Author: Ian Young

Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky III is great for many reason, but mostly for Mr. T. Rocky III (1982) is a powerhouse of a movie, although maybe not as culturally or cinematically important as the first two in the franchise it’s maybe the first truly iconic Rocky movie. The Rocky that’s remembered in the popular imagination. It’s…

While Rocky is great, Stallone Really Finds His Own As The Director of Rocky 2 (1979). In 2018 it’s quite difficult to imagine what a sleeper hit like Sylvester Stallone’s original Rocky (1976) was. A movie made for around a million dollars that made well over $225 million which in today’s currency is somewhere in the…

The Original Rocky changed action movies forever, and launched one of the most ultimate careers of all time! We all know Rocky (1976). A film that on a micro budget, even for the time, that became a massive smash. A movie which in its decades long history has created a critical legacy which very few…

‘Birth of the Dragon’ Doesn’t Quite Do Bruce Lee Justice. Birth of the Dragon (2016) is a strange beast, a Bruce Lee biopic set before Bruce Lee became a global superstar. It really focuses on the, best described as legendary, encounter between the young Lee (played by Philip Ng) and the almost mythical kung fu…

JJ Abrams Joins Tom Cruise’s Impossible Missions Force in M:i:III (2006) Note: this article is on Mission: Impossible 3 (2006) – part of a 6-part series on all the movies in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Click here to read Part 1 on the original Mission: Impossible (1996) and Part 2 on Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) In the summer of 2006…

Tom Cruise meets John Woo in M:I-2 Note: this is Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) – part of a 6-part series on all the movies in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Click here to read Part 1 on the original Mission: Impossible (1996). By the summer of 2000 the action movie was absolutely back in favor with audiences…

Tom Cruise as the new action genre hero in Mission Impossible (1996) The year was 1996 and the action movie was in not in good shape. At the box office all the great action franchises seemed to have fallen silent. The great action movie titans seemed to have had their heyday. The Die Hard franchise…

Before Denzel’s Reboot There Was Blood and Wine (1987) We here at the Ultimate Action Movie Club are excited for the return of Denzel Washington as Robert McCall in The Equalizer 2 (2018). It’s coming in August but before McCall makes his big screen return. I thought I would go back and explore the original…