Nothing beats the warm action adventure feelings of Indiana Jones and his most ultimate crusade!
I think our favorite movies can say a lot about us, or at the very least, our tastes. Same when it comes to the Indiana Jonesmovies.
Those who treasure Raiders of the Lost Arktend to love the unfiltered sense of gritty adventure. Those who prefer Temple of Doom love its eccentricity and willingness to venture into dark territory. Those who name Kingdom of the Crystal Skulltheir favorite (yes, they do exist) love the way Indiana Jones is thrust into the nuclear age and the dynamic of the Indy-Mutt relationship.
I’m among those who love The Last Crusademost of all. In the original trilogy, it isn’t as tightly-constructed as Raiders and compared to Temple it plays things very safe, in some ways just rehashing scenarios from Raiders. But it is by far the funniest and most warm-hearted of the three due to the father-son chemistry between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery.
Indiana Jones at his Most Ultimate
For those unaware, this film has Indy (Harrison Ford) teaming up with his estranged medieval studies scholar father Dr. Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery) and smoldering Austrian archaeologist Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) to find the Holy Grail. As in Raiders, they have the Nazis to contend with as they trek across Europe and Africa to achieve their goal.
It’s strangely fitting that Connery plays Indy’s father, as James Bond was one of the inspirations for Indiana Jones the character with his suaveness, lady-killer ways, and physical prowess. His bantering with Indy is gold in just about every scene. The scene where the two are tied up back-to-back and have to escape a Nazi-packed castle is utterly hilarious and must be seen to be appreciated. I also have to give a shout-out to the airplane fight scene where the hapless Jones Sr. accidentally shoots the tail off Indy’s plane, only to tell him mid-flight, “I’m sorry, son… they got us!”
The father-son relationship also adds a good deal of emotional depth to the story and allows the audience to get a glimpse of a more vulnerable Indy. While no one would ever argue the Indiana Jones movies are exactly compelling portraits of human relationships, the way Henry Jones Sr. and Jr. reconcile over the course of the adventure really makes the ending moving in an odd way. Last Crusade certainly possesses a sweetness not to be found in the first two IJ movies, though it never delves too far into Spielbergian sentimentality.
As an action movie, Last Crusade ranks among the best of its generation. Packed with all the spectacle you’d expect, Last Crusade also features amazing stunt work and chase scenes. The action is paired with comedy constantly, and keeps the film going at a brisk pace.
Compared to Raiders or Temple, this movie just feels bigger all around, from the bigger set-pieces to the amount of places the heroes travel to on their journey. The tank battle in the desert is just amazing, with Indy having to shoulder so much of the weight as all the supporting characters become incapacitated. (Some dated CG effects hamper it a little, but not much.) So overwhelming is Last Crusade’s scale and sense of adventure that it’s on my list of “favorite movies I NEED to see in a theater before I die.”
Among action films, Last Crusade’s definitely a feel-good flick, one that never fails to leave me thrilled and smiling by the time it’s over. I have a sister who likes to put it on when she’s stressed out and needs to escape to that old-fashioned place where heroism, pluck, and familial love win out.
And where tanks explode and many a face is punched. That’s a plus too.
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One of the greatest action performances of the 90s is T.I.G. in ‘Excessive Force’ (1993).
In 1993, the best ax kick in movies belonged to a former soap opera star named Thomas Ian Griffith, who parlayed his black belts in Kempo and Tae Kwon Do into a series of starring roles in action movies that began with Excessive Force.
From a script he actually wrote, Griffith plays Chicago cop Terry McCain, who’s hot on the trail of a mobster played by Paulie from the Rocky movies. During a drug bust where McCain literally kicks and shoots everybody in attendance, three million dollars in a duffle bag walks off, and the mob wants it’s money back.
Members of McCain’s team start turning up dead, and he gets suspended from the force. But not before being told to go do what’s he needs to do. What follows has McCain spin and crescent kick his way through his adversaries in the longest sustained violence that wasn’t topped until Steven Seagal walked into a bar in Out For Justice and asked “Anybody seen Richie?”
I don’t think I would be ruining the movie by telling you McCain was betrayed by a couple of dirty cops in bed with the mob. But in the end, everybody pays a steep price with the main villain getting fly kicked off a roof. Blink and you’ll miss the Don’t Mess With The Zohan kick.
EXCESSIVE FORCE, Charlotte Lewis, Thomas Ian Griffith, 1993, (c)New Line Cinema
The critique of action movies is usually in the acting. Not so here. If there were Oscars for action movies, this one would have won a slew. Griffith pulled off a mullet, an earring and lines like “Die with a little dignity” with ablong. In addition to Burt Young, he was joined by James Earl Jones and always creepy Lance Henriksen. The movie was also filmed in Chicago rather than Toronto, which makes it dear to my heart.
If he looks familiar, in addition to a couple of years on the soap opera Another World, Griffith played the corporate bad guy in Karate Kid 3, took on Kevin Sorbo in Kull the Conqueror, and stared in a bunch of straight to video action movies that even I don’t care to review. Last I remember seeing him was as the bleach haired villain in Timecop 2.
We do need a reunion movie of martial arts actors that we thought were the coming thing, but failed to live up to their potential. In addition to Griffith, I would cast Jeff Speakman, James Ryan, Lorenzo Lamas, and Brian Bosworth. Hell, add Mickey Rourke and even Steven Seagal to that list. After all, everybody loves a comeback!
This author wishes to maintain his secret identity goes by the name of his favorite comic book hero Iron Fist. When he’s not collecting comics from his childhood, watching action movies or raising his three kids, he works a a police officer, trains Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do, Kali and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Needless to say, he takes poor martial arts or sloppy gun handling skills personally. And he lives and trains in Chicago.
Pierce Bronsan gives us the ultimate 90s James Bond performance.
James Bond has been tested in many films. He has never had any shortage of women in his life. We’ve seen his friends and his enemies. He has always been able to rely on both in his adventures. He never had to question the likes of who was around him. MI6, for example, was a safe haven for him throughout his entire life. He has his constants: M, Moneypenny, Felix Leiter of the CIA, and others. Yet, it’s in GoldenEye where all that he knows is tested. The allegiances of his friends come into question as a serious crisis causes him to go back into action once more.
In stellar fashion, the film opens with Bond and his cohort, Alec Trevelyan (006), on a mission in Arkhangelsk, USSR. While seeking to infiltrate a chemical weapons facility to plant explosives, things seem to go alright for a while until Trevelyan gets captured and killed by Colonel Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov. “For England, James!” Trevelyan yells before he is shot. Bond is able to escape with the facility exploding. This was in 1986. Nine years later, however, things are much different for Bond.
The Soviet Union has disbanded. He is in Monte Carlo. He is having fun doing his usual thing with a member of the Janus crime syndicate, Xenia Onatopp. She kills a Canadian Navy admiral with her thighs during sexual intercourse with him. Ourumov takes the Canadian Navy admiral’s credentials and board a French Navy destroyer with Onatopp. They both steal a Eurocopter Tiger helicopter and fly to a base in Severnaya, Siberia. Once in Siberia, they kill all of the staff and escape with the GoldenEye satellites’ control disk.
It’s here where Natalya Simonova, the lone survivor, comes into the film. She has a particularly rough journey throughout the movie, going from Siberia to St. Petersburg. Here, she attempts to meet up with the computer programmer who was kidnapped by Janus, Boris Grishenko. However, she is betrayed by him and given over to Janus. She is probably the character with the toughest time during the film. Though, Bond is about to face evil, which he has never seen before.
After being assigned to investigate the attack by M, he goes off to St. Petersburg and meets with Jack Wade of the CIA. He suggests Bond goes to meet with Valentin Zukovsky, a business rival of Janus. He is able to arrange a meeting for Bond with Janus. While at the Grand Hotel Europe, Onatopp attempts to seduce and kill Bond but he is able to stop her. This is where Bond’s past comes back to haunt him. When he sees Janus in the flesh, he finds out that it’s his old friend, Trevelyan. Why would Trevelyan fake his death and betray Bond? This is where a little more of the shroud is pulled back for us.
Trevelyan is a descendant of the Cossack clans that worked with the Axis Powers. He vowed vengeance after the British betrayed his people. This shakes Bond to the core. He does not know what to think. “I trusted you, Alec,” Bond tells him. One of the tropes in Ian Fleming’s novels and the later films is who can Bond trust. It’s something that is present in this era and the Daniel Craig era too. The fact Trevelyan betrays Bond causes the latter to question the allies he has in his life.
Bond does not let his emotions cloud his judgment. He remains focused on killing Trevelyan but is unable to do so before he is shot with a tranquilizer dart. He is tied up in a helicopter with Simonova. The helicopter has also been programed to self-destruct at a certain point. They are able to escape but are taken for questioning by the Minister of Defence Dimitri Mishkin to the Russian military archives. Simonova tells Mishkin about Ourumov’s part in the Siberian massacre and the second satellite existence before Ourumov kills him.
As Bond and Simonova escape once more, the latter is captured, and the former takes a tank to pursue Ourumov in the streets before the good general is killed. The two are next locked in a train that is set to self-destruct. Before the train explodes, the two escape again and take off for the Florida Keys. While Bond cannot trust his old ally, Trevelyan, it seems he can most certainly trust Simonova because of the difficult journey she has been on throughout the course of the film. She is also the only person who can turn the GoldenEye off.
Once given a flight to Cuba, the search for the GoldenEye’s satellite dish starts before Onatopp comes from a helicopter and attacks Bond. Shortly thereafter, she is killed by her helicopter that crashes and the collapsing tree trunks around her. The rest of the film plays out quite quickly after that. Trevelyan captures Bond for a time, telling him his plan to rob the Bank of England and erase financial records concerning the second GoldenEye. This makes its theft concerned and allow for the British economy to be destroyed.
Simonova is able to program the satellite to initiate re-entry, destroying itself in the process. When Trevelyan is able to capture her, Grishenko accidentally triggers an explosion because of Bond’s grenade pen. This gives Bond the chance to be free and sabotage the antenna, creating a system overload. Bond turns his attention to Trevelyan next. He probably never would have guessed he would be fighting Trevelyan like this. Especially since they worked together for an undetermined period of time, there was a trust and working relationship that built up.
Yet, this is the present and Bond, ever focused on the mission, keeps his head clear enough to get the job done. He focuses on fighting Trevelyan. Both men are on the suspended platform of the antenna. Bond is successful in stopping him. Trevelyan falls to the bottom of the dish before the satellite crashes and kills him. Bond and Simonova are able to escape before being rescued by Wade and the US Marines. This film raises a number of questions when you start to think about it.
The biggest is whether you can trust someone you work with or not. It’s a pretty good question all of us can reflect upon but something essential to the James Bond mythos. He is betrayed again and again by people throughout the course of his life. So, why does he keep trying again and again? He doesn’t try much and frankly, he does not need to. It would be going against his character if that was the case or not. For our hero, he also has to contend with what Simonova has to say about the 007 life.
“How can you act like this? How can you be so cold?” Simonova asks Bond. “It’s what keeps me alive,” Bond tells her. That goes to the core of the Bond character. He is a person who is not so warm toward others since he just had his friend and partner betray him. Maintaining his coldness is what allows Bond to remain unattached and unemotional. That’s not to say he does not express his emotions but he can be very reserved in a way to keep himself from making mistakes.
Bond has a focused mind that needs to keep one step ahead of his enemies. This is how MI6 trained him and how he’s become. The biggest challenge for Bond is whether or not he can trust the women in his life. Because of being betrayed by the love of his life, Vesper Lynd, when he was in his first year as 007, he has never let any other woman into his heart except Tracy Bond, who becomes his wife before being killed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, his archenemy.
Bond is a fascinating character to analyze and understand. He has many facets to him and is never someone that leaves his audience bored. This film’s study of Bond proves fascinating. The best action is in the Cradle sequence. It’s always one that’s memorable. The direction by Martin Campbell and score by Eric Serra go beyond the call of duty. Because of its fascinating plot, interesting characters, and engaging cinematography, this film is definitely the ultimate film for any Bond fan out there.
About the author: Tommy Zimmer is a writer whose work has appeared online and in print. His work covers a variety of topics, including politics, economics, health and wellness, consumer electronics, and the entertainment industry.
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The Living Dead can’t stop the Dolphster in ‘Dead Trigger’ trailer!
Dolph Lundgren has gone up against some major Hollywood heavyweights down the years.
From Sylvester Stallone, through to the Skeletor, the Big Swede has been there and done that.
But one thing Dolph hasn’t had many dealings with, as yet, is an army of the living dead.
Thankfully, that’s about to change with the release of Lundgren’s latest brilliantly B-movie effort, Dead Trigger.
The Big Swede is Back!
Out on May 3rd, the movie’s premise couldn’t be simpler: a virus has transformed humanity into flesh-eating zombies, and it is up to Lundgren to straighten things out.
He plays an elite soldier leading a team of fellow badasses in a fight-to-the-death battle with a big old bunch of zombies with a hankering for a bite of Dolph.
These walkers chose the wrong man to mess with though, as the trailer demonstrates.
Dolphs vs. Zombies
The film represents a noticeable departure for Lundgren, who has even dyed his luscious blonde locks and decidedly darker shade for this effort.
Our favourite Swede has some decent reinforcement backing him up this time around too with Autumn Reeser, Romeo Miller, and Isaiah Washington also starring.
A bloody but fun looking effort, Dead Trigger is directed by Mike Cuff and Scott Windhauser, and written by Heinz Treschnitzer.
One thing is for sure: he will break them.
Dead Trigger is out May 3.
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Iko Uwais and his Pencak Silat debut ‘Merantau’ (2009).
So with Triple Threat out, I thought this would be a good time to go back and review some of the Asian cinema and some of the actors early work. First up is Iko Uwais from Indonesia and the martial art he brings to the screen for the first time – Pencak Silat. His debut film is the 2009 actioneer Merantau.
The genesis of this movie came from a Scottish filmmaker Gareth Evans who was in Indonesia to film a documentary on the Southeast Asia’s indigenous martial art of Pencak Silat.
While filming his documentary, Evans developed a treatment for a story about a merantau, which is when a young man leaves his village to find his place in the world. Evans decided to make his movie around the culture and beauty of the countryside before taking the story into the slums of the city.
Extensive use was made of local actors and locations and did its part in contributing a filmmaking industry in Indonesia. Evans found his muse in actor and frequent collaborator Iko Uwais, training in one of the local Silat schools.
Merantau is not only one of the great kick ass action movies of recent years, featuring a little seen martial art, but a coming of age drama about leaving your home.Unfortunately, Yuda -the man child that Iko portrays – heads to Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta with the rather naive goal of teaching Silat to children. What he finds is a cesspool of violence and prostitution in the big city.
When he comes to the aid of a waitress and her brother being shaken downin an alley, he incurs the wrath of two Western brothers who are in the sex slave business. This doesn’t sit well with Yuda and the fates have called upon him to use his martial arts skills to set things right.
From there, we are treated to numerous fights that show Silat is all its glory. Silat is a martial art based on the blade and body manipulation to land strikes and execute takedowns. The fights are all filmed in a wide angle that lets the actors and stuntmen show us what they are capable of and are bone-crushing and breathtaking at the same time.
Director Evans and Iko Uwais re-teamed for the two Raid movies. The Raid:Redemption about a SWAT Team trapped in a high rise and forced to fight their was out is simply one of the greatest action movies of recent years. It’s sequel Raid 2 was similarity great but in a Godfather 2 like way.
Iko kept on the action path starring in Headshot, the recent Netflix film The Night Comes For Us (read our write-up on why you should give it a watch here) and did his first starring role in a major studio film in Mark Wahlberg’sMile 22 (read our ultimate review here). Any of these movies is a kickass time at the movies. Check him out so you can see the future of action cinema.
What are your thoughts on Iko Uwais and Merantau? Let us know in the comments!
But what has always separated the Muscles from Brussels from other pretenders to the throne is the fact he can back up the fighting talk with actual fight skills. Van Damme isn’t just pretending to be a karate master – he actually is one. Sure you could argue that perhaps his skills have slowed down as he’s aged. But there’s no denying the fact that Van Damme always could – and always will – be able to kick it with the best of them.
A Shōtōkan karate master who had earned a black belt by the time of 18, Van Damme is also a highly-skilled kickboxer and former Mr. Belgium bodybuilding champion. Because one doesn’t get as chiseled as Van Damme without quite a bit of work and skill.
He also studied ballet to further enhance his physical dexterity and the strength in his legs. Later still. Van Damme trained himself up in both Taekwondo and Muay Thai. You can see how these different styles have helped him develop his own unique craft over the years.
Simply put: Van Damme is not a man to be messed with and further proof of that can be found in the footage filmed from the Belgian’s competitive fighting career. Video footage of the Muscles from Brussels strutting his stuff in the world of professional fighting is hard to find, making the clip featured a treasured rarity.
It comes from a tournament that took place in 1979 and confirms what most fans already knew: Van Damme could fight for real. So much more than just talk, Van Damme’s professional record reads 18-1 with all 18 of his victories coming via knockout. He also competed in 44 amateur fights, losing just four times.
It suggests that, had Van Damme not been cast in Predator and later Bloodsport, he would have had a fight career to fall back on. Who knows? Maybe the Belgian would have gone on to fight in UFC.
One question remains from all of this: Would Van Damme beat Steven Seagal in a fight?
Where have all the ultimate sci-fi action movies gone?
Everyone loves the sci-fi action movies of the 80s. These movies not only became some of the best action movies ever made but the best action movie series ever made. Terminator, Predator, Robocop, and Aliens produced some of the best series. Some other great sci-fi action series started in the 70s. Examples of these are Mad Maxand Star Wars. The 90s continued the trend of great sci-fi action movies with Total Recall, Time Cop, Independence Day, Demolition Man, and The Matrix (1999) in addition to continuations of action movie franchises like T-2 and Predator 2.
But since we’ve past into the 21st century, there are very few sci-fi action movies. They’ve been replaced by superhero movies.
This decade of action movies began the shift to superheroes. It wasn’t complete though. There still many standard action movies like The Transporter, and artsy action movies like Kill Bill, but the iconic movies of this time were superheroes. Christopher Nolan’sBatman movies were the biggest franchise of the decade (at least in critical acclaim). The X-Men movies also began during this decade and really kicked off the Marvel revolution that would occur a decade later. The Bourne movies were also released during this decade, and make no mistake, although Borne doesn’t wear a cape he is in every other way a superhero.
The most prophetic movie of this decade was Iron Man. Part sci-fi due to its plot, Iron Man was a huge action movie success. What would come from this film, though, was not a sci-fi action revolution but the genesis of the Marvel Extended Universe that would ultimately become the downfall of sci-fi action movies.
Sure there were a few straggling sci-fi action movies like Minority Report and the continuation of past franchises like The Matrix’ sequels,but other than these few films sci-fi action was functionally dead.
For the past ten years, nearly all of the most popular (and highly acclaimed, for reasons I don’t understand) action films have stemmed from the Marvel extended universe. Iron Mansequels, Captain America films, Avengers films, Black Panther, Thor, Deadpool, X-Men, the list goes on.
There are a few standard action movie franchises like John Wick and Fast and Furious, which are successful but do not define this era like superhero movies do. The Mission Impossible films are popular, but just like Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt has become superhuman in his abilities and is, in effect, a superhero.
Daniel Craig’s Bond has flaws that keep him human. Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt, Thor, and Captain America do not.
Nearly all of the best sci-fi action movies that were released in the past decade come from franchises that are 30-40 year old. Mad Max Fury Road resurrected the Mad Max franchise. The Planet of the Apes movies resurrected that franchise. The Star Wars movies (which are far from the best movies of this decade) continue that 40-year-old franchise. Where are all the new, excellent sci-fi action movies?
There are very few. Inception was highly acclaimed and appreciated for its action scenes. Edge of Tomorrow was a proper sci-fi action film that kicked some ass. Beyond that, there are few memorable sci-fi action films.
The first thing a great sci-fi action film franchise needs is a great hero. This hero needs to be an ordinary but capable man who lives in an extraordinary world. Mad Max and Douglas Quaid (from Total Recall) are brave, strong, but ultimately human heroes in science fiction settings. Even Robocop was a man, augmented by cybernetic technology, in a corrupt but technologically advanced society.
With the hero (a brave, human man) well casted, society should be set in a science fiction reality. Superhero movies feature protagonists that are either endowed with powers or use advanced technologies that are only available to them (like Iron Man). In great sci-fi action movies, advanced technologies (or dystopian technologies) are part of society.
Avoid CGI. Superhero movies use computer generated images as a crutch. CGI is a crutch and the film-making equivalent of cutting corners. Inception, one of the few great sci-fi action movies released after 2000, avoided CGI. Total Recall (1990, of course) had great special affects without relying on them. Genuine film-making (and not CGI short-cutting) is needed to make sci-fi action films ultimate again.
Throw in some gratuitous nudity, explosions, and alien blood, and you’ve got an ultimate sci-fi action film.
To read more from Jared Trueheart about the art of masculine story-telling check out legendsofmen.com.
What are your thoughts on the state of the ultimate sci-fi action flick? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page!
Discussing the ultimate letdown that is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III is what critics and parents probably expected the first movie was going to be: dumb and cheap. Fortunately, the first film was a solid, fun action movie. The second film less so, more watered-down, but still enjoyable in a low-key way. Abandon all hope for much in the way of ultimate action goodness here. Or competent writing… even by Saturday morning cartoon standards, this is rancid stuff.
TMNT 3! Where to Begin?
Synopsis? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are drawn back into action when their friend April O’Neil (Paige Turco) finds herself thrown back into seventeenth-century Japan after bringing a mysterious staff to their lair. Apparently, magical MacGuffins are a hot item on the flea market. Using the staff to follow her, the Turtles get more than they bargained for when they become wrapped up in a confrontation between a simple peasant village, and an evil daimyo named Norinaga (Sab Shimono) and an opportunistic English merchant named Walker (Stuart Wilson) who seek to take over the land.
Time travel a la TMNT 3 also has strange rules which complicate the story, such as the fact that if one person goes back in time, another must be thrust forward to the same point, so as to keep the mass balanced in both periods… or something. This causes April to be replaced with Norinaga’s noble-hearted son Prince Kenshin (Henry Hayashi) in modern-day NYC, and the turtles to be replaced with four honor-guards when they follow after their friend.
Then, there’s the obligatory race-against-time element, where the turtles have sixty hours to set things right or the space-time continuum won’t allow them to go home again. Needless to say, this part of the story could be seen as a bit confusing for kids and even an adult has to do some mental gymnastics to put everything together.
Watching this back-to-back with Secret of the Ooze, one might think the filmmakers made improvements regarding the action scenes. For one, the turtles (gasp!) get to use their weapons during combat. Even April gets a hit or two! The awesome vigilante Casey Jones is back, once again played by Elias Koteas.
Unfortunately, there are far less action scenes than in the second film. Long-time internet reviewer James Rolfe points this out in detail in his hilarious take-down of the film, observing that only three of the four battles depicted in the movie feature the Turtles and only one has all four of them fighting together.
Also, Casey Jones never gets to do ANYTHING, being stuck babysitting the four honor guardsmen who were sent forward in time. Little to no comedy is milked from this fish out of water scenario either.
So, if the Turtles aren’t fighting, what are they doing? Well, we get some corny jokes, par the course with these movies, though this time around the jokes are painful even by old-school TMNT standards, sometimes not even making sense within the context of the scene. The most infamous gag might be when the bad guys burst into a room and the Turtles respond, “You were expecting, eh, the Addams family?”
(Apparently, this joke made sense when used in the original trailers, since Addams Family Values came out during the same year. In the film itself, especially when watching post-1993? No sense whatsoever.)
Still, at least a corny joke can elicit an emotional response, be it ironic laughter or pain. The film’s attempts at emotional depth are just so shallow as to be pointless. Take the subplots with the turtles getting attached to the past and not wanting to leave.
Raphael likes the simpler lifestyle of the past (seeing a body of water without beer bottles in it, he exclaims “NATURE!” in rapture) and Michelangelo appreciates how the peasants are quick to accept the turtles as they are, allowing them to walk around in broad daylight. Too bad these emotional through-lines go nowhere and are only addressed when the script doesn’t have a fight or bad slapstick routine to offer the audience.
Other elements are double-edged: the suits for one thing. As I mentioned in the reviews for the other two TMNT movies, those men in the turtle suits do great work. Alas, the turtle costumes look terrible this time around as Jim Henson’s Creature Shop did not return to do any work on this film.
Can we talk about the terrible costumes? They are so scary, with dead eyes and lips that move like possessed sock puppets. When the seventeenth-century characters call the turtles demons, you might find yourself agreeing—they’re so ghastly even H.P. Lovecraft would shudder. For Splinter’s part, he’s stuck sitting with his lower half always obscured, as though he were a second-rate Sesame Street creation.
The villains are boring too. Shredder and the Foot Clan were menacing, with Shredder being able to beat up all the turtles single-handedly. Norinaga and Walker don’t exactly have one shaking in one’s boots. They talk big and take hostages, but when push comes to shove, they’re neither memorable nor threatening. Their action scenes are rather pathetic. At least Shredder dealt some damage, even if he often ended up doing himself in.
I don’t even know if this movie is worth watching, even for the nostalgic. The action is decent, but not so ultimate or noteworthy. All in all, this was a sorry end to the classic TMNT trilogy, going out with a whimper… or in this case, a really, really bad joke about the Addams Family.
What are your “fond” memories of TMNT 3? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page!
S. Craigh Zahler beats the crap out of his two ultimate stars in ‘Dragged Across Concrete’ and it’s awesome!
I was blown away by director S. Craig Zahler’s last film Brawl in Cell Block 99. It was a straight up grindhouse movie right out of the1970s that reinvented Vince Vaughn as a two fisted action hero. When I heard he was going to pull a Tarantino and resurrect Mel Gibson’s career, I was beyond excited.
His third feature Dragged Across Concrete was just released on VOD and I was not disappointed, as the director conquered yet another genre – that of the film noir-and marked himself as a director that we of action cinema should eagerly await his every feature.
A film noir shows the underbelly of society, where everything is in shades of grey, everybody’s motives are questionable and everybody gets what they deserve. Dragged Across Concrete sees Gibson and Vince Vaughn playing Detectives Ridgemen and Lurasetti, who after a substantive drug bust find themselves suspended for excessive force.
This proves extremely problematic because Gibson has a disabled wife he is caring for and a daughter that is being bullied because of the neighborhood he is forced to live in on a cops salary that he was planning on moving out of. Vaughn on the other hand is attempting to marry way above his station in life. This provides the perfect storm for these honest cops to cross the line.
Slow, Deliberate and Ultimate?
Gibson gives the best soliloquy in a thriller since Lethal Weapon, as he hatches a plan to rob a drug dealer and tries to convince his partner to join him. He is able to rationalize what they are about to do in that cops on suspension wouldn’t really be violating their oath. “We have the skills and the right to acquire proper compensation.” And after all, they are just robbing a dope dealer, right? Turns out Vaughn really didn’t need all that much convincing so the plot is on!
And of course things get complicated and go wrong quickly. The caper morphs into a bank robbery that goes horribly wrong by a bunch of Hans Gruber rejects and leads to a final confrontation on a farm in the middle of nowhere, where all these criminals are forced to make their peace and atone for their wrongs.
Mel Gibson’s antics are one of the great losses to moviedom and action movies in particular. He burst onto the scene with Mad Max and its two sequels in 1978. Then came his portrayal of the perfect action hero of Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon Films. Age didn’t slow Mad Mel down in his comeback film Edge of Darkness before he screwed that up and went to direct to video hell with the under appreciated Get The Gringo. I’m glad to see him back behind the barrel of a gun.
And Vince Vaughn? People don’t seem to remember him when he was an actor trying to find his niche in movies like The Cell and Psycho before he went the comedy route. Well, he’s found a new niche and reinvented himself as a tough guy. Brawl in Cell Block 99. As a small time mobster in the second season of True Detective. And now this. I actually now forgive him for Term Life.
Dragged Across Concrete is not a smash and grab action movie. It is a slow, deliberate drama that unfolds much as it would real life. It’s title is a good metaphor as to what life sometimes does to you, but it’s also what your going to feel like as you see what all of these characters you have come to relate to are put through in this movie. After all, in the end, we all get what’s coming to us. Right?
This author wishes to maintain his secret identity goes by the name of his favorite comic book hero Iron Fist. When he’s not collecting comics from his childhood, watching action movies or raising his three kids, he works a a police officer, trains Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do, Kali and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Needless to say, he takes poor martial arts or sloppy gun handling skills personally. And he lives and trains in Chicago.
Have you checked out Dragged Across Concrete yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page!
Steven Seagal is the ‘General Commander’ of our Ultimate Action Hearts!
Steven Seagal is back doing what he does best: saving the world.
For some three decades now, the Ultimate Action Movie icon has made a career out of rescuing the planet from the brink of destruction.
Over the years he’s battled everything from disgruntled computer hackers to power-mad oil company CEOs.
And in his latest effort, General Commander, the ponytailed martial arts master is ready to give Sylvester Stallone’sExpendables a run for their money.
Seagal plays Jake Alexander, a now-retired CIA agent who has seen and done more badass stuff than you can care to imagine.
But he’s done now. Tired of playing by the rules and out for bigger and better justice.
All of which means only one thing: he’s going to form his own elite taskforce of ex-CIA guys ready and willing to take on bad guys all over the world.
Seagal’s Own Version of ‘The Expendables’
It’s kind of like the Expendables, if the Expendables consisted of Steven Seagal and a group of unknown actors who may not live to see the end credits.
Jake and his gang have got their work cut out for them too, with a group of mafioso types in their sights and willing to play dirty.
With a cast that also includes the likes of Sonia Couling (A Stranger in Paradise) and Byron Gibson (No Escape), General Commander looks like a slick return to form for Seagal.
General Commander is out on DVD, Digital, and On Demand on May 28th.
What are your thoughts on Steven Seagal’s Expendables-esque General Commander? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page!
