The Three Musketeers (1948)

Let's just say that I like Gene Kelly in musicals more than I like him in a wig pretending to be an expert swordsman. A selection to the 101 Action movie list, and definitely not my favorite version of the classic story. This film is overly cheesy and actually harder to follow than it should have been. I think they assume you have read the book because I was paying attention yet confused several times.

D'Artagnan goes to Paris to become a Musketeer, upon arrival he managed to get challenged to a duel by three separate musketeers on the same day. When Richelieu shows up with some cronies to take them in for illegally dueling, the four team up to take them out. A friendship is born and the team have to foil Richelieu's attempt to overthrow the king.

I don't want to waste my time taking about this one more, it just wasn't very good and I wouldn't suggest it to anyone.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040876/

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Captain Blood (1935)

The king of swashbuckler film, Mr. Errol Flynn. A man known just as much for his off camera adventures as on. A man charged with statutory rape three times, hence the term "In Like Flynn," he lead a very colorful lifestyle. Known best for his film The Adventures of Robin Hood, which was made three years after this one, but his role as Peter Blood really launched his career. This film was even nominated for 5 Oscars. I watched it because of its inclusion in the Action 101 book, but it is on numerous other lists I working on as well.

The film is about a doctor who is falsely accused of treason after caring for some rebel troops. He is sold into slavery in the West Indies and manages to become the doctor for the governor on the island thanks to a lack of competent doctors on the island. When the French attack he leads a group of slaves to take one of their ships and leads his crew to a life of pirating, since they have no place to call their home.

The bad guys are a little over the top, but that is my only real criticism of the film. It is pretty good, not too long, and a good classic. I'm not sure I can give an exact reason for not rating it any other than 7/10, but I did like it.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026174/

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The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)

Nominated for 8 Oscars, and winner of two in a dead category "Assistant Director," I guess they were REALLY good at getting coffee on the set. Back where there were 12 best picture nominees [and you think 10 is a lot right now], this film lost to John Ford's The Informer. A selection to the 101 Action Movies book, and one of the oldest in the book.

This film directed by Henry Hathaway, who is best known for his westerns like How the West Was Won. It stars Gary Cooper, at no significant point in his long career other than the year before Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, two decades before he won his first Oscar. The film is about the British military in India fighting rebel forces. Considered an adventure/drama in it's era but more of a war film by today's standards. The scenes of charging men on horseback and shootouts, explosions and sword fighting all make this an action film. The drama between the father and son and Cooper's character really make this a drama more than anything.

It is not always easy to pigeonhole a film into a specific genre, and this one has a little of everything. It was kinda boring at times though, and the supporting actors weren't the best. All in all a good Cooper film but I think he still has better ones.



Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026643/

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Angel-A (2005)

This film was suggested to me by a friend, and since I've been on a Luc Besson kick in action movie month, I was sort of expecting this to be an action movie also. Besson having done films I just watched such as District B13, La Femme Nikita, and Taxi.

This film language film stars Jamel Debbouze [Dramatic actor from Oscar nominated films Outside the Law and Days of Glory] and Rie Rasmussen, a pretty girl who some say has had a pretty limited career thanks to a poor acting job in this film. Honestly it is impossible to tell if an actor is just reading lines if you don't know the language... because you are READING the subtitles. So I'm not sure how much truth there is to this. Debbouze is quite a good actor and plays a character he seems to be comfortable with, an immoral man in a lower class of society.


The films title is a play on words. Debbouze plays Andre who is ready to commit suicide because of multiple debts from multiple criminal "bosses," which standing on the bridge [which isn't very high], he meets Angela [Angel-A]. She promises to give him a chance, since he saved her life when they both jumped off the bridge. She has an incredible ability to make quick money and beat up bad guys and spends the movie turning his life around.

This is not an action film and I didn't claim to be, she is his guardian angel, and what starts as a comedy/drama turns into a romance as the movie progresses. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. You might give it a shot if you are a Besson fan, but it isn't all that special.

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473753/

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Airport (1970)

Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin star in a drama about the chaotic operations of an airport in a snowstorm. The film which somehow made it in the Action 101 book but really has very little "action."

The film starts with Lancaster as the head of an airport in the middle of a snow storm as they attempt to continue operations despite a plane blocking a runway, picketers of a runway causing noise in a neighborhood on the path of the runway. His wife divorces him during the snowstorm for not attending a dinner with her [that I'm sure would have been cancelled due to weather in real life]. The action plot is that a disgruntled man looking to collect life insurance for his family bombs one of the planes in a scene that makes me wonder if the FAA made this movie.

Amazingly this movie managed to spawn three sequels and I would guess that this series lent some ideas to the comedy team behind Airplane! regardless of the parody being modeled around Zero Hour! This movie sucked, maybe it was good 40 years ago, but not now.

Vote: 4/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065377/

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Come Drink With Me: Da zui xia (1966)

This is an interesting inclusion on the Action 101 book in that it proves that the book "101 Action Movies to See Before You Die" is NOT the 101 Best Action Movie films. This King Hu Hong Kong Kung Fu [that was a mouthful] is considered the pioneer of the entire genre. A pretty bold title, but is not considered King Hu's best or even one of the best Shaw Brothers films. So it made it in the book only for what it is, and not how good it really is.

With that said, I didn't dislike it, but it is a weak 6/10. I already can't remember much about the film 3 weeks after seeing it, leaving no lasting impression. The just average rating is because it wasn't bad... it wasn't really good but it wasn't bad. Bandits kidnap the governors son and the governor sends his daughter, Golden Swallow [no, not a James Bond character], to rescue him.

Not much else to say, the fight scenes were cutting edge, no one did wire fighting kung fu before this. But they aren't nearly as good as the films 10 years later by the same people.

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059079/

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Sucker Punch (2011)

I have to say that this movie looked bad from the start, but since I loved Zack Snyder I had to give him a chance. I can't even say that I have much of an opinion either way of Abbie Cornish and Emily Browning. The two have been in a number of films that were just ok, but since their roles were pretty minor I couldn't base much of an opinion from them.

The film doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It plays out more like an attempt to do as much different CGI in as many different ways in one movie. The plot is confusing because we fail to understand what reality really is for these girls in an insane asylum. We start with the events that lead to "Baby Doll" being committed by her stepfather, then we are taken through a series of adventures as she attempts to steal the ideas necessary for making an escape. The adventures are like dreams that include the other girls from the asylum as they battle samurai, nazi's, and robots.

If you are looking for action for the sake of action while you shovel popcorn into your face look no further. If you are looking for a plot with good acting and action, keep looking.

Vote: 4/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978764/

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