Akira Kurosawa knew how to tell stories that last. The simple story of a ronin (Toshirō Mifune) wandering into a small town and causing chaos to solve a larger problem has been remade, adapted, and inspired dozens (if not hundreds) of projects over the years from spaghetti westerns to samurai science fiction. My favorite, however, has always been Stan Sakai‘s Usagi Yojimbo which owes much to Kurosawa’s tale.
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Arriving in theaters 17 years after Zorro, the Gay Blade, 1998’s The Mask of Zorro gave us Anthony Hopkins as the classic hero Don Diego de la Vega who we see imprisoned by the corrupt Spanish Governor Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson) on Spain’s retreat from its former colony. With his wife (Julieta Rosen) killed, and his daughter Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) stolen to be raised by his mortal enemy, Diego remains imprisoned for 20 years when Montero’s return gives him a chance at vengeance and to instruct a new pupil (Antonio Banderas) in the ways of Zorro.
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MacGyver Monday takes us back to another adventure featuring science-adventurer Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) who goes deep into the Amazon jungle with his old friend Charlie (Peter Jurasik) to investigate what unusual event is affecting the animals of the region. Deep in the jungle they find both the cause of the animals’ flight and a plantation owned by a driven man named Trumbo (David Ackroyd).
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MacGyver – Trumbo’s World Read More »
Mu zhong wu ren, released to Western audiences as Eye for an Eye, Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman, and Defiant, stars Miao Xie as the blind bounty hunter. Learning his name only at the end of the film, Cheng Xiazi’s strict regimen is interrupted when he meets a wine maker (Weiman Gao) who is raped, and her family slaughtered, on her wedding day. Receiving no help from the local police, who are fearful of the attackers powerful criminal ties, our hero champions Ni Yan’s need for vengeance.
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Providing Jason Statham with his first action franchise, The Transporter casts him as expert driver Frank Martin who will transport packages (no questions asked) for any client willing to pay his rate and meet his very specific set of rules. Getting in trouble by breaking his own rules by looking in a moving package holding a kidnapped Shu Qi, Frank’s world is soon put in jeopardy by his irate client (Matt Schulze).
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