The one thing that I came out of Fuze knowing for sure is that this is the first time I’ve seen Aaron Taylor-Johnson in a role where I thought, yes, I can see this fella playing 007. Now, it hasn’t been announced he is, or anything of the sort, but I’m saying what I saw…
Tag: predictable
Code of Silence (1985) – Andrew Davis
Chuck Norris stars in this 1985 actioner which is arguably some of his best work. Honestly, having just gotten through it, and without sounding too harsh, that’s not saying much. He may be a great athlete and martial artist, but his acting skills still aren’t great. Originally tooled as one of the many Dirty Harry…
Land of Bad (2024) – William Eubank
Land of Bad is a crisp military actioner. With a solid cast that includes two Hemsworth brothers, Liam and Luke, Russell Crowe and Milo Ventimiglia, the film takes us on a high-tension, tightly-crafted mission that sees a Delta Force team, and it’s accompanying drone (and operator) on the run after things go pear-shaped. The Delta…
London Has Fallen (2016) – Babak Najafi
Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is preparing to tender his resignation and see to his about-to-grow family with an expecting Leah (Radha Mitchell) when the world interferes again. This time, he and the president, Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) are off to London to attend a funeral; the British Prime Minister suffered a heart…
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Masks (1989) – John Vornholt
Set during the events of season two of The Next Generation, John Vornholt’s novel, Masks, is a bit of a basic tale, but does give Captain Picard a bit of a romance. The Enterprise arrives at the planet Lorca, transporting ambassador-at-large Fenton Lewis to open diplomatic relations with the inhabitants. This seems kind of odd,…
The Pope’s Exorcist (2023) – Julius Avery
For something that claims to be based on the actual documented cases of the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, Father Gabriele Amorth, one would expect something smarter, scarier, and perhaps not as trope-ridden as what viewers are given with The Pope’s Exorcist. The film gives us Russell Crowe as Amorth, not quite chewing scenery, but…
Unlawful Entry (1992) – Jonathan Kaplan
Kurt Russell, Madeline Stowe and Ray Liotta star in this early 90s thriller that puts three stellar actors into a halfway decent script and hopes that their charisma and charm will see it through. For the most part, it succeeds, not least of which because they are all great actors. Russell and Stowe are Michael…
Cold (1996) – John Gardner
John Gardner’s final 007 novel, Cold aka Cold Fall, his sixteenth, feels a little bit more like the James Bond we know, a balance between Ian Fleming’s literary creation, and his cinematic iteration. Far more enjoyable than his adaptation of GoldenEye, the novel is split into two parts, taking place before, and then after, his…
Gamera vs. Barugon (1966) – Shigeo Tanaka
The kaiju battles continue as I delve deeper into the chapter on dragons and dinosaurs in DK Canada’s fabulous Monsters in the Movies. With some fun modelwork, and man in a monster suit action this one is fairly predictable, and the human story gets too much in the way of the monster action, but it’s…
Firestarter (1980) – Stephen King
It was going to happen sooner or later, I came across a Stephen King that really didn’t do it for me. There’s an idea at the core that I really enjoy, but it felt like King wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to go completely dark, in his telling of this tale. Little Charlie McGee is…
The Mind Reels 