John Cullum is the baddie in the penultimate episode of season one of The Equalizer. Unpunished Crimes was written by John Burke and Grenville Case, first airing on 1 April, 1986. Cullum is Stuart Cane, a brutal CEO with ties to a terrorist organization, and is set on ruining Frank Donahue (Dan Hedaya) and his…
Tag: police
V/H/S: Viral (2014) – Marcel Sarmiento, Gregg Bishop, Nacho Vigalondo, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and Todd Lincoln
The anthology horror series, V/H/S is a bit hit and miss, but the great thing about anthology films is if you don’t like one story, just hold on and see what comes along next. The third entry in the series is no different, there are some that could have been executed a little better, some…
The Equalizer (1985) – The Defector, and The Lock Box
Very quickly The Equalizer has shown that its willing to go dark and gritty, and while there are some dark moments in The Defector, The Lock Box is even darker. The Defector was written by Heywood Gould and first debuted on 2 October, 1985. An old friend, and former agent of the USSR, Felix (Joe…
The Equalizer (1985) – Pilot, and China Rain
I don’t know what the first episode of The Equalizer was that I saw, but I remember where I was, and I knew I found the concept and execution interesting, even at 14. It was grittier than a lot of the episodic television that was being broadcast at the time, a little darker, and had…
TIFF ’22: Project Wolf Hunting
Project Wolf Hunting, a South Korean entry for TIFF’s ever-popular Midnight Madness series, is sure to be a crowd pleaser for that late-night crowd. Director Kim Hongsun delivers a silly, gory actioner that feels like the messy and violent love child of Con Air and Friday the 13th. After a disastrous convict transport that ended…
The Da Vinci Code (2006) – Ron Howard
Director Ron Howard pairs with Tom Hanks to bring Dan Brown’s incredibly popular novel, The Da Vinci Code to the screen. Hanks portrays symbologist Robert Langdon, who previously popped up in Brown’s novel Angels and Demons, but it was the subject matter, and the way it tied into art and some historical moments that really…
The Sniper (1952) – Edward Dmytryk
I do enjoy a good film noir, and The Sniper is one I had never heard of, and quite happily dug into, contained as it was in a Film Noir Collection I had been gifted one holiday season. Despite some very sexist trappings, it was the 50s after all, there’s a really fascinating story here….
Mission: Impossible (1970) – The Crane, and Death Squad
The IMF swings back into action again this week, with yet another mission to save an Eastern Bloc country from itself, and restore it to its prior democratic state but working to turn the current leaders against one another, and reinstate a pro-democracy guerilla leader who is sentenced to be executed. Written by Ken Pettus,…
The Dead Don’t Die (2019) – Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch writes and directs this zombie film that is more in line with the Romero created monster than the running creatures that have been made so popular of late. In fact, the entire film plays out at an enjoyably relaxing pace, letting the story brew, the characters breathe, and the oddities, eccentricities, and the…
In the Heat of the Night (1967) – Norman Jewison
In the Heat of the Night shouldn’t be as timely and relevant as it still is. You’d think we could have moved beyond such levels of racism and prejudice, and yet, sections of society seem worse than ever before, and it seems to be both hidden and overt. Featuring powerhouse performances by Sidney Poitier and…
The Mind Reels 