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Southpaw

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  • Title: Southpaw
  • IMDb: link

SouthpawDirector Antoine Fuqua‘s Southpaw is a relatively straightforward story of an athlete getting up off the mat after being knocked down by life. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as an undefeated boxing champion nearing the end of his career whose life is struck by a series of tragic events which cause him to reevaluate his priorities, attempt to become a better father to his daughter (Oona Laurence), and reclaim a life, both in and out of the ring, which he once took for granted.

The movie is highlighted by performances by Gyllenhaal, Laurence, and Rachel McAdams as the boxer’s wife. Both Forest Whitaker add 50 Cent a little life to the party as well, but neither is asked to color outside the lines of very basic characters.

Boxing fans are likely to get more out of the movie than others, although I think the first-person perspective used in spots during the climactic in-ring battle is a little disorienting.

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Spy

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  • Title: Spy
  • IMDb: link

SpyMelissa McCarthy stars as a CIA analyst forced into the field when an arms dealer (Rose Byrne) with knowledge of all the CIA’s operatives acquires a nuclear bomb and plans to sell it on the black market. I’m far from McCarthy’s biggest fan whose poor script choices have made me more than once refer to her as the female Kevin James. However, with Spy the comedienne’s talents are put to good use by writer/director Paul Feig which is odd because the script shares quite a bit in common with the far-less enjoyable Get Smart reboot from a few years back. Along with McCarthy, Feig balances the talents of Byrne, Jude Law, and a very funny Jason Statham as the alpha-male spy who is his own biggest fan in a comedy far funnier than I was expecting.

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Hard Target

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  • Title: Hard Target
  • IMDb: link

Hard Target

This movie has Jean-Claude Van Damme punching a snake and Wilford Brimley, while sporting a Cajun accent, shooting arrows into people. More than 20 years after its release Hard Target feels every bit the B-movie early 1990s action flick it is. Notable for teaming up action star Van Damme (as an out-of-work Cajun soldier in Louisiana) and director John Woo (in his first American film) the film delivers audiences stunts, action sequences, and the large number of wide-eyed reaction shots from co-star Yancy Butler looking directly into the camera.

The story brings Natasha (Butler) to New Orleans in search of her missing father, a homeless veteran who was recrutied by a group of demented sprotsmen (Lance Henriksen, Arnold Vosloo, and others) who enjoy hunting humans for sport. A chance meeting, so to speak, with Chance Boudreaux (Van Damme), who is in need of some quick cash to get back to sea, leads the pair to team-up to investigate what really happened to the woman’s father and track down those responsible.

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Arrow – The Complete Third Season

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  • Title: Arrow – Season Three
  • wiki: link

Arrow - The Complete Third SeasonArrow‘s Third Season brings Ra’s al Ghul (Matt Nable) to Starling City to make Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) an offer he can’t refuse (despite his many attempts to do so). Highlights of the season include the season premiere, the fallout of the death of Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), an adventure in Corto Maltese, the return of Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), Felicity‘s (Emily Bett Rickards) past coming back to haunt her, Amy Gumenick‘s appearance as Green Arrow’s #1 fan, a crossover with the Flash, the duel with the Demon’s Head, Laurel (Katie Cassidy) coming into her own as the Black Canary, and Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) becoming a hero.

The season’s final arc focuses on Ra’s al Ghul manipulating Oliver and Starling City, including a deadly attack on Thea (Willa Holland), to force Oliver to accept the offer to join the League of Assassins as Ra’s al Ghul’s heir leading to Oliver’s time as Ah Sah-Him, an unexpected wedding, and the season finale wrapping up the arc.

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Anastasia

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  • Title: Anastasia
  • IMDb: link

AnastasiaOne of only two feature releases for the short-lived Fox Animation Studios, 1997’s Anastasia has the feel of a Disney princess movie while mixing the look and design of a Don Bluth film. Beginning with the fall of the Russian Czar by the evil Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd) and the disappearance of the family’s young daughter (voiced as a child by Kirsten Dunst), the story picks up a decade later with an older Anya (Meg Ryan) leaving the orphanage where she was raised to journey into the wilder world searching for a family she scarcely remembers.

Along the way our heroine will encounter a pair of con men (John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer) who attempt to take advantage of Anya’s resemblance to the missing princess by training her to be Anastasia (not realizing she is indeed the genuine article). On the way to Paris to present Anya to the Dowager Empress in exile (Angela Lansbury) the group will also have to deal with the undead Rasputin out for vengeance and his cute sidekick Batrok (Hank Azaria).

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