Hollywood’s return to making monster films has certainly been a wonderful surprise, since it has become increasingly clear that these films, while not always of the highest quality, usually contain an element of ingenuity and creativity that is often missing from a lot of other genres. Attempts to make the genre more formal and sophisticated…
Category: Action
Love Hurts (2025)
We all carry remnants of our past, which we tend to prefer to keep hidden, at least to a certain extent – but the bigger the secret, the more challenging it is to conceal it, which can often lead to complications when the truth is unearthed, especially when they relate to more morally questionable aspects…
Novocaine (2025)
I remember seeing a sign on a gymnasium wall that said “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”, which is a quote by acclaimed author Haruki Murakami (who may find it fascinating that one of his quips has found such an unconventional home, albeit where it is slightly taken out of context), and it’s something that…
Old Guy (2025)
No matter how much of an expert you become in a particular field, there will come a point where you are seen as “the old guy”, someone who was previously at the top of their game, but the march of time and the inevitability of the younger generation taking over means that we will all…
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
Video game adaptations have undergone quite a substantial transformation as time has progressed and audiences have reacted differently to them, depending on the quality and effectiveness of their execution. For the most part, they tend to be seen as trivial at the best of times, artistically corrupt and a waste of time in others –…
Gladiator II (2024)
They tend to say that once you’ve achieved perfection, it’s best to leave it alone. However, the same principle doesn’t necessarily apply when you’ve made something perfectly decent and solid enough to withstand the test of time, but perhaps not necessarily redefine a particular genre or style of filmmaking. Ridley Scott has made many films…
Funeral in Berlin (1966)
The 1960s in terms of cinema were defined by a few elements, but one of the more prominent when it comes to the stories that gripped audiences was the collective obsession with spy films. We can probably attribute this to Ian Fleming, who created arguably the greatest spy in the history of literature – but…
Twisters (2024)
Something that anyone who watches the perpetual ebb and flow of cinema and how certain films are received in comparison to others will discover over time is that, given the space and patience, just about any genre can be redefined in some way. Just a couple of decades ago, we emerged from a period where…
Yojimbo (1961)
Several years ago, it was boldly stated that every work of American cinema from the last sixty years can be traced to John Ford’s masterpiece The Searchers in some way or another, which sounds reductive until we realize just how influential that film was, and how its spectre still lingers heavily over a lot of…
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Has there ever been a filmmaker who has enjoyed being defined by as wildly disparate a set of projects as George Miller? When all is said and done, his legacy is essentially going to consist of dancing penguins and violent apocalyptic wastelands with a few additional projects peppered in between – and yet, it seems…
