‘How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?’ a bewildered John McClane asks as he finds himself stuck in yet another terrorist-crammed environment. By the time we hear these words, we have already asked ourselves the same question many times over…
Back in 1991, director John Singleton single-handedly changed the face of cinema.
Not only did his sociopolitical drama Boyz n the Hood earn the 23-year-old the accolade of becoming both the first African-American and youngest person to receive a Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards, it more importantly changed the way in which the impoverished black youth of America were perceived amid widespread police brutality and a media frenzy demonising gang culture…
Flatliners could have been so much more. In fact, in the hands of someone like an early David Cronenberg, it may have been a veritable masterpiece.
The movie’s concept is quite brilliant. Four medical students set up an experimentation lab after hours and induce death with the aim of gaining some kind of grasp on the nature of the afterlife…
When it comes to plot lines, you would be hard pressed to find one as improbable as that featured in Soldier Boyz.
Not only are the film’s events about as detached from reality as The Naked Gun, its characters are just as trite and predictable, so hammy that you sometimes forget this is an action movie and not a straight up spoof. Even more amazing is the fact that Louis Morneau’s slice of puerile patriotism harbours delusions of social commentary, masquerading as a cultural melting pot as America’s gangland minorities team up to take on an even more foreign, and therefore evil race of people…
The American Ninja franchise is a true product of the VHS era.
Much like the No Retreat No Surrender series, they are movies of low production value which only seem to decrease in quality, but there is something about them that keeps us coming back for more. Production company The Cannon Group would exploit America’s fascination with martial arts to devastating financial effect. This had very little to do with the quality of action on show or the actors involved, owing much to the nationalistic stance of the latter stages of the Cold War as an inherently fascist cinema exploded in a barrage of invincible protagonists and patriotic exposition…
Poor Kevin Reynolds.
After experiencing huge success with 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, he would be handed a budget of $175,000,000 to direct dystopian spectacular Waterworld, and although that sum may seem paltry by today’s standards, this was more than a quarter of a century ago, and at the time it constituted the world’s most expensive movie, a fact made so apparent in the mainstream media that the production was almost bound to fail, and in many quarters encouraged to…
By 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger was well on his way to becoming the world’s most recognised Hollywood superstar.
Following on from his mainstream success as James Cameron’s relentless cyborg The Terminator, a steroid-pumped Arnie would land money-spinning leads in movies such as Commando and Predator, becoming a cultural icon in both the action and sci-fi genres…
Back in 1982 Tobe Hooper directed Poltergeist, a movie that was written and produced by Stephen Spielberg, and in all honesty it may as well have been him behind the camera. Everything about that movie screamed Spielberg, from its familial tone and grandiose set pieces to its high profile marketing strategy and tantilsing teaser poster. The grisly touch of Hooper – a wonderful director in his own right – was nowhere to be found.
