Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) – Peter Segal

Not half as clever as the previous films, Naked Gun 33 1/3 is Leslie Nielsen’s final turn as Police Squad!’s Frank Drebin. Now retired and living with Jane (Priscilla Presley), Frank finds himself called out of retirement yo join his team one last time in an effort to stop a terrorist attack on the Academy…

Chain Reaction (1996) – Andrew Davis

Following his success with The Fugitive, Andrew Davis tried to tap once again into the conspiracy and chase that rocketed that film to success (not to mention its incredible star power. This time out, with Chain Reaction, he stacks the cast with Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman and Rachel Weisz. In fact, Davis pulls out all…

2 Guns (2013) – Baltasar Kormakur

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg star in 2 Guns, based on the comic series of the same name, a fun little actioner where everyone seems intent on betraying every one else over forty-three million dollars. Posing as buyers, Bobby (Washington) is actually a DEA agent, Stig (Wahlberg) is in the Office of Naval Intelligence, and…

Southern Comfort (1981) – Walter Hill

Powers Boothe and Keith Carradine star alongside Peter Coyote, Fred Ward, Franklyn Seales, Alan Autry, T.K. Carter, Les Lannom, Lewis Smith and Brion James in this gritty action thriller that finds a squad of nine National Guardsmen fighting for their lives in the Louisiana Bayou in what was supposed to be just a training exercise….

Uncommon Valor (1983) – Ted Kotcheff

Before Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone did it, while it was still a bit of a taboo subject for American society, Gene Hackman, to the strains of a James Horner score gathered to him Robert Stack, Patrick Swayze, Harold Sylvester, Fred Ward, Tim Thomerson, Randall Cobb, Reb Brown and Kwan Hi Lim to his side,…

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) – Guy Hamilton

Fred Ward and Joel Grey (who received a Golden Globe nomination for his supporting role, while his make up and prosthetics were nominated for an Oscar in the makeup category) bring the action novel series, The Destroyer to the big screen in a film directed by 007 alumni, Guy Hamilton with a script by another…

Tremors (1990) – Ron Underwood

The work of producer Gale Anne Hurd is my next port of call in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book, I’ve previously covered her work with James Cameron, so that left some of her other films to take a look at, and I loved that I got to start with Tremors. This fun, creature feature that hearkens…

Trailer Tracks: The Right Stuff (1983) – Philip Kaufman

Kaufman shot this adaption of Tom Wolfe’s book about the beginning of the Mercury space program, interweaving it with the exploits of Chuck Yeager, into an epic three hour adventure about flilght, exploration and humanity. With a fantastic cast including Sam Shepard, Lance Henriksen, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Barbara Hershey, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff…

The Right Stuff (1983) – Philip Kaufman

“There was a demon that lived in the air…” I love a good epic film, and this film, The Right Stuff, is wonderfully so, based on Tom Wolfe’s book chronicling the launch of the space program, the training, the disasters, and the 7 brave men chosen to become Mercury astronauts. Boasting an all-star cast, the…