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)
The 1980s was a decade dominated by popular high concept action films, heavy on muscular stars who were short on refined talent but huge on screen presence. More than anything it was the decade of Sylvester Stallone versus Arnold Schwarzenegger, … Continue reading REVIEW: Commando (1985)
It seems that, by the release of Furious Six in 2013, the Fast and the Furious saga had slipped into a rather comfortable routine: a new film every two years, pushing forward the increasingly soap opera-like narrative each time and also pushing the franchise … Continue reading REVIEW: Furious Six (2013)
I was late to the relaunched Fast & Furious franchise, which seemed to die with 2006’s Tokyo Drift before unexpectedly coming back to life with the much-improved Fast & Furious three years later. Fast Five was released in 2011; with the benefit of hindsight it probably … Continue reading REVIEW: Fast Five (2011)
Marvel’s Black Widow finally hits cinemas next week, delayed from its original 2020 release by COVID-19 and – let us be honest – about seven or eight years late to begin with. Scarlett Johansson debuted as the international spy and assassin Natasha … Continue reading REVIEW: Black Widow (2021)
The Fast and the Furious was a weak action film that broadly plagiarised Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break by simply replacing surfboards with cars and Patrick Swayze with Vin Diesel. It was a moderate hit back in 2001, and its success led to an … Continue reading REVIEW: Fast & Furious (2009)
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