Category: action
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Rampage [2018] ★★½
It wasn’t until I spotted an arcade cabinet that has “Rampage” written all over it that I realized that this movie is indeed based on the famous 1980’s game, in which giant monsters are trying to destroy an entire city. The game was fun and straightforward, and the movie is exactly like that. It doesn’t…
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Tomb Raider [2018] ★★★
How you react to this fresh adaptation of “Tomb Raider” will have a lot to do with your expectations. I didn’t care much for the two movies starring Angelina Jolie (come to think of it, they were awful, despite a good performance from Jolie), so I was certainly looking forward to seeing Alicia Vikander as…
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Red Sparrow [2018] ★★½
Check your brain at the door. This tense, often confusing spy-thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence as a Bolshoi ballerina-turned-spy, gets a lot of things right, but also a lot of things wrong. My advice: go with the illogic or you’ll miss the fun. And there’s plenty of fun in seeing Lawrence kicking ass in Russian. OK,…
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Black Panther [2018] ★★★½
There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Marvel’s latest superhero movie “Black Panther”, and now that I’ve finally seen it, I can genuinely say that the hype is truly justified. This is one of the finest superhero films I’ve ever seen: visually stunning, sharply-written, and directed with a keen eye for detail by Ryan Coogler.…
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Maze Runner: The Death Cure [2018] ★★½
The final chapter in the “Maze Runner” trilogy is a huge improvement over its predecessor. While the first film offered an intriguing premise (a bunch of kids trapped in a maze with no blueprint in hand), the second one decided to settle for formula, which was disappointing for me. “The Death Cure”, while not completely…
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The Commuter [2018] ★★½
Liam Neeson is on a train. No, his daughter hasn’t been kidnapped. I know you’re tempted to call it “Taken” on a train. Or maybe “Non-Stop” the train version. Ok, I’ll stop. Director Jaume Collet-Serra, who directed Neeson in several films before, throws our hero this time around on a train, where a mysterious woman…
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Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle [2017] ★★★
I was no more than 8 years old when the original “Jumanji” film was released. As an undemanding kid, the movie entertained me, despite its simple story. Now as an adult, I walked in to see “Welcome to the Jungle” with no particular expectations, and what I got in return was a fun ride, fueled…
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Star Wars: The Last Jedi [2017] ★★★½
I still remember struggling with mixed feelings when Disney announced that it would be acquiring the rights from George Lucas and kick-start a whole new “Star Wars” trilogy. What would happen to a saga that clearly ended on Endor with the burial of Darth Vader? The minute “The Force Awakens” opened, I heaved a sigh…
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Thor: Ragnarok [2017] ★★★½
I don’t like the word “hype”, but with “Thor: Ragnarok”, at least I can say that the hype is justified. This is easily the best “Thor” movie thus far and one of my favorite Marvel films as well. As someone who enjoyed Thor’s first adventure, I thought “The Dark World” was a massive step back.…
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Only The Brave [2017] ★★½
It’s difficult to know how to respond to a movie like “Only The Brave”. As a disaster film, it follows all the basic guidelines that we’ve come to expect from similar movies: heroism, excitement and a sense of real danger. As drama based on real life events, I thought the movie fell short. Josh Brolin…
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Geostorm [2017] ★★
You don’t walk in to see a disaster movie starring Gerard Butler expecting quotable dialogue or a ground-breaking story. And “Geostorm”, written and directed by Dean Devlin doesn’t claim to be something it’s not. It does offer eye-popping special effects, but everything else, from the acting to the cheesy climate premise, is mediocre at best.…
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The Foreigner [2017] ★★½
A bomb goes off in London. Jackie Chan’s daughter dies in the blast. He wants answers from a British government official (played by Pierce Brosnan), who may or may not know the people behind the terror attack. Brosnan refuses to cooperate (naturally), and all hell breaks loose (naturally). That’s “The Foreigner” in a nutshell, a…
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Kingsman: The Golden Circle [2017] ★★★
Sequels to successful movies are usually tricky business, but I had a total blast watching “Kingsman: The Golden Circle”. Yes, the element of surprise is gone and there isn’t much to discover here. The good news, however, is that director Matthew Vaughn hasn’t lost his love for inspired lunacy. Hanging with Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and…
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Logan Lucky [2017] ★★½
Critics have been praising director Steven Soderbergh’s comeback movie (he retired 4 years ago after “Side Effects”), and there’s no denying that he’s still got it, even though I didn’t fully embrace the overall result. On the plus side, “Logan Lucky” has a well-cast ensemble and gives us Daniel Craig like we’ve never seen him before.…
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American Made [2017] ★★★
Tom Cruise is on top of his game in this fact-based movie about Barry Seal, a TWA pilot who ended up working for both the CIA and the drug cartel (run by The Pablo Escobar), in the late 70’s and early 80’s. You just can’t make this up, and you just can’t ask for a better…
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The Hitman’s Bodyguard [2017] ★★½
You don’t walk in to see a comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson with high expectations, so I have to give “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” some credits for delivering the goods so many times. In trying to emulate the “buddy cop” genre, director Patrick Hughes relies on Reynolds’ charm and Jackson’s witty one liners…
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Atomic Blonde [2017] ★★½
Sounds juicy: Charlize Theron kicking ass like there’s no tomorrow. But “Atomic Blonde”, directed by David Leitch, a former stuntman who co-directed “John Wick” (it shows), is neither the action movie of the year nor the disaster I feared. It falls somewhere in between, and for that, I have to cut the movie some slack. One…
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Transformers: The Last Knight [2017] ★
“What the fuck is happening?” I kept asking myself as I suffered through this mind-numbingly bad 4th sequel to 2007’s “Transformers”. I can’t remember the last time I felt the need to walk out of a movie, but for the sake of a genuine review, I stayed until the bitter end. The first movie, formulaic…
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Baby Driver [2017] ★★★½
Forget the Fast and the Furious movies, if you want a truly original car movie that pumps up your adrenaline level with first-rate action scenes and a killer soundtrack, “Baby Driver” is the summer film for you. This instant classic from director Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead”, “Scott Pilgrim Vs the World”) is everything…
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War For The Planet Of The Apes [2017] ★★★½
I rarely say this about a summer blockbuster, but “War for the Planet of the Apes” is a masterpiece. God knows I’ve been disappointed by sequels and reboots before; what’s more, the original “Planet of the Apes” still holds a special place in my heart. But this movie, once again directed by Matt Reeves, is…
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