Articles Posted in the " Action " Category

  • End of Watch

    Like a resounding fist-bump cementing a job well done, police drama End of Watch is a testosterone-fuelled ride-along through L.A.’s crime-ridden south central district. Proving that sometimes a film doesn’t need to be more than the sum of its parts, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña showcase an infectious chemistry that papers over some noticeable cracks, and confirm there’s life in the Academy yet.


  • Our Family Wedding

    Weddings! Weddings weddings weddings. Everybody loves weddings and all films are about weddings these days aren’t they? It really feels like that’s the case. Take wedding themed film Our Family Wedding, for instance. Weddings everywhere! Only, why is there a goat running around eating Viagra and trying to rape people? And why are all the Mexican people so deeply, deeply racist? And why is Forest Whitaker in this film? So many questions! And by questions we mean weddings.


  • Desire to Kill

    Whether you call it Desire to Kill or Enemy at the Dead End, this film is still about two nearly-dead men in a hospital ward trying to kill each other without the nurses noticing. You could roll a wheelchair through some of the plot holes, but this absurdist South Korean thriller is a true original.


  • Skyfall

    Probably the best Bond of the new era, Skyfall is an assured and at times jaw-droppingly beautiful action film. Veering slightly more towards the ludicrous excesses of the Bond of old, Skyfall simultaneously maintains the grittier, more modern style, making it an anniversary throwback and a distinctly modern Bond film all at once. Obsessed with the spectre of death and being replaced, Skyfall doesn’t actually have a great deal to say on those topics, but it does have a memorable baddie (finally!) – and if the climax is disappointing, it’s only in comparison to the mastery of the rest of it.


  • Infidelity: Sex Stories 2

    No matter how much the phrase “art house” appears on the back of the DVD, or the flimsy references to “philosophie” in the director’s biography, this film’s intent is clearly to titillate. This it does not.


  • Taken 2

    A year on from the events of Taken, Bryan Mills (Neeson) had hoped to retire in peace but when he and his wife are kidnapped by a gang looking to exact revenge, he is forced to re-employ the very particular set of skills which saw Taken become such a a cult hit. Taken 2 is a pretty generic action film with none of the brutality or vibrancy of its predecessor but it has enough spectacle to ensure that cinemas will still get a significant number of bums on seats.


  • After the Wizard

    “When one story ends, another begins” is the strapline for After the Wizard. Catchy, and often true, but that doesn’t make the story it accompanies any good. Here’s another quote for you: “Property of Breaking Glass Pictures”.You can keep it, mate.


  • Dredd

    Put that Stallone-starring abomination from 1995 right out of your head – Director Pete Travis’ Dredd is a much more focused and faithful adaptation of science fiction comic 2000AD’s most famous and enduring strip, even if a lack of depth and some bland action stop it achieving greatness.


  • Battle of the Pacific

    Really? OK – Battle of the Pacific is a dreary WWII yarn sold to me by Best For Film as a ‘Martin Sheen war drama’, which is true if you take ‘Martin Sheen’ to mean ‘Daniel Baldwin’ and ‘war drama’ to mean ‘fiasco’. Running at a good two hours that feel like a bad three, I only made it to the end by turning the sound down and practicing my ukulele as I waited eagerly for the bad news from Hiroshima – and before you mount your moral high horse, just try sitting through Battle of the Pacific yourself and then tell me you don’t want to see people die.


  • In The Name Of The King: Two Worlds

    In 2006, unofficially-crowned Worst Director of All Time Uwe Boll made an action-fantasy video-game adaptation (of the Dungeon Siege games) called In The Name Of The King. It cost $60million, starred Jason Statham and Ron Perlman, and boasted supporting turns from Ray Liotta and Burt Reynolds. It made less than $14million and has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 4%. Now, six years later, he’s made a sequel. Super.