Tag: action comedy
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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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One Last Pile from 2023 Review Batch: Anyone but You, Dicks: The Musical, Fair Play, Ferrari, Foe, Freelance, Jules, Meg 2: The Trench, Passages, Reality, Reptile, Roter Himmel, Showing Up, Strays, Theater Camp
The header says it all: one final blast of reviews of 2023 movies before the end of the year. And since I’m still working on the Year in Review feature for tomorrow, let’s just get right to it. Anyone but You (2023) Directed by Will Gluck. Starring Glen Powell, Sydney Sweeney, Davionte Ganter, Alexandra Shipp,…
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Random Review Batch: Ali Fear Eats the Soul, Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul, Lost City, Mosquito Coast, Razor’s Edge, Super Cops, Woman of Affairs
Today’s batch of random reviews includes a blistering satire of profit-driven organized religion, one of Harrison Ford’s best (and most unsympathetic) roles, a weak Best Picture Oscar nominee from the 1940s, a melodrama from Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a silent soaper that pairs up Greta Garbo with John Gilbert, a flick that could have been called…
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Back to School Review Batch (Part 2): Back to School, Clueless, College, Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Drumline, Election, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Heathers, Kindergarten Cop, Matilda, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Varsity Blues
It’s the end of August and most of the kids are back in school, so it’s time for another batch of capsule reviews for movies involving young folks at various levels of education, from kindergarten to college (but mostly high school since they’re the most common). The previous batch from last year came at a…
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Random Review Batch: Crush, Long Kiss Goodnight, Murder at the Gallop, Phantom of the Opera, Trouble Along the Way
Today’s batch of random reviews includes a silent film horror classic, an outlandish teenage stalker thriller, an Agatha Christie mystery for Miss Marple, a most unexpected role for John Wayne, and a 90s action picture with a cameo from the late Larry King. The Crush (1993) Directed by Alan Shapiro. Starring Cary Elwes, Alicia Silverstone,…