Action

MMA fighter and indie film fight choreographer gets Olympic shot

The mixed martial arts sport of San Shou, which combines American Boxing, Chinese Kickboxing, and Mongolian Wrestling, has struggled for years to gain mainstream acceptance despite a large international following and the long-time support of MMA fighting icons such as Cung Le. Now, the sport has been given its greatest opportunity for exposure yet, the ….

The Animatrix film review

The ANIMATRIX is a series of animated short films, inspired by and linked to the MATRIX universe. They were created by some of the hottest Japanese animators working in the industry today. The following reviews are for each of the nine shorts. The Final Flight Of The Osiris The first short within the Animatrix disc ….

Blade 2 film review

The original Blade was a demonstration of frenzied visual effects, a technological vampire bloodbath with no meaning or direction. Although the series is still very physical, emphasizing battle sequences and special effects over story and characters, Blade II knows where the first film went awry and does not repeat those mistakes. Instead of creating a ….

The Bourne Identity film review

Last year, Christopher Nolan took memory loss to a new level with his masterful thriller Memento, in which the hero tattoos notes on his body to help him cope with his condition. This year, the amnesiac champion of The Bourne Identity uses brains and brawn as a means of sorting out his memory loss. Doug ….

The Bourne Supremacy film review

Attention all adventure-starved, action-crazed moviegoers: kennel the cat, wreck the robot, and step on that spider. This summer’s best action hero is not Catwoman, Spider-Man, or a CGI robot – it’s just a dude named Jason Bourne! Matt Damon is back to reprise his role from the widely popular The Bourne Identity as Bourne – ….

Casino Royale film review

Though great he may be, there is a limit to the amount of uninterrupted Burt Bacharach music one can endure. And sadly, that limit — of music punctuated by kazoos, harpischords, and accordions — is far less than 137 minutes. There’s also a limit on the length of a spy spoof one can sit through ….

Die Another Day film review

Here we go again. The James Bond franchise – Hollywood’s thinnest excuse to stage elaborate set pieces, photograph scantily-clad women and decimate fleets of sexy cars – returns for its twentieth installment, the fourth with current star Pierce Brosnan. Surprisingly, the all-too-familiar formula continues to wring out passable intrigue. Die Another Day contains everything we ….

Goldeneye film review

After six years in the freezer, Bond is back. Any 007 fan worth his salt will be aware of the fact that Timothy Dalton is out, and Pierce Brosnan is in as the U.K.’s ultimate spy. Out is Bond’s Aston Martin. In is a new BMW. Out with another actor playing "M." In with Judi ….

The Matrix Reloaded film review

In 1999, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) uttered memorably, "Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is." In 2003, no one needs to be told, because everyone fully knows what the Matrix is. The idea of the Matrix has entered the popular lexicon. Magazines, with utter seriousness, create polls asking whether readers think we are ….

The Matrix film review

What many people forget when comparing The Matrix to its own sequels (or the Star Wars prequels, or any other maligned sci-fi epic) is that this 1999 original has bad dialogue too. In fact, search the entire trilogy for a line more cringe-inducing than “Buckle up, Dorothy, ‘cause Kansas is going bye-bye,” spoken by poor, ….

Kill Bill: Volume 1 film review

Sean O’Connell: "writes itself into the Hollywood history books" Quentin Tarantino’s fourth film, Kill Bill, reminds us why we, as a collective moviegoing society, wish he’d work more often than he does. The acclaimed director rocketed to cult stardom with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, cranked out an overlong homage to film noir in Jackie ….