Tag Archives: Sylvester Stallone

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 review — The best MCU in light years

May 5, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by James Gunn | 150 min | ▲▲▲▲△ I've gone on the record complaining about the Marvel Studios output in recent years — a distinct drop off from their heady days of the double-whammy: Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. They've picked up the slack with the excellent stable of Disney+ series,… Read More

Revisiting Creed and Creed II in advance of Creed III

February 28, 2023 flawintheiris

The third edition of the Creed movies, itself a spin-off of the Rocky franchise, arrives later this week directed by lead actor Michael B. Jordan. I thought this week would be a good time to have a look back at my thoughts on the first two films. (For reviews of the other Rocky pictures, go… Read More

The Suicide Squad review — A tiresome, noisy waste of time

August 9, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by James Gunn | 132 min | Netflix Though you might've scrubbed it from your memory, there was a previous Suicide Squad movie — the grim, messy, Toronto-shot effort from director David Ayer based on a DC comic about incarcerated super-villains sent on dangerous missions of national importance with the promise that… Read More

Creed II review — Rote sequel kisses the canvas

November 28, 2018 flawintheiris

Directed by Stephen Caple Jr | Written by Juel Taylor, Sascha Penn, Cheo Hodari Coker, and Sylvester Stallone | 130 min | Amazon Prime Creed was a clinic on how to reboot a fallow franchise. Stallone had redeemed his character with the better-than-it-needed-to-be Rocky Balboa in 2006 and there was no call for a return,… Read More

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 review — A Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang Good Time

May 8, 2017 flawintheiris

Written and directed by James Gunn | 136 min Yup, the newest Marvel movie is a sequel to that surprise megahit of August 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy, which at the time seemed like a huge gamble for the studio. Adapting an obscure comic about a group of space-freebooters gave Marvel a foothold in fantasy/science fiction beyond… Read More

Creed review — Franchise finds new life in boxing scion

November 24, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Ryan Coogler | Written by Coogler and Aaron Covington, from characters by Sylvester Stallone | 132 min | Amazon Prime This movie has no business being this good. This is the seventh feature in the Rocky series, a 30-year franchise that's already shown us everything its got: Read its last rights back in 1990 with the… Read More

The Rocky series review

November 23, 2015 flawintheiris

With Creed on its way, I thought it was a good time to revisit the evergreen boxing movies about the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa, a Philadelphia fighter from the streets played by an actor/director/screenwriter whose own success story mirrors his character's arc. Back in the mid-'70's, a jobbing actor named Sylvester Stallone took his shot at the… Read More

In Cinemas. August 15, 2014

August 16, 2014 flawintheiris

I have a real soft spot for Men On A Mission-style movies, and on paper I really like the idea of action legends Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li and their buddies getting together to shoot a lot of huge guns. Then why was The Expendables (2010) so dull? I suppose because you can't… Read More

Homefront review

November 29, 2013 flawintheiris

Directed by Gary FlederWritten by Sylvester Stallone, adapting a novel by Chuck LoganYeah, you read that right: Sly Stallone is responsible for this script. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Homefront was at one time imagined as a closing chapter of his Rambo saga, presumably telling the tale of John Rambo's return to the US to… Read More