Action

Spectre

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Spectre
  • IMDb: link

SpectreFirst introduced in Dr. No more than 50 years ago, and not heard from since the pre-credit sequence of For Your Eyes Only, SPECTRE represented a global terrorist organization focused on achieving their own goals. The rebooted Bond films, which began with Casino Royale, finally get around to reintroducing us to the classic villains and their leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) in the fourth movie of the series appropriately enough entitled Spectre.

I’ve never quite warmed to the rebooted Bond which stripped away several important pieces of the Bond films in rebranding our hero as more thug than spy. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed large parts of both Casino Royale and Skyfall but they’re middling entries to franchise that don’t compare to the best of Connery or Moore. And if Spectre has a major flaw its that while attempting homages to previous entrants to the franchise it constantly reminds the audience of aspects of better films we’d rather be watching. Everything from Blofeld’s new secret lair to the close-quarters fight aboard a moving train against an evil henchman (Dave Bautista) hearkens back to better moments from better films.

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Supergirl – Stronger Together

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Supergirl – Stronger Together
  • wiki: link

Supergirl - Stronger Together

The second episode of Supergirl continues to focus on Kara Zor-El‘s (Melissa Benoist) adventures as a struggling new hero. Although her heart is in the right place, Supergirl’s attempts to help cause an equal amount of damage and bad press. Taking the advice of Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) the fledging hero goes back to the drawing board and by enlisting the help of Superman’s black friend James “Don’t Call Me Jimmy” Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) and Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan) she begins a campaign to start smaller and defuse more easily-handled situations while learning on the job and slowly changing public perception.

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Hard Target

/ / Home Video
  • 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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Supergirl – Pilot

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Supergirl – Pilot
  • wiki: link

Supergirl - Pilot

Playing on the classic version of the character while giving her super-hero alter-ego a thankless job in a modern media company, CBS’ Supergirl premieres with a solid “Pilot” episode that, while rough around the edges, manages to entertain and show room for improvement. Melissa Benoist seemed like an odd casting choice for Kara Zor-El, Superman’s older (but younger) cousin from Kyrpton sent to Earth to protect him as a baby only to get lost in space and show up years later, but has spirit and spunk that serves her well here. The episode has some nice winks to comic and TV history for both Superman and Supergirl including giving Dean Cain and Helen Slater cameos as the human couple who raised Kara on Earth.

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Mr. & Mrs. Smith

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Mr. & Mrs. Smith
  • IMDb: link

Mr. & Mrs. SmithOriginally released in theaters 10 years ago, Mr. & Mrs. Smith stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie who, unbeknownst to each other, are rival spies for competing spy organizations. Doug Liman‘s 2005 film has held up pretty well over the past decade. Pitt and Jolie are fun together in a script that allows them to play off each other and, when called for, kick each other’s ass in one hell of a prolonged action scene that leaves their suburb home destroyed.

Most notable for its action set pieces, Simon Kinberg‘s script also has its share of humor (including a Fantasy Island joke that never fails to tickle my fancy no matter how many times I see the movie). It’s not a great film by any standard, but it still works well as a mostly-entertaining action flick (especially the first hour). Released several times on both DVD and Blu-ray, the new version includes pre-released extras and a digital copy of the film but sadly the Blu-ray only includes the theatrical cut of the film as the unrated extended version isn’t available on this release.

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