Tag: action
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The Best and the Worst from Pixar Animation Studios (#10-1)
We’ve reached the pinnacle (or the cellar?) of the list of Pixar animated features: the Top Ten. I suppose it says something that in the thirty years Pixar has been releasing full-length films, only three of the ten best have come in the last fifteen years. Pixar spoiled us out of the gate: for the…
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Dad-Dominant Review Batch (Part 3): Affliction, Blood Father, Brad’s Status, Broken Lance, Ezra, Fatherhood, Great American Pastime, Infinitely Polar Bear, Old Dads, Tarzan Finds a Son, We Bought a Zoo, When Did You Last See Your Father, World’s Greatest Dad
Happy Father’s Day! Like last year (and 2020, for that matter), I’m presenting a batch of reviews for movies focused on fathers and the relationships (good or bad) they have with their children. As always, I like to ferret out a wide variety of types, so there are dads who are doin’ a heckuva job,…
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Grading the Franchise: Lethal Weapon
Grading the Franchise is a recurring feature at Cinecaps Digest where I review an entire film series. Today, it’s the buddy cop action-comedy Lethal Weapon series. Among straight examples of the buddy cop sub-genre, Lethal Weapon sits in the highest class. The series’ best films (the original and first sequel) are as good as any other…
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The Buddy System (or, Formula Living Through Odd Couple Chemistry) Review Batch (Part 2): Alien Nation, Armed and Dangerous, Bright, Collision Course, Dead Heat, Feds, Frisco Kid, Hot Pursuit, Loose Cannons, Man, Ride Along, Theodore Rex, Turner & Hooch
You didn’t think we were done, did you? I can’t just do one batch of reviews for buddy action-comedies and leave it at that. It’s right there in the name of the sub-genre—it needs a buddy! This mismatched partner of the first buddy action-comedy post is bringing up the rear in a second look at…
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The Buddy System (or, Formula Living Through Odd Couple Chemistry) Review Batch (Part 1): Air America, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Bulletproof, Busting, Downtown, Freebie and the Bean, Guard, Heat, Let’s Be Cops, National Security, Other Guys, Protector, Rundown, 2 Guns
The storytelling device of police partners going after bad guys goes back a long, long ways. So, too, does the idea of a mismatched “odd couple” working together, reluctantly or otherwise. Fusing the two into a formula had some prototypical development in the 60s and 70s, but finally came into its own with 48 Hrs.…
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From the Funny Pages Review Batch: Addams Family, Blondie, Boy Named Charlie Brown, Brenda Starr, Dennis the Menace, Dick Tracy, Garfield Movie, Lil Abner, Marmaduke, Modesty Blaise, Prince Valiant, Skippy
I’ve done a few themed review batches centered on films based on comic books (starting here), but now I’m taking a look at motion pictures inspired by comic strips you could find in newspapers and magazines (remember those?). I appreciate the art form—there was even a time in my life when I considered aspiring to…
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Memorial Day Review Batch (Part 2): Anzio, Big Red One, Fighting 69th, Good Morning Vietnam, Green Zone, Hook, Last Full Measure, Midnight Clear, Miracle at St. Anna, None but the Brave, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Wake Island
Memorial Day weekend is full of start-of-summer activities—the first trip to the swim club of the year, playing in the park, barbecue blowouts, fireworks and amusement parks and outdoor concerts and more. It was also at one time the kickoff to the summer movie season (hit movies like Beverly Hills Cop II, Indiana Jones and…
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Pedal to the Metal Review Batch (Part 2): Armour of God, Big Shot, Breakdown, Escape to Athena, Furiosa, Le Casse, Lineup, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, Short Time, Taxi, Transporter 2, Vanishing Point, Violent Rome
The problem with doing review batches the way I do on Cinecaps is that I rarely plan ahead when putting them together. Sometimes, they just happen organically, like if I notice I have a high number of movies based around a single theme or one particular actor/filmmaker in my pool of reviews. Sometimes, I start…
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Grading the Franchise: Planet of the Apes
Grading the Franchise is a recurring feature at Cinecaps Digest where I review an entire film series. Today, it’s the science fiction action Planet of the Apes series. I knew the twist ending in advance. I knew some of the famous lines and had a general idea of the story. I’d even seen the Tim…
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TV on the Big Screen Review Batch (Part 3): Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Æon Flux, Baywatch, Bean, Bewitched, Car 54 Where Are You, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, Fall Guy, Miami Vice, Munsters, My Favorite Martian, X-Files
Thirteen more motion pictures based on television shows, and as you’d expect, most of them should have stayed on the small screen (or in our distant memories). Those that do work tend to have little to do with their inspirations or are so close to the source material, the movies came out when the shows…