Tag Archives: action

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Octopussy (1983) Movie Review

October 23, 2015 Alex Brannan

When MI6 agent 009 (Andy Bradford) arrives dying at the British Embassy with a gold Faberge egg, which turns out to be a fabrication, MI6 sends agent 007 James Bond (Roger Moore) to seek out the real egg’s owner. It turns out that the egg can be traced back to Soviet general Orlov (Steven Berkoff).

Octopussy breaks the fourth wall in the strangest way possible when Bond meets a connection in India. The agent in the field, disguised as a snake charmer, plays the Continue reading Octopussy (1983) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

For Your Eyes Only (1981) Movie Review

October 22, 2015 Alex Brannan

The cold open to For Your Eyes Only is immediate action. James Bond (Roger Moore) is taken on a helicopter ride from Hell. The pilot is inexplicably murdered and the plane becomes remotely piloted by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who commandeers the vehicle toward Bond’s demise. Or so it seems. Bond takes control of the cockpit, flies the chopper to Blofeld, picks the arch-nemesis up, and drops him from a high altitude. It seems an unfitting death for such a pivotal franchise villain, Blofeld having appeared in more Bond films than any other of the spy’s adversaries.

After this diversion, which seems to only serve as an answer to the question as to when Blofeld will return (the answer given is never), we get the real opening to the film. A British naval boat is sunk by an underwater mine, and Bond is sent to investigate. He does, and is promptly captured. The action sequence that follows is Continue reading For Your Eyes Only (1981) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Movie Review

October 19, 2015 Alex Brannan

When Soviet and British submarines disappear, the KGB and MI6 make moves to investigate. Super spy James Bond (Roger Moore) is led to Egypt, where plans for a submarine tracking system are apparently on the black market.

Bond’s travels turn into a cat and mouse game as he searches for contacts, only to find them murdered just prior to his arrival. The killer, Jaws (Richard Kiel), is one of the most Continue reading The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) Movie Review

October 18, 2015 Alex Brannan

Roger Moore’s second outing as super spy James Bond, The Man With the Golden Gun, opens on a strange foot chase through a fun house filled with wax figures, mirrors, and full sets. With little explanation as to why, an assassin with a terrible shot follows Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), an ex-KGB baddie with three nipples, through this house as Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize) goads both men on over an intercom. Eventually, Scaramanga comes across his signature golden gun, which he uses to shoot his pursuer dead.

Let me recap: a tri-nippled Christopher Lee is our villain. He kills people in his fun house lair with his henchman, Tattoo from Fantasy Island. If it sounds strange, that’s because it is.

Continue reading The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Live and Let Die (1973) Movie Review

October 15, 2015 Alex Brannan

At a meeting of the United Nations in New York City, a man is killed mysteriously by a strange noise emitting through his ear-piece translator. In New Orleans, a man is stabbed and tossed into the middle of a funeral parade that just happens to be for him. In the Caribbean, a man tied up by locals is tied up and bitten by a poisonous snake during a ritual. Three men dead, and all three agents of British spy organization MI6.

Enter James Bond (Roger Moore, in his first outing as the franchise spy). MI6 head M (Bernard Lee) and his assistant Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) appear at Bonds doorstep to address the issue of agents dropping like flies. The scene is a comedic game of hide and seek, as Bond steers M away from discovering the naked woman in Bond’s bed. This, and the clever use of a magnetic watch, makes the entrance of Moore as Bond light and fun.

Continue reading Live and Let Die (1973) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Drama, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Sicario (2015) Movie Review

October 9, 2015 Alex Brannan

During a raid on a Phoenix house that may have possible links to the drug cartel, the FBI stumbles upon an array of dead bodies. The bodies are quickly associated with drug lord Manuel Diaz (Bernardo P. Saracino). Following the discovery, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is recruited to a task force led by the Department of Defense that is enlisted with stopping Diaz.

On a plane to Juarez, where they are to intercept Guillermo (Edgar Arreola), Diaz’s brother, Kate meets the team’s number two Alejandro (Benecio Del Toro). He is terse and stoic, but, as Kate watches him sleep, we see something terrifying within. Continue reading Sicario (2015) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

You Only Live Twice (1967) Movie Review

September 30, 2015 Alex Brannan

You Only Live Twice, the fifth James Bond film and the fifth to feature Sean Connery in the lead role, opens on space, where a manned, United States spacecraft is hovering over Earth’s orbit. As one of the two astronauts leaves the craft, a larger spacecraft starts barreling toward them. This larger, unidentified spacecraft swallows the U.S. craft whole, leaving the external astronaut for dead in open space and the U.S. government up in arms over their lost craft.

After seeing this international kerfuffle over the missing spacecraft–the U.S. blaming the Soviets and England blaming the Japanese–we meet Bond in Hong Kong, where he is Continue reading You Only Live Twice (1967) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) Movie Review

August 2, 2015 Alex Brannan

In the opening scene of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Tom Cruise’s franchise spy Ethan Hunt is seen hanging from the side of a plane as it takes off of from a private runway in Minsk. On board is a massive amount of nerve gas able to take out a large city worth of people. Hunt grapples against the hull of the plane as tech expert Benji (Simon Pegg) struggles to open the door for him remotely from a nearby grass plain.

Finally, the door releases and Hunt is pitched into the cargo hold of the plane. Holding tightly to the pallet of nerve gas, he gives a guard a Continue reading Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Sports

Southpaw (2015) Movie Review

July 25, 2015 Alex Brannan

Billy “The Great” Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a mumbling undefeated light heavyweight boxing champion. Adopted into the world of boxing from a life of juvenile delinquency and living in an orphanage, fighting is his sole catharsis for his aggression. He hits hard and moves recklessly in the ring, refusing even to block a punch. He lumbers around, spitting blood and screaming intimidating exclamations. His career is one of pride and success, and he is well on the way to becoming one of the best in the sport.

Then, everything goes south. You can sense it in the Continue reading Southpaw (2015) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Pixels (2015) Movie Review

July 25, 2015 Alex Brannan

In 1982, savant children battle for the fame of becoming an arcade game champion, an event being filmed for the sake of a time capsule that will be shot into space. Brenner (Adam Sandler), the savant-iest of savant gamers, gets a tie score with hot shot Eddie (Peter Dinklage) and must face off against him in a round of Donkey Kong. Brenner loses by a nose, which seemingly demoralizes him into leading a washed up life of attending Mississippi Institute of Technology and becoming an electronics installer.

Meanwhile, Brenner’s dopey friend “Chewy” Cooper (Kevin James) is President of the United States. That’s right, Continue reading Pixels (2015) Movie Review →