Never Dream of Dying (2001) – Raymond Benson

James Bond returns in Raymond Benson’s Never Dream of Dying, and this time around things get emotional for Ian Fleming’s 007 as he goes after Le Gerant, the leader of the notorious Union organization that has been causing him so much trouble over the past few novels. With his adventures taking him across the continent…

Deadpool 2 (2018) – David Leitch

Ryan Reynolds returns as the merc with a mouth in Deadpool 2. As funny and as engaging as the first film, this one also throws in a bit of a message, as it’s main villain is the Headmaster (Eddie Marsan) for a reform school for mutants, where they are beaten and abused to drive the…

Magnum P.I. (2018) – The Ties That Bind, and Bad Day to Be a Hero

Thomas (Jay Hernandez) takes a case involving a kidnapped girl, she’s been returned, but she’s not the same person anymore, and her parents want the person who took her captured. At the same time, we learn a little more about what happened when Magnum and his friends were held by the Taliban when they were…

Dead Heat (1988) – Mark Goldblatt

I never saw the trailer for Dead Heat when it came out, if I had, I may have seen it a lot sooner. Everytime I saw the poster art at the video store I thought it just looked too silly and without sounding too harsh, I was never a Joe Piscopo fan. So I finally…

Polite Society (2023) – Nida Manzoor

Polite Society is an enjoyable action comedy with strong female characters involved in a wonderfully melodramatic tale. The story follows a young Pakistani woman, Ria (Priya Kansara) who dreams of being a stuntwoman, and who idolizes her older sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), who is experiencing a tough time after leaving art school because she she…

The Marvels (2023) – Nia DaCosta

Superhero fatigue is real. We seem to be so inundated with comic book stories now, they’re everywhere, films, television series, video games and actual comic books. Disney has gone to town building and expanding their MCU and even as the series and movies keep coming it’s been hard to get excited about new entries because…

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) – 4K

Tom Cruise returns as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in his seventh Mission: Impossible outing Dead Reckoning Part One which comes home on 4K and physical media today from Paramount Canada. It’s epic and brings in a number of story and character threads from the entire franchise and, of course, looks absolutely stunning in 4K. This…

Atomic Blonde (2017) – David Leitch

Charlize Theron is here to kick ass in Atomic Blonde and she does, and does it well. Based on the graphic novel The Coldest City, Atomic Blonde is a spy-thriller that features some solid stunt and fight work, the majority of which Theron, much like Keanu Reeves for John Wick did as much of as…

Judgment Night (1993) – Stephen Hopkins

Stephen Hopkins turns out perfectly enjoyable films and 1993’s Judgment Night is one of them. Featuring a bombastic score (which sometimes feels out of place) by Alan Silvestri, this action thriller was in need of a rewatch – I hadn’t seen this one since it was released on VHS! The film stars Emilio Estevez, Denis…

Deep Blue Sea (1999) – Renny Harlin

This one is for my friend Lindsay, who insists this is a better shark movie than Jaws, and yet it can’t help but make a number of references to it, not the least of which is a familiar-looking licence plate. Director Renny Harlin does, for the most part, deliver a fairly solid thriller though even…