Luc Besson is a French film director whose personal brand of slick action thrillers – including Subway, La Femme Nikita, and Leon/The Professional – helped define what Raphaël Bassan named the ‘cinéma du look’. It was a perceived stylistic movement shared with the likes … Continue reading REVIEW: Kiss of the Dragon (2001)
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)
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)
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