Great car action and an otherwise by-the-numbers Denzel thriller from the era. I was pleasantly impressed having not seen this back when it was new.
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Bama Rush 2023
At the end of the day, this is a fine documentary that treats its subjects with dignity and does little to investigate its ideas or draw any kind of conclusions from what it learns.
I could blame the trailer for capitalizing on the news reports and sound bytes that lead you to believe there’s drama in store when in fact the doc plays those clips only to interrupt its story to say, “our doc got interrupted by these rumors,” but I’ve been burnt by a few trailers lately so I’ll blame deceptive marketing and not the story onscreen.
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Sisu 2022
Great ideas, incredible practical and make-up effects, and a start-and-stop pace that couldn’t bring it all together.
I should know better than to buy into any trailer, but Sisu did have a great one. It was a wild ride of over-the-top action, tightly paced and fun. The film itself establishes itself as a more cinematic affair, which can also work, other than the fact that the scenes of action and excitement sharply start and stop without a solid run of scenes…
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Evil Dead Rise 2023
Evil Dead Rise makes it clear that, while taking steps to broaden its range and champion new stories, the horror genre has one foot firmly planted in the past: cheap thrills, telegraphed scares and wafer-thin plot.
This was a great and eye-catching lead performance from Alyssa Sutherland surrounded by paint-by-numbers slasher gags that never surprised, creeped or even kicked up a goosebump. “Tease X household object, impale, forget about it, repeat.” Tenet did more with a cheese grater than this.…
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2023
Great bang for your buck. It was fun and looked beautiful, but moved so fast you never got to feel much from the story or even savor the action. Hurts to say this was often forgettable because there is so much good work onscreen and the animation is impeccable.
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The Innocents 1961
Incredibly atmospheric, effectively unnerving, and… operating on levels deeper than I could quite tune in with on first watch.
Despite the richness onscreen, the experience doesn’t fully come together as truly scary or psychologically disturbing (though it’s pretty clear why I couldn’t find this streaming anywhere 👀), but I do appreciate the narrative ambiguity in combination with the strong visual approach.
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves 2023
That was good fun.
And making Paladins look good, I’ll take it.
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John Wick: Chapter 4 2023
The Stunt Olympics™
There are still a few things in the Wick franchise that don’t fully capture my imagination, but it’s hard to argue with the level of skill, craft and beauty on display in John Wick Chapter 4. It’s all about the action, but Stahelski and team have put in the work to make it look stylized and incredible, from the dramatic lighting to the fresh filmmaking used to keep up with the action.
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Those few things…
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Tiger Cage 1988
That opening shootout has to be one of the greatest of all time. It’s got the right amount of nasty grit, white-knuckle stakes and harrowing stunts that get crazier as the scene evolves—complete with the crook-of-knee-reload that just got some love in the John Wick franchise.
Tiger Cage pulls no punches as gritty-80s-bullet-hole-riddled crime drama. The hits are hard, the deaths are ugly and wow, was I stunned again and again as the action and story went on.
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John Wick: Chapter 4 2023
The most formidable entry into the franchise, Chapter 4 polishes the formula to near sparkling and doubles down on the action, adding some great new characters to the party and giving us the heaviest hitting tactical action yet.
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John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum 2019
Jay Dubs Chappie 3 shows it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. It’s mostly satisfying, with some exciting additions to the franchise (dogs, horses, oh my), but as the runtime goes on the extended sequences stop feeling fresh and the lack of stakes takes its toll. This is most apparent when the final fight turns into three fights, two of which have Wick facing off against a pair of blade-wielding baddies.
One of those would have been enough, and less of everything would have been better.