Action
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the action genre. The genre features intense or high-pressure situations often related to combat or quick maneuvering.
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Léon: The Professional
I weep for Léon: The Professional because the potential really is there. The premise is great, they really nail the sense of style, and characters are strong (even though Gary Oldman is in the wrong movie; it’s often said because it’s true). But at complete random, the writing dips into mainstream, melodramatic, action movie dreck… (read more)
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Blade Runner
As much as I like Blade Runner—and I do, because I can overlook many things for a movie with great style and visual design (and boy, does Blade Runner have those in spades)—it definitely has its issues. Blade Runner‘s themes and relationships are too ambitious for its two-hour runtime, and I was already well-acquainted with… (read more)
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Drive
Drive is a mostly conventional thriller that does little to elevate the common tropes used in its genre other than inserting some Taxi Driver. The soundtrack is great isolated, but the brightness doesn’t fit the movie tonally at all. Ryan Gosling’s character is wooden but possesses a modicum more depth than the surrounding cast. There… (read more)
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Sanjuro
Though not as interesting or tense as Yojimbo, also directed by Akira Kurosawa, Sanjuro has essentially everything Yojimbo had, just in lesser amounts. The same appeal exists in watching the clever Sanjuro repeatedly outsmart his enemies with the occasional stunning action scenes. The plot itself isn’t as gripping as Yojimbo, since it’s politically-driven. We only… (read more)
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Princess Mononoke
Though breathtakingly beautiful and wonderfully imaginative, Princess Mononoke is held back by its simplistic themes and sanctimonious messaging. (read more)
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Army of Darkness
AKA: Evil Dead III / Evil Dead 3 The best Evil Dead movie! While a great trilogy throughout, the movies (or rather Sam Raimi) are better at parody than they are at being creepy, so Army of Darkness benefits by becoming an all-out horror-themed slapstick-fest. It’s damn funny in its own right, and is more… (read more)
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Raiders of the Lost Ark
AKA: Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark Raiders of the Lost Ark feels overly traditional and never truly exciting due to the fact every “dangerous” scene has heroic framework with the score and lighting cheering Indiana Jones on. The outcome of any scene is given away by its presentation. Yet, Raiders is non-stop fun.… (read more)
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Escape from New York
The action scenes are decent but frankly token and lack suspense. The plot is completely straightforward. So, why did Escape from New York inspire video games? Because it’s fun. A very capable director avoids the flubs of typical cult films, and the attention to colorful set design and simple yet strong characters creates a self-contained… (read more)
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Spartacus
Spartacus gets both ends of the shaft from film nerds due to the fact it’s the least “Kubrickian” Stanley Kubrick movie, and most everyone else shrugs it off because it’s just not particularly great. Kubrick-like or not, Spartacus is still a pretty well done cheesy Hollywood melodrama adventure flick with some very entertaining action scenes,… (read more)
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Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa is known for warm, humanistic dialogue and characters, but this burns brightest. ‘Seven Samurai’ is a celebration of life, and a fair one. (read more)