Action/Adventure

IN COLD BLOOD — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Crime Drama, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, SHOCKTOBER!, True Crime, Video Essay

December 6, 2012

Screenwriter-director Richard Brooks’s faithful adaptation of Truman Capote’s innovative 1966 “non-fiction novel,” about a 1959 multiple homicide in Holcomb, Kansas,…

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, ONE STAR

November 23, 2012

Incomprehensible. If you are not familiar with the “Universal Soldier” franchise, which began in 1992, nothing in this fourth installment…

SKYFALL

Action/Adventure, British Cinema, FIVE STARS, Franchise, Reviews Blog, Spy Thriller, Video Essay

November 21, 2012

The James Bond franchise is especially compelling for the lengths filmmakers go to in sidestepping hard-worn formula clichés with each…

LIFE OF PI — NYFF 2012

Action/Adventure, FOUR STARS, Magical Realism, NYFF, Reviews Blog

November 21, 2012

“Life of Pi” is not without its flaws. Cutaway sequences to an adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) retelling his story to…

SKYFALL

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, FIVE STARS, Franchise, Spy Thriller, Video Essay

October 31, 2012

The 23rd installment in the longest-running franchise in cinema history is crafted to satisfy fans from every era of the…

LIFE OF PI — NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL 2012

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, FOUR STARS, Magical Realism, New York Film Festival, Video Essay

October 6, 2012

“Life of Pi” is not without its flaws. Cutaway sequences to an adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) retelling his story to…

THE EXPENDABLES 2

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, Franchise, ONE STAR

August 29, 2012

For his role as the story’s baddie Vilain, Jean Claude Van Damme works some undermined magic. A mano y mano…

PREMIUM RUSH

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, THREE STARS

August 24, 2012

Popcorn gets stuck in the bubblegum of director/co-writer David Koepp’s teenybopper crowd-pleaser. 99% of all movies have at least one…

NITRO CIRCUS: THE MOVIE 3D

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, Documentary, FOUR STARS, Political Satire

July 31, 2012

A crew of ambitious daredevils with the “Jackass” ethos, perform unbelievably dangerous stunts on objects such as souped-up Big Wheels.…

SAFE

Action/Adventure, Reviews Blog, THREE STARS

April 23, 2012

Jason Statham represents a cottage film industry built on his name as the de facto franchise designation. For audiences who…

SAFE

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, THREE STARS

April 23, 2012

Jason Statham represents a cottage film industry built on his name as the de facto franchise designation. For audiences who…

THE HUNGER GAMES

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, Dystopia, Franchise, Literary Adaptation, ONE STAR, Sci-Fi, Women's Cinema

March 22, 2012

However true to Suzanne Collins’s popular young adult novel, Gary Ross’s filmic adaptation of “The Hunger Games” is a dystopian…

THE RAID: REDEMPTION

Action/Adventure, Crime Drama, FIVE STARS, Martial Arts, Reviews Blog

March 19, 2012

Writer/director Gareth Evans’s brazenly over-the-top martial arts extravaganza sets a new waterline for what audiences can expect from a genre…

TOMORROW: WHEN THE WAR BEGAN

Action/Adventure, Capsules Blog, THREE STARS

February 20, 2012

A resistance-combatant-primer disguised as a teen-exploitation flick, “Tomorrow When the War Began” delights in guilty pleasures. A resistance-combatant-primer disguised as…

TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN

Action/Adventure, Agitprop, Dystopia, Reviews Blog, THREE STARS, War, Women's Cinema

February 20, 2012

A resistance-combatant-primer disguised as a teen-exploitation flick, “Tomorrow When the War Began” delights in guilty pleasures. Syrupy folk music—harmonica included—from…