I’m a real sucker for revenge films and for the longest time I’ve tried to track down this little indie production and see what the fuss was about. This basically mini-budget action thriller is a typical raw vengeance piece that holds pieces of The Punisher, Death Wish and Scarface with just the right amount of Irish edge that keeps the story moving at a brisk pace. The chaos and carnage that is inflicted by our main character Rane is just sadistic, but in the end it’s a sick and demented series of payback plots for a group of sick and demented people.
Tag Archives: Crime
Léon: The Professional (1994)
In spite of ranking on the top ten lists of many, many movie fans since its release, my love for “Leon: The Professional” was not immediate. As a matter of fact I pretty much disliked it on the first and second outings because I couldn’t quite grasp what Luc Besson was going for with this film. It’s not an action movie, it’s more of a love story set to the tone of bloodshed and corruption, a subtle poetic masterpiece that relies on characterization and artistic strokes of pure raw emotion than some shoot em up gangster flick.
The Top Ten "Kick Ass" Moments
Well, it’s coming, yet another superhero comic adaptation but thankfully this one is different. If you’ve never read it before, “Kick-Ass” is not so much about superheroes as it is about regular narcissistic everyday people putting on costumes and trying to fight crime and somehow finding themselves becoming real costumed superheroes when they just happen to crash in to a real life villain who wants them dead at all costs. There’s a violent karate fighting nine year old, a lot of really disgusting violence, and a storyline that is more realistic than most comic books tend to be. “Kick-Ass” does not stylize being a superhero. It’s rough to read.
Coming up on April 16th is the big screen version with an interesting cast who are threatening to take the box-office by storm and if you’ve ever seen the appealing trailers, you’ll know that we’re in for something quite spectacular. After reading the comic series a while ago, I thought it’d be good to pinpoint the top ten moments in “Kick-Ass” that particularly disturbed or excited us. Believe it or not, “Kick-Ass” is quite a good comic with a creator who managed to make history in comics by creating “Wanted,” another very violent comic turned in to a hit movie starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. “Kick-Ass” is a bit more conventional, but damn it looks quite good in spite of Millar’s apparent homophobia and penchant for racial stereotyping. So without further ado…
Warning, since the comic is somewhat similar to the movie, there will be potential spoilers.
Black Coffee (2009)
Tran Quoc Bao is a very talented filmmaker who I first was introduced to with his short “Bookie” which was a pretty good neo-noir crime thriller. The only reservation I had with this is that Bao has potential to stage a truly exciting feature length thriller here and whether it’s about the budget or the capabilities to do so, I would love to see this eventually made in to a full length mystery that could fully realize the talents of the entire production crew. “Black Coffee” is a film that aspires to take a page from the Hitchcock book of filmmaking.
The Blind Side (2009)
Admittedly I’m an old cynical bastard in a young man’s body, so nine times out of ten inspirational sports films don’t connect with me at all. “The Blind Side” took everyone by surprise and I don’t think anyone expected it to hit as big as it did. But sure enough it did and I’m more surprised than anyone that I quite enjoyed myself most of the time because normally I’d find a reason to bash this film as being melodramatic. Sure it is melodramatic but oddly enough most of the events that occur here actually happened. Someone actually did take a poor African American child from the ghetto and turn them in to a fine upstanding citizen with a plethora of opportunities and it’s because of the Tuohy’s that Michael Oher was able to pursue his dreams and break free from the prison that is poverty and crime. John Lee Hancock directs quite a visually soft film that doesn’t play too heavy on the sap.
The Lovely Bones (2009)
Peter Jackson is usually a very competent director. Hell, he’s a skilled director who can take any concept he wants to tackle and tackle it with great prowess almost never failing. With “The Lovely Bones” the man doesn’t seem to be hitting his stride and instead looks to be sleepwalking through what could have been an excellent film. I never read the novel before but I felt that was what would give me the ability to see through what Jackson was attempting to accomplish. Instead what I received from his latest was a story that was often confused about what it was trying to say. He seems to want to jump on every theme and plot point possible and this causes a cluster fuck in its focus hopping from character to character from perspective to perspective.
Fast & Furious (2009)
I want to live in the world that Justin Lin has created in the fourth film of the “Fast and the Furious” franchise. In it people can smash through windows like they’re cutting through paper, bullets don’t necessarily harm them, racers can speed through city streets without being pulled over or tracked by traffic cops, and they’re able to fly in stealth mode evading authorities in the loudest most conspicuous cars imaginable. That’s the world I want to be in. Probably the biggest turd of the series, “Fast and Furious” presents us with four actors with no other option than to sleepwalk through a hundred minutes of explosions, car chases and the prerequisite bad acting. Particularly from Rodriguez and Diesel whose chemistry is still there and seems to amplify their horrible acting abilities.