Watchmen (US, 2009)

I’ll ignore the question as to whether the film’s as good as the graphic novel and deal with it in isolation. It’s not a typical Hollywood action movie, though the shadow of The Matrix (1999) is still looming for the fight sequences, as it is infused with melancholy and the emotional punch is garnered through [...]

Wanted (US, 2008)

‘Who’s watching the watchers?’

Up until the last 20 mins I quite enjoyed this routine (ie heavily generic) action feature with some eye-popping stunts. Then its subtleties kicked in and it revealed itself as a very clever play on the action genre (with its boring rites of violence passage). The visuals are impressive throughout, presumably from [...]

Sin City (US, 2005)

Visually stunning rendition of Miller’s graphic novel. As sexist as the source material, true, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. It depends how your read it; and the blokes are not exactly paragons of masculinity. (DVD, 2) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401792/