American Gangster movie

American Gangster
Movie Information

Genre:
Action | Crime

Main Cast:
Denzel Washington
Russell Crowe


Director:
Ridley Scott


About the movie:

American Gangster (2007) is based on the life story of Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts. Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is a former international drug lord and crime boss in a major African American business and cultural center in Manhattan, New York known as Harlem during the late 1960's up to early 1970's. While Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), is a New Jersey police detective and Essex County Assistant Prosecutor.

The movie's plot revolves around the separate lives of a high class gangster and an ordinary police man and how their lives accidentally coincides. It features how Lucas engaged into a dark side of "rags to riches" story. He started as a driver of a mob boss that passed away, leaving the authority to him. He created his own empire to achieve his own American Dream. He ruled the inner city drug trades, dealing with the elite in politics, entertainment and the same field he's in.

Meanwhile, Richie Roberts is having a hard time dealing with his failing marriage, police career and law-school classes. His rampant womanizing resulted to a more complicated situation when his wife seeks a divorce and custody of their child. His colleagues hates him because of his rare honesty making him an outcast. He take the charge of the newly-built task force against the raging drug trafficking in the cities of New Jersey and New York.

As the drug-related crimes rises and as the police task force seeks the right timing to caught the man behind the rampant drug trafficking, Lucas and Roberts paths will become intertwined, as destined to be - where only one can come out on top.

American Gangster features the interesting personalities of the men of the opposite sides of the law and it tackles the issue of corruption and crime. Ridley Scott magnificently directed this gangster movie (this is the best movie so far of 2007) and the cast, Washington and Crowe give depth with their roles and acted brilliantly here.

Kill Bill

Kill Bill

Movie Information

Genre:
Action | Crime

Main Cast:
Uma Thurman
David Carradine
Daryl Hannah
Michael Madsen
Lucy Liu
Vivica A. Fox
Michael Parks

Director:
Quentin Tarantino


About the movie:

Kill Bill is released in two separate volumes (Kill Bill Vol. 1 in 2003 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 in 2004). The plot is adapted from a Japanese action film Lady Snowblood (1973).

It is a revenge-themed action movie about the deadliest slayer of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DVAS) known as "The Bride" (played by Uma Thurman). When The Bride decided to quit the group to get married because she's pregnant, Bill (their boss) and her former colleagues ruined the entire wedding ceremony and killed everyone in there including her. The Bride survived that tragic event and was in a coma for several years. As the Bride awakens from her long 'sleep', her mind is set-up to take revenge on those who betrayed her - to kill the members DVAS and Bill.

The film consist of breathtaking violent scenes with a touch of different action movie genres or elements - kung fu fighting, spaghetti westerns and samurai battle.

Quentin Tarantino just got out of the action movie standards by creating an unusual form of film that grabbed the attention of the action movie fanatics. It's a bloody and violent movie but the style, the stunts and the over-all package are truly remarkable.

Hard Boiled

Hard Boiled Movie Information

Genre:
Action | Crime

Main Cast:
Chow Yun-Fat
Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Director:
John Woo


About the movie:

Hard Boiled, also known as Lashou Shentan in Chinese version, is an action movie directed by internationally and critically acclaimed Chinese film director John Woo. The movie was released in 1992 which stars Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Chiu Wai.


The film is about Inspector "Tequila", a tough police from Hong Kong who lost his partner after a deadly encounter with a ruthless group of gun smugglers. Tequila continues his investigation on gun smuggling. He soon gets himself into more trouble by trying to arrest the right hand man of Hoi, the leader of the notorious gang in Hong Kong. He didn't know that Tony is actually an undercover cop (Tony Leung) trying to have some information about the group's activities.


Hard Boiled excels in action because of its intensity. Director John Woo uses his slow-motion trademark in gun-battle scenes, impressive action stunts and choreography and a good character development as the movie progresses.

Face Off

This action movie is about a criminal and an agent of FBI, that swap faces and identities.

Face Off (1997) is an action movie with rare concepts and radical ideas loaded with action and emotional aspect of a hero and a villain. A best action movie paired with the best actors in Hollywood.

Face Off is about Sean Archer (played by John Travolta), an FBI terrorism expert whose passion is to bring down Castor Troy (played by Nicolas Cage), a terrorist that planted a bomb in Los Angeles area and also the one who killed his son in one of their encounters.


Years passed when Archer founds out that Troy had a bomb hidden somewhere in LA and he is in comatose. He then decided to undergo facial surgery, swapping Troy's facial features to his own forgetting the consequences that might happen. That way, Archer (as Troy) would try to locate the bomb through Troy's brother Pollux (played by Alessandro Nivola) whose in prison. Things get complicated when Troy recovered from his coma and found out that his face was replaced by Archer's. Now the terrorist assumes the role of the FBI agent and vice versa.


For an action movie, Face Off set out an impressive action sequences. The direction of John Woo in the movie's breathtaking scenes are remarkable. He used slow motion style that eventually enhances the effectiveness of the scenes. Aside from the turbulent action scenes in the movie, its emotional aspect is also impressive.



MOVIE CRITIC REVIEW:

"An action picture that finally pleases the mind as well as the eye."

Madeleine Williams
CINEMATTER


"A rather standard, but intelligent, action movie."

Ram Samudrala
Movie Ram-blings

Die Hard movies

Considered as one of the best action movies ever made, and the prototype of a modern action film, Die Hard set a new standard for the genre. Die Hard is about John McClane of NYPD and his mission against crime and terrorists.


Die Hard movies (stars Bruce Willis) has four series: Die hard 1 (1988), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), and the recent Live Free or Die Hard (2007).


All of the series is about John McClane and the difficult situations faced by a crime fighter. His action adventure starts from fighting the German terrorists in a high rise office building, to protecting the travelers in a major international airport invaded by a rebellious group of military commandos, then solving dangerous puzzle to save New York City from the hands of a revenging German terrorist he knocked down before, and the recent one where he had a battle with a group of internet hackers whose intention is to take down all the computer and technological structures (traffic control system, etc.) that supports the economy of the United States.


Every aspect in the movie is remarkable...the story, the acting, the direction, the production and of course, the impressive action scenes and pyrotechnics. Over-all it's really one of the best action movies in Hollywood.


The lead character- John McClane is one of the most distinguished action hero in Hollywood movies. Why? Because he fights without shoes, socks, or a regular shirt, armed only with a Beretta 92F pistol, and he is famous for this tagline: "Yippee-Ki-Yay Mo****Fu****".



MOVIE CRITIC REVIEW:

"The best action movie ever. You'll have a hard job finding a better one."

Gary Panton
Movie Gazette



"It's a perfect action movie in every detail..."

Christopher Null
filmcritic.com