Chow Yun-Fat is Ko Chow, an undercover cop caught in a City on Fire in Ringo Lam’s iconic piece of Hong Kong cinema. Ready to leave his undercover life behind, Chow is persuaded by Inspector Lau (Yueh Sun) to take on on last case. When an undercover cop ends up dead, Chow has to infiltrate…
Tag: showdown
TIFF 25: The Furious dir. Kenji Tanigaki
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…
Never Flinch (2025) – Stephen King
I love the character of Holly Gibney, so anytime King wants to put her in another story, I’m there for it. And he did just that with Never Flinch. And if Holly is there, you know some of her friends will be around – Barbara, Jerome, Izzy. Holly, and the readers, soon find themselves dealing…
Deathtrap (1982) – Sidney Lumet
Ira Levin’s whip-smart stage play, Deathtrap, was adapted for the big-screen and saw Michael Caine square-off against Christopher Reeve in this captivating cat-and-mouse, twisting thriller. Micheal Caine is playwright, Sidney Bruhl. He’s just had his latest stage thriller flop on opening night. It’s his latest failure in a string of them. Things are exacerbated, when…
Farscape (2001) – The Choice, and Fractures
After the fun and laughs in the previous episode, Revenging Angel, we go back to the pain and heartache of what happened on Talyn. Crichton (Ben Browder) is dead, Aeryn (Claudia Black) is grieving, and has left the leviathan. She’s dealing with the loss of Crichton, the conflict with her mother, and all the choices…
The Challenge (1982) – John Frankenheimer
Scott Glenn sports a truly horrific bowl cut in his first leading role, starring alongside Toshiro Mifune in the Frankenheimer-helmed The Challenge. Featuring a score by Jerry Goldsmith and a supporting cast that includes Sab Shimono and Clyde Kusatsu, the film is a pretty solid action entry though it wasn’t the film Glenn and Mifune…
The Equalizer 3 (2023) – Antoine Fuqua
Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington team up for another Equalizer sequel, this time moving the story to gorgeous Italy. With picturesque backdrops the power duo attempt to do something more with the Robert McCall character, but this one, despite sharing the story with Man On Fire co-star Dakota Fanning doesn’t quite have the punch of…
Batman (1968) – The Great Escape, and The Great Train Robbery
Shame (Cliff Robertson) is back, escaping from prison with the help of Calamity Jan (Dina Merrill) and her mother, Frontier Fanny (Hermione Baddeley), who is also interfering in their potential romance, but that won’t stop Shame for preparing for his latest caper. The Great Escape was written by Stanley Ralph Ross and first aired on…
TIFF ’23: The Burial
I think every actor wants to do a courtroom drama, to voice their objections, to thunder at a witness during cross-examination, to let that look play across their face that suggests they may have just found a way to win the case. Then, when you throw in the fact that the case you’re bringing to…
Rocky IV (1985) – Sylvester Stallone
There are some flaws in the fourth entry in the Rocky series (I’m looking at that ridiculous robot) and I’m not sure the themes of East vs. West, hubris, and capitalism carry through all the way, because, despite all of the things Rocky (Sylvester Stallone who also wrote and directed) gives up during the course…
The Mind Reels 