It has been a remarkably long time coming, but No Time to Die has finally emerged in cinemas around the world. It ends the second-longest hiatus in the history of the James Bond movie franchise – close to six years, and second … Continue reading REVIEW: No Time to Die (2021)
In October 2017 the People’s Republic of China held its 19th National Congress of the Communist Party. 2,300 party representatives assembled in Beijing to elect a new Central Committee, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Politburo and Central Military Commission. The … Continue reading REVIEW: Sky Hunter (2017)
Yu Qiu (Nick Cheung) is a police officer deep undercover among the city drug gangs. After rescuing a young girl from a kidnapping, he stumbles upon a criminal enterprise exploiting children at the behest of a criminal mastermind known only … Continue reading REVIEW: The Trough (2018)
In Nobody, a quiet middle-class husband and father is revealed to have a dark and violent past. He unleashes his rage on a group of young criminals – and that leads to him being targeted by the Russian mafia. You would be forgiven … Continue reading REVIEW: Nobody (2021)
Jackie Chan seemed to be everywhere in early 2017 – in Australia, at least. Kung Fu Yoga opened in cinemas just weeks after his period action comedy Railroad Tigers, and that came a few short months after the release of … Continue reading REVIEW: Kung Fu Yoga (2017)
Mortally wounded after an epic-sized duel, the master swordsman Manji (Takura Kimura) is supernaturally revived to walk feudal Japan as an immortal. 50 years later he is called upon to aid a young woman (Hana Sugisaki) seeking revenge for the … Continue reading REVIEW: Blade of the Immortal (2017)
The shift in Hollywood towards high-budget, heavily branded franchise pictures has been hard on the generic action film. Jump back a quarter century, and mass audiences in 1996 were met by a variety of rugged, desperate action fare in which … Continue reading FANTASIA REVIEW: Indemnity (2021)
All hail the “dad movie”, providence for the white middle-aged man. Perennially dispatched from play-it-safe filmmakers and studios alike, the dad movie offers masculine, muscular entertainment to which beers may be drunk and during which afternoon naps may be taken … Continue reading REVIEW: The Ice Road (2021)
From the 1950s through to the late 1970s, Walt Disney Pictures worked a hugely successful formula for generating a regular stream of family-oriented adventure and fantasy movies. Rather than follow the director-centric model of other American studios, it continued to … Continue reading REVIEW: The Island at the Top of the World (1974)
Among Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pantheon of 1980s action characters, Russian police detective Ivan Danko is undoubtedly one of the more obscure. Paired up with James Belushi’s jaded American cop Art Ridzik in Walter Hill’s Red Heat (1988), he did not resonate with … Continue reading REVIEW: Red Heat (1988)
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