Category Archives: Action

The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan review — Pistols or blades at noon?

August 26, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Martin Bourboulon | Written by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, based on the story by Alexandre Dumas | 122 min | ▲▲▲△△ | For rent on VOD and Digital For French cinemas, this is a huge-budget adaptation of the beloved Dumas adventure story, and the first to be done in French…Read More

Heart of Stone review — Mission: Impassive

August 16, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Tom Harper | Written by Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder | 122 min | ▲▲△△△ | On Netflix We've been hearing lately about these big-budget action movies showing up on streaming services, pictures so dumbed-down audiences could still spend most of the movie looking at their phones and not miss much. They're called…Read More

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One review — Cruise in control, for the most part

July 13, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie | Written by McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen, adapted from the TV series by Bruce Gellar | 163 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | In Cinemas There's a reason the Mission: Impossible franchise is considered the peak of Hollywood's action mountain, a status it's held for more than 25 years. The first four movies…Read More

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny review — One more crusade

July 1, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by James Mangold | Written by Mangold, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp | 154 min | ▲▲▲△△ It's a little hard to believe this movie exists, isn't it? This comes 15 years after the last one, the much-derided Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull and 34 years since the end of the original trilogy,…Read More

Indiana Jones series review

June 29, 2023 flawintheiris

The final (?) Indiana Jones adventure is just about to open (on Friday, June 30th), so now seems a perfect time to rewatch the four previous entries in the franchise. My feeling about them from previous viewings is a case of diminishing returns, and I say that knowing a lot of people love the third…Read More

Extraction II review — Daddy issues, armed to the teeth

June 22, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Sam Hargrave | Written by Joe Russo, based on the graphic novel Ciudad by the Joe and Anthony Russo, Ande Parks, and Fernando León González | 122 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Netflix The first movie in this franchise arrived at a unique time. It was the spring of 2020. I was in lockdown and…Read More

Mission Kandahar review — Gerard Butler gets stuck in the sand

May 25, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh | Written by Mitchell LaFortune | 120 min | ▲▲△△△ The second Gerard Butler actioner this year — I confess I missed the earlier one, the surprisingly well-reviewed Plane — but this one reteams the Scottish star with his Greenland helmer, Waugh. That's a promising start. Also, the script is…Read More

Fast X review — 10 x dumb, mostly fun

May 19, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Louis Leterrier | Written by Dan Mazeau and Justin Lin | 141 min | ▲▲▲△△ So, what is my Fast & Furious ranking — I hear nobody ask. I'll get to that, but if you'd like a fuller picture — I did a franchise review on this well-oiled machine about 10 years ago…Read More

Polite Society review — Not polite about kicking ass!

May 6, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Nida Manzoor | 103 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime When I saw the amazing Rye Lane on Disney+ last month, I would not have predicted another comedy coming out of a London suburban immigrant enclave would knock my socks off, but here we are. With this film what we have…Read More

Ghosted review — Abysmal action-comedy schlock

April 24, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Dexter Fletcher | Written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers | 116 min | ▲△△△△ | Apple TV+ I was pretty sure this was gonna be a difficult watch when someone says, "I think she might be the one!" It’s a line by Chris Evans' character early on in…Read More