Expend4bles (2023) - Movie Review

2023 has been a really, really fucking good year for action movies. John Wick: Chapter 4, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, Sisu, Dead Reckoning Part One, the new Dungeons & Dragons movie, even Transformers has really started to turn back around.

In light of all that, while it’s been a long-ass time since anyone paid any heed to the Expendables, it at least makes sense that the ultimate action team-up fantasy would get another crack during this time. The third film may have come woefully short of what the first two accomplished, but even that had its moments. Unfortunately, with this fourth instalment… can this even be called an Expendables movie at this point?

The Suicide Squad (2021) - Movie Review

I appear to be one of the few people who is still willing to say a good thing about David Ayer’s Suicide Squad (and without endlessly pleading for a #AyerCut to make it “good”). Yeah, it’s definitely flawed and more than a little messy, but on the strength of the characters, I had a lot of fun with it. However, if anyone was going to give that concept a second try, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone better suited for it than James Gunn. He’s already proven his worth with elevating lower-tier comic book characters with his work on the Guardians Of The Galaxy, and for a team on a similar moral standing, he should know how to deal with the material. And I gotta say, even as an apologist for the 2016 film, this honestly blows it out of the water.

Rambo: Last Blood (2019) - Movie Review

Rambo is one of the most classic action franchises of all time. It is seriously weird thinking about just how influential the first two entries are, setting the tone for a lot of action cinema to come out of post-Vietnam America. The first remains one of the most brutal depictions of PTSD to make it to the big screen, and the second basically set the blueprint for every jungle-set military action-thriller to come after, up to and including the also-highly-influential Predator.

The third film… exists, and even as someone who takes pride in recollecting pop culture minutiae, I can barely remember anything about it. Then there was Rambo ’08, which boosted the gore standard in a way that, given what it was depicting, must’ve hit close to home considering it went on to inspire real-life Burmese freedom fighters. Following any of that up was gonna be a hard ask, and what we get here is… complicated.

Ratchet & Clank (2016) - Movie Review

Knowing the track record for video game adaptations by this point, I should have no right to be looking forward to any of them… okay, save for Assassin’s Creed, but all in due time. Until then, we have a theatrical version of a pretty heavily ingrained part of my gaming childhood, one which continues to be awesome to this day. Even considering the PS2’s track record when it comes to platformers, R&C is still one of the most beloved by the fans, myself included. Its creative weaponry, its memorable characters, its utter lack of shame when it comes to toilet humour; Insomnia Games made a serious gem of a series. Have to admit, knowing that most of the original voice cast as well as the writers of the games are helping bring this film to life, I’m genuinely hoping for something good this time around.

Creed (2015) - Movie Review

 

Whenever you think of the words "sports movie", nine times out of ten it’ll be one of the Rocky movies that immediately comes to mind. Another addition of the Sylvester Stallone oeuvre that has ingrained itself permanently into pop culture, it is also some of the best and, at times, cheesiest boxing action in the history of cinema. Of course, as is the case with any highly-lauded franchise, any new instalments are going to be treated with supreme scepticism by the audience. We saw plenty of this earlier in the year with new additions to Mad Max (outstanding), Jurassic Park (pointless) and Terminator (thoroughly disappointing), so we’ve already gotten a decent spectrum of how this could turn out. So, with the upstart director of the surprise success Fruitvale Station at the helm, Stallone coming back as the Italian Stallion himself and franchise producer Irwin Winkler giving his support to the production, how did this turn out?

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl (2015) - Movie Review

You know the phrase “You can’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, in keeping with our innate fear of that which is strange and/or different, this is something we still do, myself included. Namely, every so often, a film title will pop out and make me go “Um… no.” purely on how the name sounds. This isn’t even a matter of a name sounding weird; after all, I looked at The Human Centipede initially because it sounded so bloody weird. Rather, because some films invoke images of lame that will no doubt irrevocably paint my opinions. Today’s film, based on the title alone, had better be a cinematic remake of Earl Sweatshirt’s epaR or I will be colossally disappointed. Then again, this has gotten some rather lofty accolades since its initial release, and I am in the middle of my year-end catch-up of as many other releases from the past year as possible, so it was inevitable that I would look at this film at some point anyway regardless of my misconceptions.