers fight the Imperium. This sets in motion a set of vignettes, just as the earlier mentioned films did, where each warrior gets their scenes to show off their skills before being asked to help the village. Snyder as a director doesn't seem to bring much original to his material in therms of story, plot, or character, which is certainly true here, but he does have a strong visual flare he brings to all of his films, so they're never boring to look at, even if the materials is rather tepid. I'll be curious to see where this story goes following this film and plan to watch Part Two when it comes out, but I doubt REBEL MOON is definitely not going to be the next Star Wars.

Mild-mannered minister's wife Barbara Crampton (RE-ANIMATOR, CHOPPING MALL) gets bitten by a vampire and all sorts of horrors and dark comedy ensure. What this film does well is it finds a new take on the oft-told vampire tale. The story of Crampton getting bit and slowly turning into a vampire stands in for a story about infidelity and mid-life crisis (she was about to make out with an old boyfriend when she got bit). Crampton finds a new zest for life as a vampire but comes to realize it's at the expense of her 30-year marriage. When she and her husband argue about how she's ashamed of what happened but likes who she is now and how she has changed works perfectly in parallel as if they were discussing her cheating and not wanting to go back to the way things were before. Will she choose a new life with The Master or will she and her husband work together to overcome what happened between her and the vampire? On a pure horror level, I loved the design of the vampire, which reminded me of the rat-like vampire of the 1970s TV mini-series version of Stephen King's SALEM'S LOT (and naming the locale "Kinski County" was a nice nod to NOSFERATU THE VAMIRE (1979). The movie also delivers plenty of fun practical gory special effects. And music by composer Tara Busch is fantastic, and this is her first film credit. Released by Shudder, they are really on a roll for making consistently smart, low-budget horror films. They're like the scrappy underdog version of Blumhouse. JAKOB'S WIFE is not going to be for all tastes, but it is a lot of fun for fans of off-beat horror.

Lately, I've been going back to watch big blockbuster action films I skipped when they originally came out and this Tom Cruise / Cameron Diaz action comedy was one of them. I skipped this because Tom Cruise seriously bugs me, even though I usually enjoy his movies despite him. In this film, Cameron Diaz plays a regular gal who gets mixed up with disavowed secret agent Tom and comedy ensures ALA BIRD ON A WIRE or MR. AND MRS. SMITH. Cruise's secret agent is similar to Peter Falk's character in THE IN-LAWS, where you weren't sure if he was telling the truth or just full of it. Directed by James Mangold, who'd previously made the excellent COP LAND and WALK THE LINE, and who would later go on to direct LOGAN and FORD V FERRARI, so we're in good hands, though the script doesn't offer much in terms of character or story and it mostly just goofy action. Overall, it's not bad, but it's certainly not a film I'll ever feel the need to revisit.

Hands down the best Godzilla movie ever produced! What makes this one stand apart is that the parts between the Godzilla attacks are the best part of the movie, which is pretty much the exact opposite of every other Godzilla movie. Up until this point, GODZILLA FINAL WARS had been my favorite because it's essentially non-stop rubber-suited-Godzilla wreaking havoc. Without spoiling too much of the plot for this film, set in post-WWII Japan, it offers a bit of a wish-fulfillment storyline for the people of Japan to fight an honorable war and find redemption in fighting Godzilla instead of fighting on the side of the Axis Powers. In a town leveled to rubble by world war, a disgraced kamikaze pilot returns to rebuild his life, living in a shack and helping a woman who is taking care of an orphaned infant. It's a terrific melodrama and had me completely hooked. I could have cared less about when the next Godzilla attack came and just wanted to follow these characters as they put their lives back together. The brilliance of GODZILLA MINUS ONE is that when the people of Japan rally together in the face of Godzilla, the audience too can celebrate the main characters finding redemption and becoming whole again. I was completely taken by surprise by how invested I was in the characters, which is generally not why you go to a Godzilla film, but the Godzilla scenes themselves delivered the goods as well, right down to playing the original Godzilla rampage music, which was a nice touch. It is a CGI Godzilla, which I'm not a huge fan of and I do have a preference for a rubber-suit-Godzilla smashing miniature cities, though I'm not sure that would have worked for this film (if you do want that, GODZILLA FINAL WARS is my favorite film with rubber-suit-Godzilla-mayhem). I think my only rub on the film is that the post-war melodrama and kaiju monster movie mash-up felt incongruous at times, though both the melodrama and kaiju monster story and execution are excellent and managed to tie together nicely, they also felt like they were interrupting each other at other times. Still, GODZILLA MINUS One is a surprisingly moving film and can't believe I legitimately felt choked up at the end of a Godzilla movie. Check this one out on the big screen if you can!

I was fairly unimpressed with David Gordon Green's HALLOWEEN trilogy, so I wasn't going into this film with that high of expectations for this horror revival, especially given its tepid reviews, but I found this film truly terrible. It's an alright set-up, with two girls disappearing in the woods and when they return three days later with no memory of what happened to them begin to exhibit signs of being possessed and start what could be an intriguing mystery. Unfortunately, what does unfold is weak attempts at aping the best stylistics of the original EXORCIST film, underdeveloped characters, and nothing that felt remotely scary. Having recently rewatched the original EXORCIST, the original film had its power in the characters struggling with faith, but when you're not invested in the characters, it's hard to care about what happens to them and little to be scared for them about. However, it was a treat to have Ellen Burstyn return as Chris MacNeil (she initially turned down their offer, so they doubled it and she accepted and donated her salary to an Actors Studio scholarship fun), but even then, her character is pretty superfluous to the plot. This is a "requel" that I hope ends with this film and doesn't endure. FUN FACT! On William Friedkin's passing, writer and film critic, Ed Whitfield posted this on Twitter (X) and Facebook: "William Friedkin once said to me, 'Ed, the guy who made those new Halloween sequels is about to make one to my movie, The Exorcist. That's right, my signature film is about to be extended by the man who made Pineapple Express. I don't want to be around when that happens. But if there's a spirit world, and I can come back, I plan to possess David Gordon Green and make his life a living hell.'" Friedkin died two months before the movie was released.

A friend rented out a theater the week before Christmas for a big screen viewing of this holiday classic (I dressed up like a minor character Uli) and it was fantastic to get to see this on the big screen once again and with an audience, which I hadn't experienced since high school when I saw it in the theater with my dad back when the movie first came out. The crowd was filled with quite a few twenty-somethings who'd never seen the film before (which seems unbelievable to this old Gen-Xer) but that made it even more fun to experience the film with an audience laughing and reacting to all the right parts in this almost 40-year-old movie! Everyone laughed at Theo and Karl betting in the background whether Mr. Takagi could give up the computer passcode or when Asian terrorist Uli takes a candy bar out of the display case. You could feel the audience squirm as John McClane pulled glass out of his feet. They laughed at all the right parts and cheered at all the right moments. It reminded me of how movies are best enjoyed as a communal experience. When DIE HARD first came out, everyone rolled their eyes at Bruce Willis being an action hero. Up until that point, action heroes were musclebound unstoppable he-men along the lines of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Sure there were some non-musclebound ones too, like Clint Eastwood or Harrison Ford, but they were certainly not comedians, which is what Bruce Willis was primarily known for at this time. Before DIE HARD, he was really only known for the hit TV series MOONLIGHTING (if you haven't seen it, it's on Hulu right now) and one Blake Edwards comedy (which wasn't a box office hit). The studio originally offered the part of McClane to Stallone and Schwarzenegger, but the film is a classic because of Willis. He made McClane a vulnerable character, who does get hurt and who could be killed. Willis eventually became an unstoppable action hero like Sly and Arnold, which may be lost on audiences watching this film for the first time now, but back then, Willis was just that goofy guy from TV trying the best he could to save people from bad guys.

But I haven't said anything about DIE HARD itself. Everyone knows the story, so I won't summarize it here, but if you somehow have never seen it before, stop what you're doing right now and watch it! Bruce Willis is effortlessly funny, vulnerable, and heroic all at the same time, which is a nice contrast to most action heroes of the 80s who would only wisecrack one-liners and would never dare to be self-deprecating. Though as great as Willis is, Alan Rickman steals every scene he's in as lead bad guy Hans Gruber. He gets some great lines and character touches from the script, like complimenting Mr. Takagi on his suit or when he pretends to be a hostage, but it's Rickman's refined air that elevates the film. The class Rickman brings to his character is a fun contrast to Willis' blue-collar hero. And what a killer supporting cast, that includes Reginald VelJohnson as Sgt. Al Powell, Paul Gleason playing another jerk, this time the clueless Deputy Police Commissioner, William Atherton as a nasty TV reporter, Hart Bochner as a coke-snorting executive, Alexander Gudunov as terrorist Karl, the great Al Leong (you've seen him in just about every iconic 80s action film), Robert Davi & Grand L. Bush as Agents Johnson and Johnson, and De'voreaux White as Argyle, who I don't remember from anything else, but who was apparently in THE BLUES BROTHERS and TRESPASS when I looked him up on IMDB. DIE HARD is a a witty and clever script from Steven E. De Souza and Jeb Stuart, who both mostly write passable dreck unless their films were made by solid directors like Walter Hill (48HRS), Andrew Davis (THE FUGITIVE), or John McTiernan here with DIE HARD, so I'm giving McTiernan credit to making this film what it is. Credit also has to go to ace cinematographer Jan de Bont, who shot such classics as BLACK RAIN, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, and BASIC INSTINCT, and would later go on to direct himself, with SPEED being his one standout film. Top it all off with a memorable score by 80s mainstay composter Michael Kaman (LETHAL WEAPON, THE DEAD ZONE, ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, HIGHLANDER, BRAZIL, etc.) and you have the makings for a classic. Overall, DIE HARD is an absolute 80s action classic, and yes, DIE HARD is a Christmas movie!

This was my first Scott Adkins letdown of a movie, but I think that's because even though he is featured prominently on the cover art for the film, he's barely in it and only has about two fight scenes. The story is basically a DEATH WISH setup that takes place in Bangkok, with an ex-covert operative, Dustin Nguyen (the Asian guy from the original 21 JUMP STREET series) hunting down the people responsible for killing his daughter. I had hopes for this movie since it featured an interesting cast that included martial arts regular Gary Daniels (THE EXPENDABLES), Kane Kosugi, the real-life son of 80s ninja movie mainstay Shô Kosugi (ENTER THE NINJA, REVENGE OF THE NINJA, NINJA III: THE DOMINATION, NINE DEATHS OF THE NINJA, etc.), and also Adkins (ACCIDENT MAN, JOHN WICK 4, who I have been binging on lately. The fight scenes are well choreographed but poorly shot, with too many cuts and not giving the audience a clear picture of what's happening. Unless you're a die-hard 21 JUMP STREET fan or a Scott Adkins completionism, skip this one.

An LAPD cop goes after a powerful drug dealer, Richard Norton, following him to Portland, Oregon. The best part of this film is the cop has to face off with Norton's henchmen, the near-mute actor Bolo Yeung (the beefy villain from iconic martial arts classics ENTER THE DRAGON and BLOODSPORT). Watching this early 90s martial arts flick, I think I was most excited to realize it was filmed in Portland, Oregon when I spotted Mr. Hood in the background of one shot, which means Bolo Yeung and Richard Norton were in Oregon at some point! This is only one of two films that lead actor Britton K. Lee appeared in. He's a pretty terrible actor and martial artist, so I'm pretty sure he only got the part because he also served as a producer on the film. Director by Robert Clouse, director of the seminal Bruce Lee film ENTER THE DRAGON, I'd have hoped for better, though outside of that film, Clouse never made another descent film (unless you want to include GYMKATA, which needs to be seen to be believed! I will admit I'm a sucker for THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR though.). Although this film was made in the '90s, it has a strong 80s vibe to it, featuring Jazzercize, loads of synthesizer music, and some terrific 80s hairdos and fashion, which did add to the film's entertainment value, but overall this is a so-bad-it's-good type of action flick that I quite enjoyed, but probably only die-hard Bolo and Norton fans will be entertained by this one.

In the words of Rex Reed, "Liam Neeson's family is in danger yet again." An extortionist of some sort puts a bomb in Liam Neeson's car, holding him and his two children hostage, threatening to blow up the car if they get out or don't follow his increasingly dangerous instructions. It's a decent premise along the lines of SPEED or PHONE BOOTH, but this movie is dullsville. Neeson is such a good actor he makes the film almost watchable, but that's about it. Do yourself a favor and skip this Liam Neeson outing, where his main set of skills seems to be talking on the phone and telling his kids in the back seat to mind him.

I've been going on a Scott Adkins/Jesse V. Johnson binge lately, which all got started with the excellent comedy/action film ACCIDENT MAN, its sequel, and then moved on to TRIPLE THREAT, and the two DEBT COLLECTOR movies. What made those films work so well were terrific fight sequences and a breezy light tone. AVENGEMENT suffered from trying to play it too seriously and not pulling it off. There are still terrific fight scenes, but the film doesn't earn the dramatic impact it's aspiring to. The story has Adkins busting out of prison to get revenge on the person who put a hit out on him while in stir. The film is primarily told in flashbacks to the events building up to Adkins's escape, but this SCUM or BRONSON wannabe is a far cry from being the British gangster film it aspires to. The fight scenes in the film, and there are plenty of them, are still jaw-droopingly brilliant, but the plot, characters, and drama all seem half-baked. Still, the final pub brawl is a real showstopper and absolutely worth watching! Overall, the only reason to watch AVENGEMENT is for the great fight scenes but stick with S. Craig Zahler's far superior BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 if you want a tough, lean, mean prison brawler flick.

Just a terrible fourth entry in the at-one-point fun Expendables franchise. I had some hope for this entry since it was going to be Rated R after the misguided attempt by part 3 to go with a family-friendly PG-13, and also the fact that Tony Jaa (ONK-BAK) and Iko Uwais (THE RAID) were added to the cast. Unfortunately, this 4th entry was just dull, by the numbers, and poorly made. Parts 1 and 2 were both fun and the 3rd film was disappointing but passable. This 4th entry is just bad. First, Stallone is barely in the film and it's also the first film in the series he didn't work on as a writer (seriously, Sly is a very good and underrated screenwriter). Worst of all is that even though the action is bloody and Rated-R, it's all CGI and bad CGI at that. The film's finale takes place aboard a ship at sea, but it's painfully obvious it's a set with a REALLLLLLLY bad 90s-era green screen. I never thought The Expendables would like a direct-to-video Steven Seagal film, but that's exactly what this film felt like despite its stellar cast (Statham, Stallone, Dolph, Randy Couture, 50 Cent, Megan Fox, Jaa, Uwais, and Andy García). Do yourself a favor and do not subject yourself to the disappointment of EXPEND4BLES. Instead, watch Stallone's under-seen BULLET TO THE HEAD for a fun 80s-style meat-head action flick throwback.

Star Scott Adkins and director Jesse V. Johnson's eighth film together. What I've learned from watching several of their films lately is that they are breezy, unpretentious, and have way above-average fight scenes. The shootouts are average, but the hand-to-hand fight sequences are seriously just as good as anything in JOHN WICK. I know Adkins is a solid action star outside of Johnson's films, as seen by his memorable part in JOHN WICK 4 (wearing a fat suit) as the obese and limber gambler Killa, but I need to watch something by Johnson without Adkins to see if he handles action scenes as well without his star. In this film in particular, Adkins and Louis Mandylor once again team up to collect a bunch of debts and get into a lot of fights. One alleyway brawl seemed to make nods to John Carpenter's THEY LIVE, which was fun. I think the main disappointment with the film was that it chose to end with a rather average shootout instead of a hand-to-hand knockdown fight, which is what Adkins and Johnson excel at.

Super surprised that Simon Yam (FULL CONTACT, NAKED KILLER) and Bolo Yeung (BLOODSPORT, ENTER THE DRAGON) would be in such a badly made movie. Hong Kong made plenty of cheaply made low-budget action flicks, but this one is just incompetent. The story is basically a rip-off of BLOODSPORT and even casts Bolo as the villain again, this time playing Chang Lee, the Vietnamese Snake. The film gets one star because Bolo is still pretty awesome in the few scenes he had in the flick. It's also a film that can certainly be enjoyed on a so-bad-it's-good level (some of the training sequences are laugh-out-loud bad), which may earn it up to two stars of inadvertent entertainment.

Fun little action flick with underrated action star Scott Adkins. This time he plays a martial arts school owner who's down on his luck and takes on a job as a debt collector for a shady loanshark. This leads to a series of fight sequences where he has to collect money with a grizzled veteran debt collector he's partnered with, Louis Mandylor (brother of Costa). The story is dumb but serviceable, but the two leads are charming, particularly Mandylor, and who are we kidding, it's the fight sequences that make this film worth watching, which is true of the other collaborations I've watched recently from the director Jesse V. Johnson and star Adkins. As a director, Johnson is right up there with JOHN WICK director Chad Stahelski when it comes to fight sequences, though Johnson still needs to work on characterization and story, which Stahelski is far better at. Still, what this film lacks in story and character it makes up for with ass-kicking. Michael Paré also appears in the film, which is fun for 80s action film fans.

TRIPLE THREAT has a weak story about a socialite targeted by a crime syndicate and a team of mercenaries trying to stop them. That serves as the impetus for a string of wildly good action scenes featuring the stars of ONG BAK (Tony Jaa), THE RAID (Iko Uwais), ACCIDENT MAN (Scott Adkins), and BLACK DYNAMITE (Michael Jai White). This is only the third film I've watched from director Jesse V. Johnson, but I am super impressed by how he handles hand-to-hand martial arts fight sequences. Story, plot, and character not so much, but he handles action just as well as fellow stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski. Martial arts action film fans will 100% be entertained by this one!

Often labeled an anti-war film, I'd frame this film as more focused on the absurdity of war, much like Kubrick's later masterpiece, DR. STRANGELOVE. Kirk Douglas plays Col. Dax, an idealistic WWI French officer tasked with leading his troops on a suicide mission to take a fortified German "anthill" all so a general can get a promotion. When the mission fails, the general has three of the soldiers put on trial for cowardice, and Douglas serves as their defense attorney. Based on real-life events, PATHS OF GLORY features some of the most harrowing battle scenes ever committed to film. Unlike more sensationalistic war films, such as ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT or the films of Sam Fuller, Kubrick's cold documentarian eye captures all the horror of the battlefield, feeling both real and shocking. PATHS OF GLORY also features from of Kubrick's best use of tracking shots outside of THE SHINING, with Douglas stone-faced marching through the trenches ahead of battle (a nice contrast to when the cowardly general walks the same trenches earlier in the film). Douglas chews the scenery like the Hollywood royalty he is and shows up every actor he shares a scene with. Oddball character actor Timothy Carey (a personal favorite) is the only other actor who comes close to stealing a scene from Douglas, playing one of the soldiers on trial (Watch Carey's film he wrote, directed, and starred in, THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER, to see how offbeat he really could be!). Ralph Meeker has never been better playing one of the soldiers on trial. The third soldier on trial is played by Joe Turkel, best known as Lloyd in Kubrick's THE SHINING and Dr. Eldon Tyrell in BLADE RUNNER. George Macready is deliciously slimy as the ambitious general who's willing to climb the ranks even at the expense of hundreds of his men's lives. For me, what makes this film arguably Kubrick's best is that it offers a rare instance of emotion and humanity. An oft-criticism of Kubrick's films is that they are cold, calculating, and sterile, which is a fair assessment (and not necessarily a negative), but without spoiling the film's ending, which is not a typical Hollywood ending by any means, is one that won't leave a dry eye in the house (featuring the future wife of Kubrick, Christiane Kubrick, billed as Susanne Christian). PATHS OF GLORY is a tough, emotionally raw, searing indictment on the absurdity of war that is essential viewing for cinephiles. FUN FACT! Douglas had it written into his contract for this film that there would be one scene where he is shirtless.

As a kid, I was obsessed with this movie, the story of a slave turned gladiator turned rebel army leader taking on the Roman Empire. From the film's opening with an amazing Saul Bass title sequence (he's the guy responsible for title sequences for everything from VERTIGO to BIG, to GOODFELLAS and even Hanna-Barbera "swirling star" logo and also AT&T's original globe logo) to the soaring Alex North score, the movie had me excited from the get-go to see it once again on the big screen. I'd watched it many times on TV as a kid and got to see the 1991 re-release of the restored version (adding back the infamous "oysters and snails" scene where Laurence Olivier tries to seduce his slave Tony Cutis (Anthony Hopkins did uncredited dubbing for Olivier for the restored scene, who had been suggested by Olivier's widow, Joan Plowright), so it had been over 30 years since I'd last seen this on the big screen when a local art house theater kicked off a Stanley Kubrick film festival with this classic. Kirk Douglas is in full movie star mode as Spartacus, showing off his athleticism as well as his scenery-chewing acting chops and holding his own with some acting heavyweights, including Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, John Ireland, along with Woody Strode and Charles McGraw. Also in the film are Jean Simmons, Tony Curtis, John Dall, Herbert Lom, and John Gavin. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this is the only film he made where he did not have complete creative control and it shows. It is the least Kubrick-like of his entire filmography. There are touches here and there, such as some great tracking shots or the use of foreground objects, but this is basically a well-made studio programmer. However, it's fascinating to see a true auteur director such as Kubrick working as a director-for-hire. While the film lacks his usual trademarks and interesting subtexts, it's still a terrifically entertaining film. I'd compare it to when Steven Soderbergh decides he's going to make OCEAN'S ELEVEN or MAGIC MIKE. Sure they're not as thought-provoking as TRAFFIC or SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE, but they're reliably entertaining (LUCKY LOGAN, anyone?). SPARTACUS is one of the better Hollywood epics and may arguably be the best. Douglas was reportedly miffed when he was passed over for BEN-HUR and decided to produce and star in this film in response. SPARTACUS does drag in some parts and I never did buy the plot line where Olivier was obsessed with Spartacus' wife. I got that he did it to spite Spartacus, but that he was actually in love with her is just ridiculous melodrama and it is elements such as this, or Curtis wanting to prove himself as a warrior and not just a "singer of songs" that drag the film down. Still, even though it's filled with corny melodrama you'd never expect in a Stanley Kubrick film and is painfully overlong, clocking it at almost three and a half hours, it's still a rousing adventure film and a real treat to see on the big screen.

The first ACCIDENT MAN film really took me by surprise with how good of action sequences it had and this bigger budgeted sequel is even better! This sequel has hitman Adkins now living in Malta (probably cheaper to shoot a movie there) where he's forced to protect the idiotic son of a mafia boss. That setup allows for a rogue's gallery of colorful hitmen attempting to kill the mafioso's offspring and for Adkins to fight them off in a string of fight sequences. This sequel also leans more into comedy, which makes the film feel more like a Jackie Chan action/comedy, which also benefits the film. Most importantly, the fight sequences are even better than in the original, which is really saying something considering how good the fights were in the first film (rivaling JOHN WICK in my opinion). Interestingly, Adkins would one year later appear in JOHN WICK 4 (in a fat suit) in the memorable role of Killa, the corpulent head of the German branch of The High Table and a mob boss in Berlin. But overall, ACCIDENT MAN 2: HITMAN'S HOLIDAY is a must-see for fans of martial arts action.

This film really took me by surprise. I listened to the "Movies That Made Me" podcast with star/co-writer Scott Adkins and decided I'd watch one of his films. For a direct-to-video action flick, this film nearly rivals JOHN WICK when it comes to fantastic fight sequences. That's not hyperbole. This film seriously kicks ass! Adkins plays a hitman who specializes in making his hits look like accidents, but when a loved one is killed, he takes on his employer and fellow hitmen to find out who's responsible. Based on a comic by legendary British comic book writer Pat Mills (Judge Dredd, ABC Warriors, Sláine), the film imbues a light comic tone, not taking itself too seriously, but delivers wildly good action sequences, which are greatly aided by a cast of talented martial artists and stuntmen, including Ray Park (Darth Maul), Michael Jai White (Spawn), and stuntwoman Amy Johnston as "Jane the Ripper". Ray Stevenson (PUNISHER: WAR ZONE) also appears in the film as a mentor figure to Adkins. Although modest in budget, this film delivers action FAR better than anything you're going to find in most big-budget Hollywood action flicks. This one is a must-see for action fans and makes me want to check out more films with Adkins and director Jesse V. Johnson.