http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/articles.sec-133-1-action.html Early in The Last Stand, the small-town sheriff played by Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's my day off. Should be a quiet weekend." That's the new way of saying, "I've got one week to retirement," because it signals — with flashing neon and everything — that life is going to royally upend those plans.]]> Not long after Batman changed Hollywood in the summer of 1989, every studio wanted to have the next comics-based blockbuster. I remember visiting Penn Square Mall’s multiplex (as I did often back then) and seeing a poster for Captain America. The one-sheet was comprised of little more than a close-up of Cap’s iconic shield and a promise to arrive next summer.
]]> While it's admirable that Parker is dedicated to the memory of Donald E. Westlake, the legendary crime author who wrote two dozen novels about the character under the Richard Stark pen name, this Parker is not his Parker. It's Taylor Hackford's, and the director continues to apply his nondescript, workmanlike touch to average material (see Love Ranch, Ray, Proof of Life, etc.). He neither improves it nor harms it; he simply keeps it afloat.]]> Like many, my first exposure to Jackie Chan was through 1981’s The Cannonball Run. That doesn’t count. ]]> Let us now praise a giant of action cinema: Bruce Lee. It seems like a good time, given Shout! Factory’s reissuing of four of the man’s marital-arts titles via a pair of double-feature DVDs: one with 1971’s The Big Boss and 1972’s Fist of Fury, the other with 1972’s The Way of the Dragon and 1978’s partly posthumous Game of Death. In total, that’s three-point-two-five good movies.]]> Ignore the Weinsteins’ needless re-christening of the Hong Kong film Wu Xia as the ever-generic Dragon. The important thing is that director Peter Chan (The Love Letter) has made not only one of the better martial-arts pictures of the new millennium thus far, but one that holds appeal to audiences not attuned to the genre. ]]> Gangster Squad takes place in 1949 Los Angeles, a time when the Hollywood sign still sported “LAND” at the end, and a time that looks like L.A. Confidential — a lot like L.A. Confidential. ]]> Although front-and-center on the Blu-ray box and the film’s trailers, Expendables team member Jet Li takes more of a supporting role in The Sorcerer and the White Snake. This shouldn’t be a surprise; about to turn 50, the guy isn’t as spry as he used to be. What is a surprise is how kid-friendly the Hong Kong film is. With little exception, it’s practically made for them.]]> One easy way to review The Four would be to call it a kung-fu X-Men. Hell, director Gordon Chan (The King of Fighters) already has a pair of sequels planned. The big difference, of course, is that this Chinese/Hong Kong film is a period piece set nearly a thousand years ago. Therefore, it’s not interested in adamantium blades, but counterfeit coins. ]]> Not only is The Sweeney one of the best TV-to-film adaptations in history, but quite possibly the best adaptation of a TV series you’ve never heard of ... unless you’re British.]]> DVD seems made for someone like Quentin Tarantino, who grew up on a steady diet of drive-in drivel and grindhouse greats. And for a short while, Quentin Tarantino made DVDs — in a sense, releasing such long-forgotten or never-noticed flicks under his Rolling Thunder Pictures label.
]]> With the Cohen Film Collection, we may have another Criterion Collection-level provider of classic movies in the making, if its Blu-ray presentation of The Thief of Bagdad is any indication.]]> What an unwieldy title The Tarzan Collection Starring Jock Mahoney and Mike Henry is. Then again, so many actors have donned the loincloth of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ iconic lord of the jungle across nearly 100 movies and counting, so specificity is required. This particular five-flick, five-disc set from Warner Archive rounds up the entire turns of the two men mentioned in the title. ]]> Who in the hell hires Jackie Chan and then tells him not to kick a lot? The Exterminator director James Glickenhaus, that’s who. ]]> Here's the first great Blu-ray surprise of 2013: Tai Chi Zero, a Hong Kong martial-arts spectacle that's inventive and invigorating.]]> Premium Rush is the Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie from 2012 that didn't have him playing a Gotham City rookie, a time-traveling hit man or a POTUS' son. (Damn, was this kid busy!) It's the only one of those four that ended the year without any hint of Oscar buzz, yet I'd argue it's the most purely entertaining.]]> Fifth in the increasingly slick but decreasingly lucid franchise, Resident Evil: Retribution had potential to be the best entry since the 2002 original. After all, returning director Paul W.S. Anderson (The Three Musketeers) has positioned so many elements from the previous films that it seemed set up to play like a greatest-hits package. Instead, the result is baffling.]]> Due to the twisted savagery of a young man in a Colorado movie theater, The Dark Knight Rises will forever be a footnote in American history. Hopefully, that horrific massacre will not influence perceptions of this epic conclusion to writer-director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.]]> By sheer coincidence, Osombie arrived on my desk the same day I screened Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-worthy depiction about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Osombie begins where Zero ends: with the American military raid on bin Laden's compound on May 2, 2011. Whereas Zero puts bullets in the al-Qaeda leader's body, Osombie lets him inject himself with an aggressive pathogen so that, once he washes up on the Arabian Sea, he's a full-fledged zombie.]]> While not fully lucid, Painted Skin: The Resurrection excels from a standpoint of visuals. Whether that’s worth an entire viewing depends on your tolerance for fantastical whimsy. ]]>