Fire With Fire (2012)
Marketed as a Bruce Willis film, but he’s not actually the lead character in this one, that’s a fireman played by Josh Duhamel. He witnesses a racial and gang related killing. Initially he plans to testify, but after threats made against everyone he knows and loves, he uses his erased identity to go after the criminals instead. Pretty formulaic, but well written and well acted. The bad guy in this one is portrayed in such a way that you’ll really identify with the hero, I cheered at the ending. Not bad at all!
Day Of The Triffids (1962)
It’s been years since I’ve seen this one, and it’s definitely aged. Aged is not necessarily a bad thing, the pieces which haven’t stood up so well are some of the special effects and/or fake camera shots, but they weren’t that great even for their time. The story and the relationship between the two main leads (Howard Keele and Janina Faye) is still as good as it was, and it’s a lot better than the recent TV two part remake. Something about the forlorn tune the ice cream van plays still haunts me, it’s like a macabre funeral march.
Dragon (2012)
It’s a martial arts film with Donnie Yen in it, this was always going to be entertaining. Having ran from his family and starting a new life under a new name, Liu Jinxi finds his past catch up with him due to the attentions of a detective investigating a simple shop brawl which ends with the criminals deaths. Yen is great as always, definitely a genre favourite for me at the moment, but the star of the film is Takeshi Kaneshiro who plays the detective. The fight scenes are excellent, the cinematography is spot on, anyone who likes martial arts films should put this on the shortlist now.
