Double Tap, directed by Law Chi-leung in 2000, is what it is: a film in which two overly emotional men face off against one another on the streets of Hong Kong. As melodramatic as a soap opera and aggressively masculine, … Continue reading REVIEW: Double Tap (2000)
By 1967 the lucrative James Bond movie franchise was hitting its fifth instalment in the space of six years. The preceding film, Thunderball (1965), had been a record-breaking success, and expectations were high for Bond’s next adventure to top it all over … Continue reading REVIEW: You Only Live Twice (1967)
Sean Connery returns to play British super-spy James Bond for the fourth time in 1965’s Thunderball; a global smash hit in which the Bond franchise formula arguably solidified for the first time. It may not be the best of Connery’s Bond … Continue reading REVIEW: Thunderball (1965)
Be careful what you wish for, I guess. 1999’s The World is not Enough was a James Bond film that seemed oddly unenthused and lazy, relying on old franchise traditions without any real sense of spark or effort. The next Bond feature, … Continue reading REVIEW: Die Another Day (2002)
1999 saw the release of Pierce Brosnan’s third film as British secret agent James Bond – and the 19th film in the franchise overall. The World is not Enough captures the EON production team at a high point of comfort: GoldenEye (1995) brought … Continue reading REVIEW: The World is not Enough (1999)
The runaway success of Romancing the Stone led 20th Century Fox and producer/star Michael Douglas to move quickly on a sequel, and true to their intentions The Jewel of the Nile hit cinemas in the USA just 21 months after its predecessor. All it … Continue reading REVIEW: The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
Romancing the Stone was a big deal back in 1984. It saw producer and star Michael Douglas try his hand at a broad action-adventure film, clearly riffing upon the success of the Indiana Jones films. It marked the commercial breakout of director Robert … Continue reading REVIEW: Romancing the Stone (1984)
The requirements for a good sequel are fairly clear. The audience wants more of the same, but they also want something different. A change of tone, a progression of the characters, a raise in stake, or whatever transformation a filmmaker … Continue reading REVIEW: The Expendables 2 (2012)
Ric Roman Waugh’s Greenland emerges as 2021’s first major surprise: yet another large-scale disaster movie, it leaps head-and-shoulders above its genre to become the strongest film of its type since Michael Bay’s Armageddon back in 1998. On the same day that it becomes … Continue reading REVIEW: Greenland (2020)
A hot Mediterranean sun blazes down on a violent gang of thieves in hiding in Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s self-consciously stylish crime thriller Let the Corpses Tan. Based on a pulp novel and primarily shot on location in Corsica, it is … Continue reading REVIEW: Let the Corpses Tan (2017)
