Posts

Showing posts with the label action

No Time to Die (2021)

Image
James Bond (Daniel Craig) is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica after leaving active service. However, his peace is short-lived as his old CIA friend, Felix Leiter, (Jeffrey Wright) shows up and asks for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond on the trail back to a past love Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) and her connection to a mysterious villain (Rami Malek) who's armed with a dangerous new bio-technology. This review contains spoilers for No Time to Die.

Clover (2020) Entertains the Dubious Nature of Luck in the Mob Genre

Image
In the gritty world of mobsters, there’s the hunter and the prey. A hierarchy of crime bosses rule the roost while their henchmen or women, loaners, and sharks must obey pecking order to survive. Step one toe out of line and the whole business descends into chaos. This is something two hapless brothers in Clover  learn the hard way. Mickey (Jon Abrahams) and Jackie (Mark Webber) Callaghan are about to lose the pub that's been in the family for generations. The night before they’re supposed to payback a sizable loan, Jackie loses it all while gambling. When local mobster Tony Davolio (Chazz Palminteri) offers one last opportunity to wipe the slate clean, the siblings must go on the run with a young girl Clover (Nicole Elizabeth Berger) after she accidentally kills Davolio’s son.

Quick Movie Reviews

Image
From stealing the Declaration of Independence to escaping your psychotic in-laws, these are my quick movie reviews for National Treasure , Tremors , and Ready or Not . They're great picks for a fun night at home, and if you're looking for some action/adventure over the weekend.  Have you seen these films? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Monday (2018) Packs A Big Punch For The Short Film Circuit

Image
Sometimes it's not the budget that makes a short film good, it's the production team rallying behind it that counts. Following in director Robert Rodriguez's footsteps, independent filmmaker Alejandro Montoya Marin participated on El Rey's network show Rebel Without A Crew where creators banded together to create an original film. Armed with $7,000, no crew, two days to prep and fourteen days to film his project, Marin creates a fun action movie reminiscent of today's blockbusters. Jim (Jamie H. Jung)'s life is about to change in the worst ways when he loses his job and his girlfriend gives up on their relationship. Caught in the crossfire of two hit women aiming to take down a drug cartel, Jim is on the run for his life and standing up for himself once and for all. As the story counts down Jim's day starting off as bad as it can be and only getting more bleak and chaotic from there, what Martin and the cast were able to put together in such a short am...

Ranking the Mission: Impossible franchise

Image
Tom Cruise was already a breakout star in the 1980s with movies like Taps ,  Risky Business , Top Gun , and Rain Man  under his belt. Heading into the '90s, Cruise was on his way to take over the box-office and change the action genre forever with a little movie called Mission: Impossible . Starring as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in 1996, he started a franchise that twenty-two years down the road is still going strong. Honestly, it just doesn't feel like a proper summer at the movies without Cruise headlining this thrilling franchise that just keeps getting better and better.  With the release of the sixth movie   ( read my review here ), I'm ranking the Mission: Impossible series.  How would you rank the franchise so far? Feel to let me know in the comments!

Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018) Is The Best Franchise That Keeps Getting Better

Image
On the very rare occasion that Tom Cruise doesn’t deliver on his promise to thrill moviegoers, almost every summer we count on the renown star to bring on the excitement as the daring spy Ethan Hunt. Waiting for another installment has become an event in itself for fans anticipating where Cruise will take his passion for this sage next. Every Mission: Impossible installment seems outdo the last tone. Coming back for the sixth time, Mission: Impossible Fallout again proves to be the best entry in a franchise that just keeps getting better. After failing to recover three plutonium nuclear cores, IMF Agent Ethan Hunt is forced to team up with the CIA’s top assassin August Walker (Henry Cavill) to prevent the weapons from falling into the hands of a religious anarchist group known as the Apostles. While dealing with the aftermath of capturing one of its dangerous associates Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), Hunt’s past comes back to haunt him, and question how he can save the world just ...

Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018) Trailer Reaction

Image
After three years since his last action-packed flick, Tom Cruise is set to return for the sixth Mission: Impossible film. Familiar faces and new threats come to light this summer for Mission: Impossible Fallout. Honestly, it's not a proper summer at the movies without Cruise going rogue and performing deadly stunts to entertain his fans. When the trailer dropped for his adventure as Ethan Hunt, let's just say I was excited. It's time for another trailer reaction! SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

Velcro: Polluted War by Chris Widdop

Image
One of the great joys of watching a series evolve is the growth of the story, characters, and worldbuilding. Every addition reveals where the journey is going to venture. When author Chris Widdop announced the fourth installment Polluted War for the Velcro series, I was excited to receive a copy to review. A masked vigilante feline Velcro begins her adventure in Velcro: The Ninja Kat , righting the wrongs in the Country of Widows when villages across the region are attacked and the activities of a military organization The Devil Corps becomes increasingly suspicious. As the series moves along with The Green Lion and The Masquerade , Velcro begins to understand her connection to the land's magic,  and just how deep the corruption with her enemies runs. Her strength helps win allies to join her cause but also the attention of those from the other side who want to stop her. Now, in Polluted War , the stakes are at their highest as Velcro delves deeper into a war that continues ...

Kong: Skull Island (2017) manages to break free from Reboot Island

Image
Warner Bros. Pictures We all know a cat supposedly has nine lives, but how many does an oversized ape have? It's a question Hollywood keeps asking whether movie goers want the answer (as much money as the studios can pummel out...) or not. So far there's been nineteen versions of the behemoth known as King Kong, and the latest edition Kong: Skull Island lands right in the middle as an amusing, but not entirely original flick. This version is set in the 1970s with a government organization called Monarch investigating ancient myths and entities. Its leader William Randa (John Goodman) recruits a team of scientists and military men on a expedition to an exotic island where he believes evidence of prehistoric animals exist. The group abruptly encounters Kong among other beings that are not too happy about mankind disturbing the peace. Among the other Kong movies, the action is where this one really stands out. Kong makes his introduction as massive silhouette enveloping ...

Quick Reviews: Spies of the Summer

Image
Photo Credit: Mission Impossible Rogue Nation / Paramount Pictures Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team are in a bit of pickle. Head of the C.I.A. Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) is gung-ho about shutting down Impossible Missions Force for its unorthodox approach of taking down the U.S. biggest enemies. Except Hunt has more than a hunch about a bigger, more volatile spy organization named the Syndicate - a system the C.I.A. does not believe exists. After the IMF is disbanded and absorbed by Hunley, Hunt is branded a fugitive out to incite MI6 agents who have gone rogue. Coming back from the fourth installment,  Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation launches a new director this fifth edition into new heights. Favorite players like Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames return as smoothly as ever, and Cruise just keeps getting better with age. Stealing the show and rightfully so is Rebecca Ferguson, as Ilsa Faust who is a MI6 agent and Syndicate operative keeping Hunt on his toes...

Twister (1996) is the supreme disaster flick

Image
Photo Credit: Twister / Warner Bros Tucked into the disaster genre under classics like The Poseidon Adventure (1972) or flash-in-the-pan epics like 2012 (2009), Twister remains popular twenty years after its original theatrical release. Instead of focusing on an end-of-the-world or survival against nature plot, this flick is all about facing one of nature's awe-inspiring sights in order to understand its mechanics. Jo (Helen Hunt) and Bill (Bill Paxton) are estranged storm chasers trailing several twisters across Oklahoma before their rival (Cary Elwes) beats them to the punch. Wrangled together by a contentious divorce, they lead a crew trying to release a data-gathering instrument to transmit tornadic behavior. The film is as much of a love story as it is an action movie. Jo's passion for how tornadoes work was brought on by a tragedy during her childhood. Her near-obsession, now as an adult, affects her marriage and drives her daredevil ambition. Awesomely playe...

The Matrix (1999) walks the path of complexity and entertainment

Image
Photo Credit: The Matrix/ Warner Bros Directed and written by The Wachowski Sisters, this 1999 sci-fi flick takes us into a new reality called The Matrix. The world as we know has utterly collapsed from mankind's egotrip known as artificial intelligence. Sentient machines we created betrayed us and scorched the Earth. In doing so, they subdued humans into a simulated reality and use our natural bodies heat and electrical activity as their main energy source. The Chosen One Neo (Keanu Reeves) is a computer hacker who is shown the truth. A group of human resistance fighters led by Morpheus (Laurence Fishbourne) guides our hero to realize his potential to save the rest of the human race and end the war. Before watching The Matrix , expectations from the film's hype since my teenage years weighed on my mind. Mostly, my thoughts stemmed from the film's glory days when it was a huge hit in the late 90s / early 2000s. Fans' fervent love made me excited but also anxious...