Letterboxd — Your life in film

diminishing returns, but still some good gags sprinkled throughout.

minor Hitchcock, to the point where maybe this score should be lower... but those scenes with Grant and Kelly are just *so fucking good*

I'm not a complicated man. I like a hot breakfast, I like a cold beer, and I like Scott Adkins kicking the shit out of people.

a little more glum and serious than you'd expect from the premise and the silly title, but consistently engaging and well-directed.

plus, you get car chases plowing through fruit trucks, flower stands, and butcher shops, heroes and villains running on foot through busy New York traffic, causing wrecks along the way, and big sweaty Russian mobsters in saunas. too many awesome things for this movie to fail.

terrific premise, fun action, character actors having a blast, an all-time great soundtrack, and, oh yeah, perhaps the most charismatic actor of the last half a century at the peak of his powers.

one of the great star vehicles in cinema history.

props to Melissa and Ben. somewhere along the way, they decided, “we love each other. instead of working hard to make good movies, let’s make improv-fests with first draft scripts, endless scenes, and CW-level visuals, and let’s just get this fucking money and go on Spring Break.” can’t even be mad at the efficiency of their bag securing. the movies are bad, but good for them.

that said, I confess I laughed a couple times at Bateman COMPLETELY slumming it here. a whole movie about The Crab would’ve indisputably been better than this.

the stretch here from Seagal coming out of the coma to Seagal's montage learning to fight again? might be my favorite Seagal stretch of all time. like, he's actually trying to *act*.

the rest of this owns in the usual way, but I feel like that half an hour or so is a glimpse into the career Seagal could've had if he'd given a shit.

a perfect excuse to wheel out the phrase "they don't make em like this anymore." outstanding chemistry between the leads, a series of memorable supporting turns, crisp one-liners, and battle-of-the-sexes material that still feels fresh nearly three quarters of a century later. ending's a little tidy by necessity, but overall it's a banger.

end is a bit underwhelming, but it boasts a great whodunit set-up, plenty of fun side characters, a real atmosphere of paranoia and confusion, and Edmond O'Brien gives one of the great running performances of all time (Tom Cruise for the remake?). plus it clocks in well under 90 minutes— hell yeah

Bruce Baldwin in the streets, Walter Burns in the sheets

as much as I respect what the Gareth Edwards one did, this one has a giant gorilla flying through the air with floating rocks in the middle of the planet. if you're gonna go dork, go full dork. Wingard goes full dork. good.