Bride Hard is an example of an action-comedy that has everything and, at the same time, absolutely nothing. Pitch Perfect co-stars Rebel Wilson and Anna Camp are the headliners, so one would assume their chemistry hasn’t changed since then. Filmmaker Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Mechanic, Wild Card) has been brought on to direct, so one would assume he knows the language of an action flick. The film is also supported by seasoned actors like Stephen…
Quaint humour and wholesome gags about retired life collide with a character-driven, Coen Brothers-inspired thriller in Thelma. In her best role since her Oscar nominated work in Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, June Squibb proves her chops as a late-career lead as the titular golden-ager. Lonely albeit confidently independent in Los Angeles, Thelma isn’t seen as a liability to her daughter (Parker Posey), her son-in-law (Clark Gregg), or her grandson (Fred Hechinger). However, a phone scam that…
Versatile, academy award nominated filmmaker Richard Linklater (The Before… series, Boyhood, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood) and rising star Glen Powell (reuniting with Linklater after 2016’s Everybody Wants Some!!) have combined their charm to make Hit Man, a strange caper loosely adapted from the double life of college professor Gary Johnson (played by Powell).
After watching kids have a ball with subversive superhero fodder like Megamind, The Bad Guys, and the Despicable Me franchise, older audiences finally get to have their fun with Villains Inc. But instead of assuming that adults want another frenetic flick with balls-to-the-wall violence and a four-to-twelve-letter colourful dialect (ala Kick-Ass and its sequel), Villains Inc. works within a more patient element with organic wit while outrageous characters build charismatic rhythms.
By: Jeff Ching Are we seeing the genesis of Dev Patel as Hollywood’s next big action star? Will Monkey Man become a colossal action movie franchise similar to John Wick? Monkey Man is certainly in the running for this year’s best action movie.
Though Netflix’s latest female-led action flick was released on International Women’s Day, Damsel makes an unconvincing case to empower anybody. Especially when the film stops in its tracks to have its heroine Elodie (Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown) denounce the story’s deliberate discriminatory attitude towards young women. However, if viewers are looking for a fun romp where that same heroine is in a cavernous cat-and-mouse chase from a fire-breathing, angry dragon, Damsel is just the…
Land of Bad may look and sound like your average combat action flick, but it’s actually much more thrilling and intricate than that surface assumption.
