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)
Let us start with what usually happens. A film is made and becomes a small-to-moderate hit. There is not a huge appetite for a sequel – not in theatres at any rate – but there is enough brand value and … Continue reading REVIEW: Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018)
Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) breaks out of prisons for a living, using his unique skills set to find the weaknesses in America’s maximum security facilities. When he is hired by the CIA to undertake the same task on an international … Continue reading REVIEW: Escape Plan (2013)
It is a strange time for cinemas. In those countries where theatres are still open, and the risk is low enough, there is a remarkable dearth of Hollywood product. The big-budget tentpoles are all rattling down like pinballs through the … Continue reading REVIEW: Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
Robert Rodriguez’s 2010 grindhouse riff Machete, starring Danny Trejo, is a creative misfire that takes a passable comedic sketch from Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse project and stretches it to an interminable feature length. Despite the occasional funny moment, this grindhouse spin-off is … Continue reading REVIEW: Machete (2010)
Walt Disney’s ongoing run of live-action adaptations of their past animated hits reaches a fresh height in creative futility with Niki Caro’s Mulan, a non-musical riff on the company’s 1998 hit. It would be deeply unfair to claim this remake is … Continue reading REVIEW: Mulan (2020)
The Expendables is a classic example of a film giving an audience exactly what it wants – whether that is a good thing or not. In its defence, for the large part that does seem a good thing: Sylvester Stallone’s deliberately generic film … Continue reading REVIEW: The Expendables (2010)
