The Furious is a balls-to-the-wall actioner that is outrageously over-the-top but incredibly crowd-pleasing in its violence and action beats. Having said that, the ADR in the film is terrible, and I honestly think the entire film should just be subtitled. The film has a strong enough appeal that I don’t think it needed to have…
Tag: brutal
TIFF 25: Orwell – 2+2=5 dir. Raoul Peck
Damian Lewis narrates text by George Orwell, as director Raoul Peck profoundly demonstrates that we as a society, and a planet, are living smack dab in the middle of Orwell’s 1984. Intercutting with the various adaptations of 1984 and Animal Farm, Peck includes documentary and news footage charting the new rise of fascism, authoritarianism, and…
Deep Cover (1992) – Bill Duke
Bill Duke directs a gritty, rough and tumble cop film, and does it incredibly well. It’s an entertaining and brutal ride, and lets Laurence Fishburne shine. Fishburne plays Russell Stevens, a cop recruited by Carver (Charles Martin Smith) to go undercover as a drug dealer in order to get close to Barbosa (Gregory Sierra) and…
The Mercy of Gods (2024) – James S.A. Corey
When I see James S.A. Corey on the front of a book, I know I can buy it whether I know anything about it or not. I love their storytelling style, and The Mercy of the Gods, the first book in a new trilogy called The Captive’s War. Shorter than some of the entries in…
Hamburger Hill (1987) – John Irvin
It’s been a while since I watched Hamburger Hill. In my teens, a lot of film and television were finally beginning to explore and talk about Vietnam and its effects on the servicemen who were in-country. I was reading books. I remember, vividly reading Robert Mason’s Chickenhawk, as well as the first time I saw…
Death Rides a Horse (1967) – Giulio Petroni
Lee Van Cleef stars alongside John Phillip Meceita in this spaghetti western from Giulio Petroni. My knowledge of spaghetti westerns is pretty slim, so it should come as no surprise that I had never heard of this one, but with Lee Van Cleef in it I figured why the hell not? What it is, is…
TIFF24: I, the Executioner dir. Ryoo Seung-wan
I, the Executioner is the follow-up to Seung-wan’s Veteran. I hadn’t seen it, and I loved this one. So don’t let that hold you back from checking this one out. South Korean action films and police thrillers are always engaging, and they aren’t afraid to get dark. Veteran cop, Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min) works in the…
TIFF24: The Seed of the Sacred Fig dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
Rasoulof examines the patriarchy and religious law in the microcosm of the family in The Seed of the Sacred Fig. For some it can be a tough watch, as it incorporates actual footage from the 2022 protests in Iran following the death Masha Amini who died while in police custody, charged with improperly wearing her…
The Believers (1987) – John Schlesinger
The dirty and gritty New York of the 80s serves as the backdrop for this rough, brutal and frightening take on hoodoo and Santeria, with a script written by Mark Frost from a novel by Nicholas Conde, the story follows a police psychologist, Cal Jamison (Martin Sheen) when he gets called in a horrifying case….
The Equalizer 2 (2018) – Antoine Fuqua
Sure the first installment of the Antoine Fuqua/Denzel Washington actioner came out in 2014, and I watched it for the first time nine years ago, and hadn’t watched any of the films since. And yes, I’m a fan of the original series with Edward Woodward. but I rather enjoy Washington’s interpretation of the character. The…
The Mind Reels 