This movie revels in its status as a dumb action flick, and doesn’t disappoint in delivering fun, vehicle-based, over-the-top action. And when it does deliver even moderate emotional payoff it hits much harder because it’s unexpected.
Closest comparison: It’s the next ratchet up in The Fast And The Furious series.
Setting: Super Hero
Plot: Espionage
Tone: Action
This movie is a solid revenge movie, with some caveats. Almost all of it is standard heist, crime, revenge movie fare, but one scene shows the aftermath of the raid of a child rape dungeon. Nothing sensitive is shown, but the implications of the furnishings combined with some extremely disturbing offscreen audio makes this movie a no-go for many who otherwise would enjoy the film. The rest of the movie is great, the kind of movie that would have cast Mel Gibson if it had been made in the ‘90s.
Content warning: child rape
Closest comparison: It’s like Heat by way of Ransom.
Setting: Heist
Plot: Revenge
Tone: Crime
This movie is a cheesy gorefest that takes itself way too seriously. The trifecta of bad acting, flimsy sets, and clumsy fight choreography are compounded by the choppy editing and bogus writing. None of the characters are likeable, the usual saving grace of the sci-fi B-movie, and they’re constantly doing things that go against their character motivations which is the original sin of script writing. The music is great and it the narrative is sitting on a solid premise, but there’s no saving this catastrophe of a movie.
Content warning: mild gore
Closest comparison: It’s trying to be Pandorum but it ends up closer to Battlefield Earth.
Setting: Sci-fi Action
Plot: Survival Horror
Tone: Pop Horror
This movie is crass, dark, crime comedy that is a glorious thing to behold. The script is tightly woven, interconnecting the plot lines with comedic aplomb. Everyone is chewing the scenery at the same time, rising to a hilarious crescendo, each beat right on cue. It’s the quintessential cockney crime comedy, and even after twenty years it hasn’t lost its bite.
Content warning: female nudity, language
Closest comparison: It has the narrative complexity of Crash (2004) crossed with the criminal underground of Shopping (1994).
Setting: Crime
Plot: Thriller
Tone: Dark Screwball Comedy
Sure, this movie is dumb, but it’s so much fun I can’t give it just a 3/5. The action is big and cool, one setpiece after another with awesome fights and stunts and just enough plot to get you from one to the next. It seems intent on going bigger than everybody else, upping Marvel’s two mid- and post-credits scene ante with four of their own. There are lots of awesome slow-mo stunts that are impressive even in a world of CGI because of how gorgeous and colorful the whole movie is.
Closest comparison: It’s the Mission Impossible II of the Fast and Furious franchise, in all the best ways.
Setting: Action Adventure
Plot: Action Thriller
Tone: Action Comedy
On the whole this is just your standard action flick. It looks really good and the action sequences are slightly above average, but the plot plods along exactly as you might expect. Robert De Niro and Clive Owen elevate the average acting level significantly and Jason Statham is Jason Statham. Apparently it’s based on a true story, which improves some of the mondanity quite a bit. The film isn’t great and it isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t offer anything beyond that.
Closest Comparison: Ronin crossed with The Bourne Ultimatum
Don't get me wrong, it's a ton of fun. The jump scares are fantastic and peppered evenly throughout the runtime. The acting is mostly fine and there's some fun tech that induces cool wideshots of The Meg underwater looking properly menacing. There are long stretches of rescue-operation-type scenes that I wasn't expecting in a summer shark movie, and though they're good scenes it wreaks havoc with the pacing. Great popcorn-munching fun, but its staying power is suspect.
Together with Skyscraper this demonstrates a return to '90s-style action movies. I'm personally delighted with the trend and am interested to see how many more movies will line up to follow the trend.
