Death Wish 3 is as perfect a bad movie as I can imagine. It is completely over the top and makes absolutely no pretenses as to what it is about. Paul Kersey is far removed from the meek and mild architect from the first movie and has now become a professional “neighborhood population control expert”. Armed with a hand cannon (.475 Wildey Magnum for those … Continue reading Death Wish 3 Review
Death Wish goes west is probably a more appropriate title to this sequel. As a kid in love with macho badasses Charles Bronson was, of course, one of my heroes. And in retrospect it is Bronson’s presence alone that saves this one from being a nearly complete dud, that and cheesy lines every now and then such as “Do you believe in Jesus? (Punk says … Continue reading Death Wish 2 Review
This is unapologetic male revenge fantasy, made all the more powerful and terrifying by how gritty and realistic it is portrayed. The character of Paul Kersey is not the sort of man you expect to see played by Charles Bronson, at first that is. He’s a quiet architect whose politics definitely lean toward the anti-gun side of the fence, but that all changes when he … Continue reading Death Wish Review
I don’t know if this is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best action movie, but I believe it may be my personal favorite. This is a good example of a very smart dumb movie. Arnold plays an American version of James Bond by night, and a normal loving boring husband by day, to his wife played by the smoking hot at the time Jamie Lee Curtis. Arnold’s sidekick … Continue reading True Lies Review
It had completely escaped my memory that both Liam Neeson and Jim Carrey (in yes, their only movie together) appeared in the fifth and final installment of the Dirty Harry franchise known as “The Dead Pool”. Those are two of my favorite actors for very different reasons, and if any modern actor was going to take over the mantle of Dirty Harry right now Neeson … Continue reading The Dead Pool Review
This was the first Dirty Harry movie to be made in the 1980s, and as such the change in tone was very noticeable. This was a time when marketing and product placement became much more obvious in movies, and these kinds of movies more or less became vehicles to establish catch phrases and make flashy trailers, and also tell a story if there was enough … Continue reading Sudden Impact Review
In this the third installment of the Dirty Harry series, Harry Callahan takes on a group of Mayor kidnapping hippy-terrorists known as the People’s Revolutionary Strike Force (PRSF), Black Extremists, and also deals with feminism in his own unique way. The feminism bit comes when Callahan is assigned a partner (which never, ever works out well in these movies…) that “happens to be” female played … Continue reading The Enforcer Review
Force, the second movie of the Dirty Harry film franchise was released just two years after the original, and in many ways is a response to the criticism leveled against it. It is quite strange that the bad guys of this film are vigilante cops gone too far unless you look at it from that lens of responding to the claims of the first movie … Continue reading Magnum Force Review
Socially and politically speaking now is probably not the right time to review a movie like Dirty Harry, a movie I have loved since I was really too young to be watching it to begin with. There is an argument made by some that some of the current rash of police violence can be blamed on movies like Dirty Harry because today’s policemen in many … Continue reading Dirty Harry Review
Jean Claude Van Damme is Kurt Sloane, the brother of American kickboxing champion Eric Sloane (Dennis Alexio). Eric travels with Kurt to Thaland to face the dangerous Muay Thai monster known as ‘Tong Po’. Po cripples Eric Sloane, leaving the younger brother hellbent on revenge. Luckily, Mr. Miyagi himself happens to live nearby and, in a series of vignettes, teaches Van Damme how to be … Continue reading Kickboxer Review
A man (Nicolas Cage) catching a plane ride home from a four year stint in prison after accidentally killing the men who tried to attack his pregnant wife finds himself on board a plane full of lifers/death row convicts who take over the plane in an elaborate attempt to gain their freedom. This movie is a perfect exercise in ridiculous excess. There’s too much of … Continue reading Con Air Review
Some movies that you see and love as a child should be left in your childhood and never revisited as an adult, lest you tarnish those memories. No Holds Barred is just such a movie. I knew going in that this movie was not going to be a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn’t fully prepared for just how bad it … Continue reading No Holds Barred Review
Way down in the swamps of Louisiana, Dr. Alec Holland (and his sister) has created a top-secret a secret formula that gives both plants/animals (and humans) that touch it the ability to survive in extreme conditions. It basically takes whatever the core essence of the thing it touches and makes that their super power. Alice, a government agent sent to investigate this process, shows up … Continue reading Swamp Thing Review
Some movies are defined by the age you were when you first saw them. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is just such a movie for me. As a young squire I was blissfully unaware of how absurd it was that Christian Slater and Kevin Costner were portraying classic British legends. I just thought they were cool movie heroes, and I find, I am able to … Continue reading Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Review
“I need you to be human again…” sobs the longsuffering wife, and mother to the children of America’s deadliest ever military sniper Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) in this gripping film directed by Clint Eastwood. However, after more than 160 confirmed kills (with over 250 probable kills) that may be asking too much for any man. Chris Kyle experienced something no other American and few other … Continue reading American Sniper Review
It has been said also that you cannot make a movie about war without glorifying war. Francis Ford Coppola tried with Apocalypse Now, Oliver Stone tried with Platoon, and Stanley Kubrick tried with Full Metal Jacket. But in the end all of these movies failed to take that “new car smell” off of humanity’s second most popular pastime for the past few millenniums. In the … Continue reading Fury Review
In this third installment of the Expendables franchise we learn a little bit about the origins of Barney Frank and Lee Christmas’ (Stallone and Statham) gang of do-gooder mercenaries. Apparently the team was originally co-founded with Frank by a man named Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) who eventually tired of being the run around man of various government agencies and decided to form his own crew … Continue reading The Expendables 3 Review
