20. Brooklyn’s Finest (2009)
Dark,depressing cop drama set over a period of seven days,revolving around the lives of three unconnected NYPD officers.
All three stories are interesting and kept me glued to the screen and there are some really tense scenes.
Gere has the best storyline i think,playing a jaded,burnt out beat officer just days from retirement.
Have a comedy lined up afterwards,coz this film is grim!
19. One Upon A Time In China 2 (1992)
Jet and co must fight against The White Lotus Clan who are MENTAL and are trying to drive out Westerners and their ideals from China.
Great sequel which i enjoyed way more than the first. It seems to be a lot faster paced,but doesn’t seem rushed and still has a good story to tell with just the right mix of humour and action. There are some really inventive fights in this movie (the multi-table fight was a highlight!)
I’ll be watching the third one soon,for the first time. I seem to remember reading reviews saying it’s not meant to be as good as this one,but we shall see…..
18. Fist of Hono(u)r (1993)
God,this was dull. PM Entertainment produced a real mixed back of low budget actioners throughout the 90s/early noughties and they had some really fun ones (‘Recoil’,’Last Man Standing’,’The Silencers’) and a whole load of duds (the ones starring Anna Nicole Smith,especially ‘Skyscraper’ are BAAAAAAAAD!) and this was a DUD.
Sam ‘FLASH…AH-AAAAHHH’ Jones plays a bare knuckle fighter/debt collector working for da mob and gets involved with infighting between his mob and a rival mob. That’s a lot of mobs.
I think PM were trying for something a bit ‘deeper’ here. It’s way more plot and dialogue driven than i’m used to from them and i guess i just wanted ACTION and i wasn’t onboard for this one at all.
There simply weren’t enough explosions for my liking. PM do GREAT explosions. A car will bump into a wall and EXPLODE. A car will spin off the road and land on its side and EXPLODE.
There’s an outdoor fight where what looks like a tramp is sat on a bench watching them and i must give him credit for staying in the same position and looking extremely unimpressed for the entire length of the scene!
Avoid. :)
17. Point Blank (aka A Bout Portant) (2010)
Action packed,fast moving (83 minutes),highly implausible French thriller…but damn good entertainment.
Gilles Lellouche plays a nurse who’s wife is kidnapped by the henchmen of criminal Roschdy Zem. He’s ordered to bust Zem out of hospital,or they’ll kill her. Police and criminal gangs are out to get both of them.
Some great stuntwork,brutal violence and a long tense chase through Le Metro…and once again,the time flies by.
Well worth checking out if you need a quick action fix!
16. Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)
Spencer Tracy arrives in the tiniest of tiny towns to track down a man and from the get go,receives an extremely cold reception from the citizens. When he reveals the identity of the man he’s after,he has to fight for his life.
This is a tense,sweaty post WW2 western! Within minutes of the film starting,the tension kicks in and remains for pretty much the entire running time,which is a damn good achievement.
Young looking Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine play boo-hiss bad guys.
A fine,fine film! Definitely one i’d rewatch.
15. The Killers (1946)
Fascinating film noir classic told in flashbacks.
It starts with the death of Lancaster’s character by two hitmen. In order to seek out the beneficiary of his insurance policy,a life insurance investigator played by Edmond O’Brien,seeks out and interviews the people in Lancaster’s life in an attempt to piece together his story.
It’s a really good tense,atmospheric thriller,full of twists and turns and stands up to repeated views.
Ava Gardner was smoking hot.
14. Running Out Of Time (1999)
Superb,semi-lighthearted thriller from the excellent Johnnie To.
Lau Ching Wan plays a cop who is drawn into a cat and mouse game with Andy Lau,who only has 4 days to live and is taking on the gangs of Hong Kong. Does that make sense? I’ve read it back and i’m not quite sure. Anyway,take my word for it,this film is ACE. It runs just over 90 minutes and is hugely enjoyable and the time flies by.
Lau Ching Wan is one cool mofo,as is Andy Lau…but Lau is ALWAYS cool. I liked Hui Siu-Hung who plays Lau’s hapless boss,he provides a few scenes of light relief. I especially like the scene where he mistakenly thinks Lau is terminally ill and attempts to comfort him!
Cannot recommend this film enough. Love it,love it,love it.
13. Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Comedy about four friends who take a dip in a malfunctioning hot tub,which sends them back in time to the mid 80s where they have a relive a nightmare weekend without changing events.
The first 20 minutes provide a good few laughs,but they become few and far between over the course of the film. Rob Corddry provides most of the big guffaws by being extremely rude. John Cusack just looks extremely tired. Had high hopes for this,but it was well average.
12. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (2010)
The story of Ian Dury,punk/new wave singer from the late 70’s/early 80’s.
Great performances from a lot of the cast (Andy Serkis has Dury down to a tee) and Naomie Harris was damn good too.
I found the composition of the film a bit confusing though,switching from flashbacks to his childhood,to present day…fair enough,but then we have ‘straight to camera’ bits and dreamlike sequences.
I didn’t know where we supposed to be in the 70’s/80’s,as it seemed to skip over his success as an artist and focus more on his personal life and problems.They were obviously trying to do something different,but i think i’d have preferred a more straightforward,chronological storyline. Coz i’m simple like that!
