Once upon a time, before he retired, the Russians called him Baba Yaga. The Boogeyman. This and this alone should tell you that John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is not a guy you want to mess with.

Too bad nobody told Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen) before he killed Wick’s dog. Not just any dog, either, but a parting gift from his recently deceased wife.

Iosef’s father, Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), is head of the Russian mob in New York. To say he’s disappointed in his son’s behavior would be a bald understatement. His mood hardly improves when Wick starts systematically dismantling his empire.…

“This city can be hard. When I was young, I asked my priest how you could get to heaven and still protect yourself from all the evil in the world. He told me what God said to His children. ‘You are sheep among wolves. Be wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves.’”

In a world of page-to-screen adaptions gone oh so wrong, Gone Baby Gone is proof of the good that can come from sticking close to the source material. With little deviation beyond the dictates of its own two hour running time, the film brings Dennis Lehane’s powerhouse novel to life with intelligence and grit to spare.

The story…

Boston Herald‘s James Verniere described Outlander as “Beowulf meets Predator” — a fair assessment, were it not for the fact that Outlander fails to live up to either one. Indeed, it fails to live up to much of anything.

The movie opens with the crash-landing of Kainan (Jim Caviezel), an alien warrior who finds himself stranded on the shores of Norway during the Iron Age. Crap. To make things worse, he manages to get himself captured by a band of seriously annoyed Norwegians. Double crap.

The proverbial cherry on top of all this crap comes with the realization that Moorwen — a man-chomping…

On the night of June 25th, 2005, a four-man Navy SEAL team - consisting of Lieutenant Michael Murphy, Sonar Technician 2nd Class Matthew “Axe” Axelson, Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Danny Dietz, and Corpsman 1st Class Marcus Luttrell - is lowered via fast-rope into the Hindu Kush Mountains near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Their mission: track and eliminate notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah.

Less than twenty four hours later, only one of those SEALs is left alive.

What went wrong? Goatherds. Local goatherds, who stumble across the team in the mountain brush. After confirming that the men…

What if one night out of every year, the authorities declared all criminal activity completely legal? What would you do? Steal the car you’ve always wanted but never could afford? Plot the death of your boss because he’s such a royal pain to work with?

In a futuristic America beleaguered by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned just such a night — an annual 12-hour period in which any person may commit any crime (including murder) without fear of retribution. Hospitals are shut down. Rule of law is suspended. This night of nights, you are allowed — nay, encouraged — to…

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) finds himself living every parent’s worst nightmare when his six-year-old daughter goes missing. The only lead? A battered RV that was parked on the street only hours before. Heading the investigation is Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), who tracks down the RV’s driver (Paul Dano) and takes him into custody. But when lack of evidence compels the suspect’s release, and police fail to turn up any more leads, Dover decides to take things into his own hands.

A Little Q&A

Your child has been abducted. Time is running out. What do you do?

Taken answered the question…

Liam Neeson has an impressive resume. Think about it. He trained Batman and Obi-Wan and Darth Vadar. He is both Aslan and Zeus (which makes him a god in at least two mythologies). And he single-handedly annihilated an entire human trafficking ring during a short vacation in Paris.

Having duly weighed this in our minds, we have to ask: Who or what is going to mess with a guy like that?

Wolves. And God.

Of Plane Wrecks & Mythical Beasts

In The Grey, Neeson plays the character of John Ottway, an oil-rig worker who survives – together with several other roughnecks - a brutal plane crash in…

When your first film is a major commercial and critical success like District 9, seeds of anticipation and worry are planted in the collective mind of your audience. Questions start crowding to the surface: “Is this guy for real? Is he a one-hit wonder? Can he do it again?” Needless to say: Neill Blomkamp‘s Elysium had ginormous shoes to fill, serious expectations to meet, and a lot to live up to. Did it succeed? Yes… and no. Mostly no.

It’s Better Up There

The year is 2154, and society is divided into two classes: the wealthy, who live on a man-made habitat called Elysium, and the…

Following my review of World War Z, a discussion broke out in the comments section regarding the merits (and demerits) of the film’s approach to the zombiepocalypse. One of the most interesting things this discussion yielded was the assertion that WWZ is “barely passable” as a zombie film. Why? Mainly because there is no such thing as a fast-moving zombie. The movie shows us infected humans - crushing armies, leveling cities, chasing Brad Pitt hither and thither – but these feral chompers cannot be designated “zombies”. Real zombies don’t move like that.

To tell the truth, I’d never heard…