So many things about the new Chopping Mall Blu-ray make me happy. I love that Lionsgate is bringing back Vestron Video, a logo I saw oh so many times on VHS growing up. I love seeing the exteriors of the Beverly Center in 1986 and the interiors of the Sherman Oaks Galleria that was destroyed […]
The Brothers Grimsby is in my top 10 for the year. This sort of inappropriate comedy done right should be celebrated. It commits so hard to being inappropriate and never backs down, even if it’s not for you, you should appreciate how it does what it does on an aesthetic level. I got a MacGrubery […]
I’d always meant to watch Fatal Beauty and the new Blu-ray release of it gave me the perfect excuse. The idea of Whoopi Goldberg as a wise cracking action hero sounded like a good feminist take on ‘80s action, but there’s a reason it did not become a franchise and Goldberg found more success in […]
Since moviemaking technology has advanced, filmmakers have been attempting new techniques to engage the audience. I think a philosophical mistake has been to make movies approximate real life more, whether with 3D picture or more chaotic cinematography. Movies aren’t supposed to look like real life. The camera is not our eyes. The camera is a […]
As Franchise Fred, I’m hesitant about reboots. When necessary, they can be as good as Casino Royale or Batman Begins, but every time there’s a reboot, it means the franchise has given up on further sequels. Fortunately, I’m not too hung up on continuity for the Transporter series. As long as there’s a British guy […]
As a second attempt to bring the video game to cinema, Agent 47 learned its lessons from the first Hitman movie. Where HItman was happy to be derivative of the genre movies that inspired the game, Agent 47 takes those inspirations and pushes them to gleefully insane degrees. So we begin with the arms outstretched double […]
The Mission: Impossible movie franchise has allowed each director to bring their own personal style to an impossible mission, and Rogue Nation is decidedly the most Christopher McQuarrie Mission: Impossible we’ve seen. It’s got all the action spectacle of a Mission: Impossible but gives the spectacle more weight. Considering Tom Cruise hanging from the plane […]
Scott Adkins’ new movie is called Close Range and if you’ve seen Adkins fight, you know bad guys wouldn’t want to get within striking distance of him. Adkins plays Colton MacReady, a retired special forces agent who rescues his niece from kidnappers, only to find the cartel who took her teaming up with corrupt sheriffs […]
The Revenant makes the guys in The Grey look like weenies, and those were some tough dudes! It’s intense as hell, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s most grizzled performance of his career. Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is leading a company of pioneer explorers when he is mauled by a bear. His men do their best to bring his […]
Close Range is another great action vehicle for Scott Adkins, and may be the beginning of another franchise for him. It’s got a good simple setup for action, but Adkins plays a character who could easily have many more adventures. The simple premise is Adkins out in the country versus a gang of corrupt cops […]