Thriller

REVIEW: Sympathy For Lady Vengeance

Re-watching this film for the first time since it played at the HK Asian Film Festival in 2005, I was finally able to check out the “Fade to Black &… Read More
Joint Security Area

When a South Korean soldier (Lee Byung-hun) stationed with the garrison that guards the 38th Parallel on the North/South border staggers back across from the other side with a bullet… Read More
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance

As part of a future (as-yet undisclosed) project, I’m currently re-visiting the films of Korean director Park Chan-wook. I was planning to begin with JSA: Joint Security Area, but neither… Read More
The Sword of Doom

This fantastic samurai thriller from Okamoto Kihachi stars Nakadai Tatsuya (Harakiri) as a merciless, amoral samurai, who wanders the land murdering and taking advantage of almost everyone he meets, while… Read More
The Grey

Liam Neeson gives one his best performances in recent years as a toughened, grizzled hunter working in Alaska as a security guard for a team of roughnecks. When their plane… Read More
Zero Dark Thirty

Jessica Chastain is terrific as the single-minded, obsessive CIA agent who spearheads the decade-long search for Osama Bin Laden in Kathryn Bigelow’s rivetting thriller. From the secret torture camps to… Read More
Seven Psychopaths

Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh follows up his hugely entertaining debut, In Bruges, by moving to Hollywood and attempting a larger, more ambitiously plotted tale of hit men, dog ‘nappers and… Read More
The Hidden

One of those movies that always caught my eye in the video store, but for one reason or another I never got around to actually watching. Michael Nouri plays the… Read More
Gangster Squad

Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Sean Penn head up a strong cast that is largely squandered in Ruben Fleischer’s flashy yet superficial 1940s gangster yarn. The script seems… Read More
Trollhunter

Witty, exciting and utterly original, Andre Ovredal’s found footage film succeeds by playing it dead straight, where others may have been tempted to play the film for laughs. A student… Read More
Futureworld

I have seen Michael Crichton’s Westworld a number of times, but had never gotten around to watching this 1976 sequel before today. Starring Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner as a… Read More
48 Hrs.

A film I watched repeatedly as an impressionable youngster, it has been easily more than a decade since I last watched Walter Hill’s trend-setting buddy actioner. My immediate reaction? Still… Read More
Cosmopolis

Robert Pattinson continues to break away from his Twilight image and prove that he will likely be the one from that particular trio of starlets to build a lasting career… Read More
Cloud Atlas

The Wachowskis team up with Tom Tykwer to tackle David Mitchell’s multi-stranded parable, with polarizing results. Read my review here Read More
REVIEW: Cloud Atlas

The creative siblings behind The Matrix trilogy, Lana and Andy Wachowski, team up with German filmmaker Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) for a bold cinematic adaptation of David Mitchell’s equally… Read More
REVIEW: Skyfall

Were we ever going to be prepared for SKYFALL? When Sam Mendes was announced as director of the 23rd official James Bond movie, there were notable rumblings on the possibility… Read More
REVIEW: Texas Killing Fields

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle was originally on board to direct Don Ferrarone’s adaptation of the novel of the same name, based on real events that took place in Texas City,… Read More
REVIEW: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

After the surprise success of 2009’s reimagining of Sherlock Holmes, it comes as no surprise that a sequel is already here, nor that director Guy Ritchie has stuck to the… Read More