Tag Archives: Action

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Land of the Lost (2009)

Land of the Lost was a series for children that ran on NBC from 1974 until 1976 and we have seen the last couple of years, Hollywood likes looking at old shows to use as a basis for a movie. Recent examples are Starsky and Hutch, Miami Vice, Dukes of Hazard or the A-Team. So Land of the Lost is one that can be added to the list. The thing with this movie is that to me it was very unclear which kind of audience the movie caters to, because there were a lot of things in the movie that are not aimed at children, but at the same time there isn’t much to enjoy for grown-ups either. Don’t be fooled by the picture I’ve added above, it may look spectacular, but in reality it will dissapoint you. Continue reading →

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Due Date (2010)

Visiting a movie theatre is not what is used to be. There once was a time where you could just buy a ticket, get your refreshments and wait for the doors to open, no more. It seems that visiting a cinema needs to be an “experience”. At least that was what I found out when visiting to see this movie.

The theatre I go to (called Pathé) has special Ladies nights, which I was not aware of. It’s quite succesful as most of the people walking around were actually women. To cater to these women they were selling clothing, makeup etcetera and a lot of women were buying. It was something I was not prepared for. After finally managing to get through the crowd it was time to watch Due Date, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. Continue reading →

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Seven Samurai (1954)

Akira Kurosawa is one of Japan’s most famous directors. His influence on other directors has been very big, someone like George Lucas was inspired by Kurosawas movies and the Magnificent Seven is a movie that is based on Seven Samurai. With this movie Kurosawa was the first to use various techniques in one movie. Examples are the shot of the bad guys appearing on top of a hill or the slow motion shots.
Seven Samurai is set in feudal Japan. When the villagers of a small town find out that there is a gang about to raid the village just when the crops are harvested, they decide to search for samurai that can defend their village. Continue reading →

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Léon (1994)

Luc Besson is one of France’s most famous directors. He’s responsible for a lot of well-known movies like the Taxi, Transporter and Banlieu 13 series, he wrote the story for From Paris with Love and the Fifth Element. When he had to wait for Bruce Willis (he was doing another movie) to start filming the Fifth Element, he decided to write a script, which resulted in Léon, a story about an assassin who unexpectedly ends up having to take care of a young girl. Continue reading →

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Red (2010)

Despite the lakes of adrenaline action stars do get old eventually. This doesn’t prevent them from still making action movies though as we already saw earlier this year with The Expendables. Bruce Willis (55) already played a small part in it, but in action comedy Red he’s the star. The rest of the actors are not known for action movies, but Morgan Freeman (73!), John Malkovich (56) and Helen Mirren (65) show that they know how to handle weapons. Do these older actors still manage to make explosive action scenes or has their time come and should they start looking for retirement homes? Continue reading →

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The Other Guys (2010)

The first scene of the Other Guys is so good and over the top that Michael Bay probably will be impressed by it. Agents Christopher Danson (Dwayne Johnson) and P.K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) show in only a couple of minutes how to catch criminals, even if that means causing millions in damages. They are so popular that nobody really cares about something like that. They also refuse to do any paperwork (as they are way too cool to spend time on something so useless), but their boss, Captain Gene Mauch (Michael Keaton), doesn’t mind as there are enough other police officers available at headquarters that are able to do this boring job.

Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) are two of these officers. Allen doesn’t mind doing it at all (he even volunteers doing it), but Terry hates having to sit behind a desk. Because of an error he made when he was younger he’s forced to having a desk job.
Allen however is excellent in the job he does and by doing his paperwork properly he finds out that David Ershon, a wealthy businessman, has made some mistakes related to his business. Allen and Terry decide to arrest him for it and by doing so they get entangled in a bigger case than they were expecting. Continue reading →

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Green Zone (2010)

With the Bourne trilogy Matt Damon has proved (together with director Paul Greengrass) that he is a versatile actor that is also excellent in action movies. Greengrass and Damon teamed up again to make Green Zone. They’ve chosen Iraq, shortly after the invasion by the US, as backdrop for their story. Is Green Zone “Jason Bourne in the Middle East” or does the movie manage to create its own identity?

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Mad Max (1979)

Through the years I’ve seen a lot Mad Max trilogy related pictures, but never watched the movies themselves. I knew nothing very little about them, except that Mel Gibson was starring in it. When I watched it it became clear (very quickly) that this movie wasn’t made on a big budget. Despite the small budget the end result is worth watching.
The movie is set in the future where the Australian roads are being terrorised by motorcycle gangs and it’s up to the police to catch them. That’s enough reason to film a lot of car chases. Continue reading →

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Salt (2010)

During the cold war (but also after it ended) Russians were usually the bad guys in movies.
When the threat of Russia had disappeared Hollywood started looking for a new enemy and ended up with terrorist, who usually came out of the middle east.
Salt succeeds to bring the Russian threat back in its setup. The timing of the movie in July seemed perfect with the news of the discovery and capture of a couple of russian spies who already lived in America for several years. This is also the idea behind Salt. The execution of the idea really manages to bring back the cold war feeling that existed in the eighties. Continue reading →

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The Expendables (2010)

Action heroes. Tough guys that are able to defeat whole armies without any help, drive fast cars and always have beautiful women around them. The eighties and beginning of the nineties have produced a lot of action movies and a lot of stars. I grew up watching a lot of Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone movies. Besides that I loved the martial arts movies starring Jean-Claude van Damme, Steven Seagal and Eric Roberts (Best of the Best). The were all “high adrenaline” movies which usually didn’t have great stories, but they made up for it with lots of action scenes. Over the years these type of movies have become less popular and there don’t seem to be as many of them made anymore. Continue reading →