[7] The skeleton crew of an isolated police precinct battle a vengeful street gang that lay siege to the building. John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) writes and directs this simple, straight-forward, solidly executed action/thriller, imbuing it with his love of westerns. Carpenter creates likable characters here, particularly in the stalwart police lieutenant (Austin Stoker) and the wise-cracking prisoner (Darwin Joston), the latter of which is …
[8] In a not-too-distant future Japan, the government cracks down on adolescent shenanigans by randomly selecting one 9th grade class per year to duke it out on a remote island until only one student is standing. Battle Royale starts off with a good dose of operatic, dark humor, but as the teenage body count rises, you actually get to know many of the embattled kids …
[7] James Bond returns for the 24th official time in Spectre. Know right away that this is not Skyfall. We were lucky to get a Skyfall — shit like that comes around in a franchise once a decade or two if it survives reinvention. Where Skyfall had the opportunity to mine a little backstory and emotion (thank you, Ms Dench), Spectre is a full-blown return …
[7] Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart star in this edgy action comedy about a stoner convenience clerk who discovers he’s a sleeper agent and deadly assassin for the CIA. Together with his devoted girlfriend, he dodges CIA operatives ordered to destroy him while also trying to figure out whether his whole life has been a lie. American Ultra is a surprisingly violent black comedy — …
[6] I never cared much for the Mission Impossible film franchise until Brad Bird (The Iron Giant) took his turn in the director’s chair with the last installment, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. I’m not sure Rogue Nation — the fifth in the series — is better than Ghost Protocol, but it’s pretty solid action entertainment nonetheless. Tom Cruise, bless his insane little heart, is still …
[6] The sequel to Predator drops Arnold Schwarzenegger and transplants the action to Los Angeles. Danny Glover stars as a cop trying to break up warring drug gangs when the Predator drops into the action and leads him on a mysterious hunt for clues. Gary Busey shows up as a secret government military man, and Glover’s got police support from the likes of Maria Conchita …
[8] Every spring, I feel jaded when it comes to Hollywood tent pole flicks, and every summer I end up being surprised at how much I enjoy a few of them. Maybe it’s a result of low expectations, or maybe I love monster movies and disaster movies so much, they just have to be pretty shitty before I’ll give ’em the thumbs down. Anyway, I’ll …
[8] George Miller has stopped making talking pig and dancing penguin movies (Babe, Happy Feet) long enough to give us another installment in his seminal apocalyptic Mad Max series. The result is probably one of the greatest non-stop action movies ever made. Tom Hardy takes the reigns from Mel Gibson as the title character, but gets to sink his teeth into the role quite a …
[6] My favorite part of this Avengers sequel is when the bad guy, a robot voiced by James Spader, first pulls himself together and wobbles confidently in front of the superheroes at the end of a house party. It’s a good introduction to a nifty character who says some witty things here and then. (It is a Joss Whedon movie, after all.) Other than that, …
[4] Green Lantern is probably the single-most generic superhero movie I’ve ever seen. It’s not terrible so much as it is wholly unremarkable. It’s mired in a scatter-shot script that dwells on plot points and secondary characters I couldn’t give two craps about, when all that screen time should have been devoted to making me care about the title character. Ryan Reynolds is plenty charismatic …
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