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Posts tagged ‘Action’

Sep 16

Rebellion (2011)
L’ordre et la morale

Directed by: Matthieu Kassovitz

4 star

1988, New Caledonia, a series of islands in the South Pacific that are legally part of France.  A group of indigenous Kanaks has stormed a police station on one of the islands, killing four gendarmes and taking twenty hostage.  A team of elite GIGN police, led by specialist negotiator Capitaine Legorjus, flies to the islands but, by the time they arrive, the mission has been given to the army who have orders to end the uprising quickly, using any means –  the French presidential elections are underway, and neither candidate can afford to look weak. Read more

Sep 11

The Debt (2010)

Directed by: John Madden

3 stars

Flipping between the mid-1960s and 1997, The Debt tells the story of the capture and killing by a Mossad team (Stefan, Rachel, David) of a Nazi war criminal, Dieter Vogel, the “Surgeon of Birkenau” – and the aftermath of that mission. Read more

Sep 7

3 Comments

Super 8 (2011)

Directed by: J. J. Abrams

3 stars

I know he’s only the producer, but Super 8 finds us in classic Spielberg territory: 1970s small-town America.  In an efficient scene-setting, we learn that Joe (Joel Courtney) has just lost his mom to an industrial accident, and his deputy-sheriff dad (Kyle Chandler) blames no-goodnik Louis Dainard (Ron Eldard).  Four months later, Joe is one of five kids making a zombie movie using the eponymous home movie kit.  Trouble is, one of the other kids is Alice (Elle Fanning), daughter of Louis.  Each of the dysfunctional dads (the one a self-hating drunk, the other a cold, angry shell, unable to hug his son) is opposed to the two kids being near each other – but when a mysterious train crashes outside the town,  their irritation gets swamped by some bad-ass alien trouble. Read more

Aug 24

Modesty Blaise (1966)

Directed by: Joseph Losey

0 stars

Joseph Losey made several films with Dirk Bogarde during the 1960s.  Modesty Blaise must be the worst.  It might well mark the career low point for everyone who found themselves involved in the production. Read more

Aug 22

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)

Directed by: Rupert Wyatt

4 stars

Rebooting the series from the late 60s, Rupert Wyatt’s movie is very well done.  Scientist Will (James Franco) is seeking a cure for Alzheimer’s for his bio-tech employer, but also for his afflicted father, played by John Lithgow. Will takes home a baby chimp when its mother is destroyed after a trial of a promising viral drug seems to have gone wrong.  But the drug works, and young Caesar grows up to be smarter than his human family.  The drug seems to work on humans, too, initially giving Will’s dad more than just respite from the illness.  However, he later develops a resistance to the drug, his dementia returns, and when he gets into a fight with a neighbour whose car he has trashed, Caesar intervenes violently.  Locked away in a brutally-run simian centre, Caesar goes through fear and depression and then finally anger, and begins to organise his fellow captives. Read more

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