Tombstone

1993

★★★★½ Rewatched

“Thanks for always being there, Doc.”

Goodnight, Val.

[Source: Plex Streaming Server]

Sudden Death

1995

★★★★ Rewatched

Always liked this, but seeing it on a pristine (seemingly never run) 35mm print with a near sold out crowd elevated it to a whole other level. The beauty is that it's played completely straight, right down to a banger kitchen fight where Van Damme battles the team mascot to the death. Plus, the hockey is actually thrilling on the big screen; dynamically shot and cut to the point that, when the narrative stops dead in its tracks to actually…

Nixon

1995

★★★★★ Rewatched

“She got it, Bob. Nineteen-year-old college kid. She understood something it's taken me twenty-five years in politics to understand. The CIA, the Mafia, those Wall Street bastards...The Beast. Nineteen-year-old kid. She called it a Wild Animal.”

The Untold History of the United States

Rapid Fire

1992

★★★★ Watched

As easy as it is to marvel over what could’ve been for Brandon Lee here - who gets to reveal both the fact that he hadn’t quite figured the acting thing out yet, but was possibly just as freakish a physical specimen as his father - it’s also just as tragic that we didn’t get more straight up sleazy action movies from Dwight Little. He delivers everything you could want from an early ‘90s shoot ‘em up, including a few…

A Breed Apart

1984

★★★ Watched

A weird hybrid of Cannon Films action schlock and hot house melodrama, Rutger Hauer's a Vietnam Vet living and protecting rare eagles in the wilderness, while Powers Boothe is contracted by Donald Pleasence to poach the eggs of said birds for his monumental collection. While you're waiting for a violent showdown (which does sort of happen), Ozploitation staple Philipe Mora transforms this into a bizarre love triangle with Kathleen Turner for most of its run time, stopping occasionally to let…

Tombstone

1993

★★★★½ Watched

“Make no mistake, it's not revenge he's after. It's a reckoning.”

Legends come to life.

Sudden Death

1995

★★★ Watched

Reliably sturdy, as all Peter Hyams’ pictures are, and never trying to hide what it truly is: a low rent DIE HARD knock-off. There’s some remarkable weirdness packed in, such as an extended sequence where Van Damme fights a female terrorist dressed as the Pittsburgh Penguins mascot. Plus, having Powers Boothe as your sadistic Hans Gruber stand-in can never hurt. As someone who hails from a family of Yinzers, it’s nice to see the city presented in all its blue collar glory, even if a bunch of Canadians get way more fan service.

Frailty

2001

★★★½ Watched

Angels & Demons.