The 101 Action Movies brings me Ridley Scott’s Best Picture winner Gladiator for me to re-watch and enjoy. Starring Russell Crowe as Maximus, a Roman general in service to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). When the emperor is murdered by his devious and power-hungry son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), Maximus is ordered to be…
Tag: revenge
Toronto After Dark: Eega (2012) – S.S. Rajamouli
Bug Night at Toronto After Dark continued with this brilliantly colorful, melodramatic Indian revenge flick, with that wonderful Tollywood flavor, with Eega. Nani (Nani) and Bindhu (Samantha Prabhu) have been flirting and chasing one another for two years, as the two finally connect, Sudeep (Kiccha Sudeepa) comes into the picture, a bit of a bad…
Desperado (1995) – Robert Rodriguez
101 Action Movies brings Robert Rodriguez into the fold with this sequel/remake/self-homage follow-up to his shoestring budget independent action film, El Mariachi. Desperado has a two ridiculously good-looking leads amongst an all-star cast. Antonio Banderas takes over the role of the Mariachi, and Salma Hayek is Carolina. The first time I saw this movie was the first time I had…
The Newsroom S02E07 – Red Team III
Wow. This week we watch ACN’s News Night come apart as the Genoa story completely unravels, with witnesses recanting, doctored evidence, unknown factors that completely affect the story from different sources… Holy crap. Everything goes sideways right after they go to air, when the general (Stephen Root) Jerry (Hamish Linklater) interviewed and then ‘fixed’ the interview…
The Crow (1994) – Alex Proyas
The 101 Action Movies brings this dark, goth, ultraviolent actioner based on the comic by James O’Barr. A film now infamous for and overshadowed by the death of its lead actor, Brandon Lee, on-set, it is still, in fact, a wonderfully made film, taut in its script and characterizations, and brutal in its action sequences. Eric Draven (Lee) and…
The Shaolin Temple (1982) – Xinyan Zhang
The 101 Action Movies brings me yet another awesome movie I had never seen, and features a very young Jet Li. Witnessing the murder of his father by an evil general who has rebelled against the emperor and installed himself as a the new ruler . Young Jue Yuan (Li) makes an escape and injured…
Foxy Brown (1974) – Jack Hill
The iconic and lovely Pam Grier stars in this blaxploitation film that makes a very welcome appearance on the 101 Action Movies list. Grier is sexy, kicks ass, and sets the stage for future action heroines as the titular Foxy Brown. When her boyfriend, the original Battlestar Galactica’s Colonel Tigh – Terry Carter, a narcotics…
Iron Man 3 (2013) – Shane Black
Robert Downey Jr returns to the big screen as Tony Stark, a man haunted and troubled by the events that befell the Avengers… Taking over directing duties from Jon Favreau, Shane Black, who seems to have a fascination for setting movies during the Christmas season (Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) also wrote the script alongside…
Ringu (1998) – Hideo Nakata
The late 90s saw a huge inflow of Japanese horror into the North American market, spreading and replicating itself, much like the curse in this wicked and delightful ghost story. Remade, successfully, three years later as The Ring with Naomi Watts and directed by Gore Verbinski, the original film was one of the first Japanese…
Skyfall (2012) – Sam Mendes
By the end of Skyfall there are some very familiar pieces returned to the board that is the James Bond playing field, which leads us to a bit of a cross-roads for the next Bond film (would you believe the story is already in development?!), I quite enjoy the grit and feel of Craig’s…
The Mind Reels 