Letterboxd — Your life in film

Action! - Smokin' Joe & The Team Carnahan

Joe Carnahan's second picture is a more polished introduction to the medium than his debut effort. It follows many of the genre's tropes while also displaying the filmmaker's affinity for gritty realism, and it occasionally made me think of a superior version of the films of the David Ayer with a somewhat more psychological bent. Something that will be revisited in the director's future films.

Jason Patric and Ray Liotta make a good…

Rewatched the film with the audio commentary by Frank Djeng and Bobby Samuels just like I did earlier with The Prodigal Son and Warriors Two, all on the Eureka Blu-Rays. This was a fantastic time and I have an even deeper admiration for the film because their commentary was in-depth and precise but also laid back and friendly. They had a lot of passion for this and it was palpable so it really enhanced my already high respect for Odd…

PREFACE: Ooh boy. This is a long one but I've got to get a lot of shit off my chest.

I remember first reading Dune. A dog-eared, beautifully yellowed copy my father lent me. I must have been twelve or thirteen.
That opening!
Paul in his bed, seeing outlines of the Reverend Mother and the Lady Jessica, listening to them in the dark. And then the gom jabbar test. The Kwisatz Haderach. I was hooked.

Look, I LOVE DUNE. It's…

There's only one end for a fugitive. A dead end.

John Woo's out here making an insanely dumb but ridiculously fun action movie, and all y'all are wasting your time with dirt like A Star is Born and Roma. Pathetic. (I like those movies too, it's a joke, don't worry.) ManHunt feels like a hodgepodge of every single action crime movie ever made clumped together in about a hundred minutes of laughs, stupidity, and spectacle. We got doves, and a…

Give me some hope.

I can make this claim on this rewatch, because I sadly did not know who Johnnie To was when I watched this for the first time: I think I like this so much because it's like John Woo making a Johnnie To film. To's films all have this unique kind of self-awareness that's far more complex than what you often get in Western films that attempt to use that concept. Snark and cynicism aren't to be…

Woo constantly restages some of his greatest hits -- the gang brawl from BULLET IN THE HEAD here, the festival hit from THE KILLER there -- in an exceedingly convoluted riff on THE FUGITIVE. None of it feels particularly personal but it's still for the most part a refreshing comeback formally. He's succumbed a bit to overcutting, and there's precious little of his trademark slow-fast-slow stuff, but there's still almost nobody else out there who can give you that physical…

This was absolutely transcendent and I would go as far to say it’s one of my favorite cinematic experiences quite literally ever. I’m normally not very vocal during a film, but, sitting there on my own I was gasping and responding to so many awesome, shocking and exciting moments. I was in hysterics laughing at so much of the absolutely absurd shit going on, this has to be one of the funniest films I’ve watched. The opening with the legendary…

This was absolutely amazing and THAT final fight is freaking unbelievable in its brilliance and flawless execution. The way they start smashing those bricks is extremely well filmed. I love the respect of it all and the bit after is quite beautiful. Legends Kara Hui, Gordon Liu and Johnny Wang Lung-Wei are all wonderful and deliver gorgeous performances. The fights are frequent and perfectly choreographed with an emphasis on fun rather than brutality for the most part, which was a…