David Koepp has his fingerprints on some of the biggest movies ever, he’s scripted some very succesful films. You know he can tell a story. His novel, Cold Storage has been on my to be read shelf for quite some time now. So long that it seems he’s had time to make a movie version…
Tag: violent
Stargate: Atlantis (2008) – Infection, and Identity
With four episodes to go, things have to start ramping up and wrapping up right? Alan McCullough delivers Infection which first aired on 5 December, 2008. Trouble seems to be brewing when a Wraith cruiser arrives in orbit. But there is no communication coming from it at all. What’s going on? McKay (David Hewlett) finds…
Wolfs (2024) – Jon Watts
Jon Watts wrote and directed this crime thriller with buddy overtones that shines with the banter and chemistry with its two stars, George Clooney and Brad Pitt. The two leading men play fixers who are summoned to a hotel, Margaret’s (Amy Ryan, who I always delight in seeing, she’s wonderful) Man (Clooney) is summoned by…
Blood Red Sky (2021) – Peter Thorwarth
It’s taken me a while to get to this one, but once the mood hit I was ready for it. And man, I got a kick out of it. It plays with some tropes, has an exploration of motherhood and parenting, and oh yeah, let’s enjoy the blood and gore. Nadja (Peri Baumeister) and her…
A Better Tomorrow II (1987) – John Woo
John Woo got the band back together for A Better Tomorrow II. Ho (Lung Ti) is offered an early parole if he helps investigate his former mentor, Lung Si (Dean Shek). He turns it down, until he learns his brother, Kit (Leslie Cheung), a police officer is involved in the investigation. Ho doesn’t believe Si…
A Better Tomorrow (1986) – John Woo
A Better Tomorrow was a hole in my John Woo and Hong Kong cinema that I wanted to fill, People have raved about it for years, that it helped define a generation of HKers and became a cult classic among North American film lovers. It features melodrama and lots of gunplay. It also has a…
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) – Chad Stahelski
I have served. I will be of service. I love these films so much. Each one has taken what we have learned in the previous film and builds on it. And John Wick (Keanu Reeves) gets pulled back, completely into the underworld of assassination that he left for five years. When the film opens, he…
John Wick (2014) – Chad Stahelski
I was shocked (and delighted because it meant I could watch them all again) that I hadn’t written about John Wick before. I had written up the second film but for some reason hadn’t done the other three. So that means I could buckle up and dive into this amazing world where assassins thrive, have…
TIFF 25: Bad Apples dir. Jonatan Etzler
Saoirse Ronan shines as Maria, an elementary school teacher pushed too far in Jonatan Etzler’s darkly funny thriller, Bad Apples. If you’ve read the tagline for the film, do yourself a favour and don’t read anything else about it. Go in with the knowledge that Maria is working to keep her class engaged. She has…
Deep Cover (1992) – Bill Duke
Bill Duke directs a gritty, rough and tumble cop film, and does it incredibly well. It’s an entertaining and brutal ride, and lets Laurence Fishburne shine. Fishburne plays Russell Stevens, a cop recruited by Carver (Charles Martin Smith) to go undercover as a drug dealer in order to get close to Barbosa (Gregory Sierra) and…
The Mind Reels 