A Year in Film with Brian Salisbury: Action

Showing posts with label Action. Show all posts

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Raw Deal (1986)

Revisit
Format: VHS
Venue: Rivendell

A mess from A-Z, a spectacular failure, and a personal favorite.

Rating: 6/10 Atkins

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Drive (2011)

1st View
Format: Awards Screener
Venue: Rivendell

Nicolas Winding Refn does it again. His films are so visually unique and incredibly stylish as to elevate even the most tired genre. In Drive, he creates an almost dreamlike throwback to gritty, fiercely independent crime stories of the 70s. Great performances, stunning cinematography, terrific score, and still quite entertaining. One of the year's best.

Rating: 8/10 Atkins

Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol (2011)

1st View
Format: IMAX
Venue: Bob Bullock Theater (Press Screening)

Easily my favorite M:I sequel. Gets back to the group dynamic that defined the TV series instead of it being the Tom Cruise Show. The action sequences, aided by the fact that they were shot and then projected in IMAX 70mm, were heart-stopping. It's been a long time since I've seen audiences recoil like that at horror movies much less action flicks. Amazing.

Rating: 8/10 Atkins

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

1st View
Venue: Galaxy Highland (Press Screening)

Not as good as the first, though it had the potential to surpass it. Jared Harris' Moriarty is outstanding and the back-and-forth between he and Downey Jr is perfect. Unfortuantely, this bloated sequel can't decide if its an action romp or an old school Sherlock story.

Rating: 5/10 Atkins

Friday, December 30, 2011

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

Revisit
Format: Blu-ray
Venue: Rivendell

Don't think I'd seen this all the way through since theaters, wanted to give it another chance. Still largely insufferable thanks largely to the Wayans brother. Shame.

Rating: 3/10 Atkins

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Revisit
Format: DVD
Venue: Rivendell

Never a bad time to revisit one of the greatest action movies ever made.

Rating: 10/10 Atkins

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Aliens (1986)

Revisit
Format: Blu-ray
Venue: Rivendell

I wasn't merely revisiting this film because the Blu-ray look phenomenal, which it does, or because it's one of my favorite action movies of all time, which it is. I was watching Aliens on this day to get into the proper mindset for the evening's performance of Aliens on Ice. What's Aliens on Ice, you ask? Take a gander at this recap I wrote on the incredible live reinterpretation by Austin comedy troupe The Old Murder House Theater. Game over, man, game indeed over.

Film Rating: 9/10 Atkins

Aliens on Ice Rating: Mostly Too Amazing For Words...Mostly

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Immortals (2011)

1st View
Format: XD Digital
Venue: Tinseltown

Boring, long-winded, and uninteresting. Shame.

Rating 4/10 Atkins

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Never Too Young To Die (1986)

Revisit
Format: VHS
Venue: Rivendell

A personal favorite train wreck starring John Stamos as a teenage secret agent battling a transsexual terrorist played by former KISS frontman Gene Simmons. If that synopsis alone doesn't make you want to see this film, take a gander at the Junkfood Cinema article it earned with its absurdity.

Rating: 6/10 Atkins

Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Green Hornet (2011)

1st View
Format: Cable
Venue: Rivendell

Finally caught this. I like the character quite a bit so I was hoping for a decent big screen adaptation. There are elements that work here, but they are subverted by horrendous miscasting in both Hornet and villain (sorry Christoph Waltz, you were great in Inglorious Basterds but you have nothing to work with here). I get that they got Seth Rogen because the character starts off as a bumbling rich oaf, but if he never changes to legit hero, the movie is a failure.

Rating: 4/10 Atkins