I said goddamn. If action movie buffs were concerned that the action genre was dying on its bed, then director Gareth Evans just stabbed it in the heart with adrenaline and revived it for a new audience. “The Raid Redemption” courtesy of Indonesia is one of the most frantic and ballistic action films I’ve ever seen, and director Gareth Evans delivers an action movie buffet of kicks, punches, and gashes that will leave audiences pumping their fists anxiously from beginning to end.
Monthly Archives: August 2012
Judgment Night (1993)
I don’t quite remember if in 1993, “Judgment Night” was a hit at the box office. If not, it surely deserved to be. Watching this movie is like a show, and it presents audiences with its ups and downs of cinematic action that you’ll remember for a while. Emilio Estevez is an unlikely hero, Denis Leary is a surprisingly horrifying villain, and Cuba Gooding Jr. with his constant gaping jaw, shivering flared nostrils, and quivering dialogue delivers a performance that’s so over the top it’s as if the director has a gun trained on him throughout the entire production.
Celebrating the King of Cool: Steve McQueen
“I think if I wasn’t acting, I’d be a street hood.”
Everyone has their Steve McQueen. It’s a prevailing theme throughout the world of movie fandom, be you a man or woman, that everyone has their action icon upon which they find comfort in. It’s a common fact that there’s someone for every movie fan, and it gets weird on many occasions (Van Damne, Vin Diesel, Ben Affleck, Casper Van Dien).
My uncle loves Clint Eastwood, my brother loves Jet Li, and my dad loves Sonny Chiba. Oddly enough, everyone has their story upon which they remember first being obsessed or intrigued by said action star.
For me, there’s Steve McQueen, and I’m not overstepping my bounds in declaring that there’s never been anyone cooler than Steve McQueen. Hey, Eastwood is great, Bronson is nice, and I’m sure Chiba is incredible, and sure, you can debate that Eastwood and Bronson were better actors, and even more important to the film world, but there’s never been anyone cooler.
It’s just fact. Case closed. And you’d better not tell me otherwise.
Our Top 20 Movie Brawls Of All Time
A good movie fight can convey emotions. They can spell doom for many characters, and often times they make it clear to the audience that what’s happening in the film is urgent and will cost many their lives. While true a movie fight in modern cinema is often used as a way to kill time and keep audiences entertained until the next scene, a really good movie fight fills you in on the film’s characters.
They stick with you, they keep you talking for years after watching the film, and they’re a key asset to unraveling the drama and anxiety before our very eyes. For some characters, a big fight can mean preserving themselves in a dire situation. For some characters a fight can be an act of vengeance, or just an act of sending a message to someone. In either case, a great cinematic battle is meant to convey emotions and compel you, and is just as important to the story as is the dialogue. Gnash your teeth, clench your fists, and spit some blood, we proudly present to you twenty of the Greatest Movie Brawls we’ve ever seen!
The Grey (2012) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]
When Ottway and his group of oil workers board a very shaky and shifty airplane, the surviving group of men find themselves in the middle of a frozen tundra after a horrible storm brings down the entire plane. Protagonist Ottway is often plagued by visions of his dead wife, a woman who apparently died a slow and miserable death. It’s a passing Ottway himself has never gotten over, and never had the chance to mourn. Rather than confronting his misery and pretty much overcoming this terrible loss that left his life a hollow shell, he instead chooses to run away. When we first meet him, he’s war torn, exhausted and enters in to the tamed darkness of his oil rig where he prepares to commit suicide in the abyss of snow. Choosing instead to live, for reasons we can’t quite know deep down, he ends up leading his remaining group of co-workers from the plane wreck and in to the white wasteland before them.
Wrath of the Titans (2012) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Copy]
I’m surprised to admit that, for the most part, “Wrath of the Titans” is a rather entertaining and exciting follow-up to “Clash of the Titans.” In fact, it’s every bit as superior to the awful remake as possible, and often times manages to surpass the first film in the realm of storytelling and characterization. Granted, the film is not without its list of faults. The dialogue is anachronistic, and Perseus’s relationship with Andromeda and his beloved son is painfully under developed and trite, but “Wrath of the Titans” fixes most of the problems with the first film and forges a path for a respectable trilogy. I’m not going to rush out to purchase the “Titans” trilogy set when it’s unleashed years from now, but I’m not above re-watching these films again to see where it continues to improve.
Armageddon (1998)
One of the many aspects about filmmaking that Michael Bay never perfected is subtlety. None of his films are ever about the more quiet and inconspicuous moments in story and characterization. “Armageddon” as a whole is an often loud, bright, irritating and occasionally intrusive film that attempts to assault every inch of an audiences attention before ever managing to tell its story. It’s one of the many reasons why “Pearl Harbor” was considered a cinematic disaster. I’m horrified to fathom what would ever happen if Bay ever made a film about 9/11 or the Titanic.