Who said Tom Cruise was a has-been? Truthfully, I probably did, but hot off of “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” he’s back in the actioner Jack Reacher. Based on the book “One Shot” by Lee Child, Cruise takes the lead as an ex-cop turned private investigator who gets involved with a murder case involving a…
Now this is how you make a proper action-thriller! Get the Gringo (a.k.a. How I Spent My Summer Vacation) is one hell of a film; a stripped-down, gritty actioner reminiscent of the kind of dark, no-nonsense thrillers we saw back in the ’70s and ’80s. With so many glossy, CGI-laden blockbusters hitting screens these days,…
What some people wouldn’t do for cash. In Killer Joe dimestore drug dealer Chris puts a hit out on his mother for her life insurance policy and offers up his sister to the hitman as collateral. In his defense, though, if he doesn’t come up with some cash he’s a dead man. But maybe death…
I’ve done so many reviews for those “only one man can help” blockbusters that I’ve exhausted every possible way of introducing them. To some, that might’ve been evident in my piece on “Lockout,” which featured a lazy examination into the ‘80s action hero. In my defense, there are only so many ways you could describe…
In the opening shot of Richard Linklater’s Bernie, our eponymous protagonist (played by the infectious Jack Black), who is an assistant funeral director and mortician, warns that, “You can’t have grief tragically becoming a comedy.” Ironically, this dramedy based on a 1996 murder that shook the small town of Carthage, Texas does just that. Written…
There are some good things to say about the newest film by director James McTeigue (“Ninja Assassin,” “V For Vendetta“), a combination of “Sleepy Hollow,” “Saw,” “Se7en” and the latter-day Sherlock Holmes films. First, it acquaints the uninitiated with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, one of America’s most creative and tortured writers (Poe, while…
It’s been a while since a movie really kicked me in the face. Well, at least in a good way. This particular type of facial assault only occurs with the most visceral, vigorous action movies during which fists and feet become weapons of mass destruction. Boisterous, brilliant face-kicking is at the top of the agenda…
