I’m really not a big Tony Scott fan. He has always been a filmmaker who could not quite escape from his brother’s shadow. I detest Top Gun and his recent films have featured some truly atrocious ‘Shaky-Cam’ camerawork. So, it was with extremely low expectations that I went to a preview screening of Unstoppable, and although the dreaded ‘Shaky-Cam’ is still present (especially in the opening sequence) it is less grating. This contributes greatly to Unstoppable confounding my low expectations and being a surprisingly satisfying and enjoyable thriller/character study genre movie. [click to continue…]
Action
3D is a source of consistent frustration for me. In the vast majority of cases it is simply a money making gimmick which, in the vast majority of cases does not work. The other few instances in which 3D works is if it is used as an extension of depth of field or if a director understands and appreciates the form as a gimmick for cheap audience thrills; and this is exactly what Paul W.S Anderson does with Resident Evil: Afterlife. [click to continue…]
I adore 1980’s action movies, on the grounds that films such as Die Hard, The Terminator, First Blood, Cobra and Commando established a strong set of genre conventions and requirements. In short, these films laid the groundwork for an entire genre. However, these kind of action movies are simply not being made any more. With this in mind I went into The Expendables with high hopes that I would witness something which would sit proudly alongside its forbears in the action genre, and I did. Sort of. [click to continue…]
2010 has started on a distinctly post-apocalyptic note, with both this film and John Hillcoat’s ‘The Road’ released within a week of each other. As a fan of post-apocalyptic film I was extremely enthusiastic about Eli’s release but sadly, the film didn’t quite live up to its billing. The main reason for this is that for a film with such an action-packed trailer and the presence of a proven action movie actor such as Denzel Washington, there is precious little action on display. [click to continue…]
