Tango & Cash - 3/5

This is a pretty standard buddy cop movie of its era. The plot is as fun and outlandish, the action scenes as over-the-top, and the dialogue as too-perfectly-quippy as you might expect. There’s more sexuality than most of its contemporaries, which may explain its relative obscurity, but the rest of the film is solid action fare.

Content warning: female nudity

Closest comparison: It’s like Lethal Weapon with Sylvester Stalone and Kurt Russell.

Setting: Buddy Cop
Plot: Exoneration
Tone: Buddy Comedy

Epoch (2001) - 1/5

This movie is hot garbage. The CGI is both dodgy and terrible, even for 2001, the acting is laughable, and it’s all built around a story that isn’t even a good idea in theory. There’s no heart to it, like everyone involved doesn’t want to be making the movie. Could be a good contender for Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Closest comparison: It’s like The Asylum production company’s attempt at an Alien or Arrival type movie.

Setting: Adventure
Plot: Sci-Fi
Tone: Discovery

Chinatown - 3/5

Film Noir used to be a morally gray private eye investigating an unusual murder, wrestling with the morality of it all but ultimately doing the right thing in the end. By the ‘70s it turned into a genre where the endings were instead nihilistic and grim. This movie is the epitome of that turning point. The bleak plot and tone are balanced out by the superb acting and dialogue. It’s the kind of movie that students watch to understand historical context, but nobody watches just for fun.

Closest comparison: It’s in between The Maltese Falcon and L.A. Confidential, both tonally and temporally.

Setting: Film Noir
Plot: Mystery
Tone: Thriller