Movies in the Action genre

In the Rambo canon, where does this one fit? The tone is closer to First Blood but the body count is more Rambo III. No matter how one dices and slices this new Rambo, the first one in 20 years, it will likely please fans of the long-in-the-tooth...

Over the years, the Rambo sequels have been defended as “adrenaline and testosterone cocktails” and “odes to machismo.” It’s hard to imagine, however, what the defense might be for the fifth and final Rambo movie, Last Blood. Who was...

Technically, Rampage fits into the “based on a video game” category but, as with most products from the ‘70s and ‘80s (when games weren’t exactly narrative-based), significant changes were applied to make the concept viable for the b...

Real Steel, despite being dubbed the "Rock-em/Sock-em Robot movie," seeks to achieve more than such a limiting nickname might imply. A fusion of three popular genres - the father/son relationship movie, the boy-and-his-dog movie, and the sports mov...

Not to be confused with the early-'90s Kieslowski film of the same name. Definitely not. Sometimes, casting makes a difference. Under the stewardship of the same director with the same screenplay, Red might be an enjoyable-but-forgettable late...

John Milius' 1984 action/adventure film, Red Dawn, has long faded from the memories of all but a small group of intense devotees. It is perhaps best remembered, to the extent that it's remembered at all, as the answer to a number of trivia question...

Before being dazzled by the high profile cast of Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot, perhaps I should have looked a little more closely at the filmography of writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber. The filmmaker has to his credit su...

Most directors, upon entering a genre with which they lack familiarity, adhere strictly to "the book." David Mamet, however, throws "the book" out the window. The resulting movie, a mixed martial arts concoction called Redbelt, is different than ...

Revolver had its world premiere at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, some 27 months before finding its way into a small number of U.S. multiplexes. If that says nothing else, it's that distributors shied away from the film, fearing its complete lack...

Even after nine years, you can't keep a good man down. The indomitable protagonist of 2000's surprisingly engaging Pitch Black and 2004's disappointing The Chronicles of Riddick is back for his third go-around and, if the open-endedness of the narr...