Review: The Hitman’s Bodyguard

Posted on by

the hitmans bodguard poster

The other day I was wondering why they don’t make those sort of mid-budget movies that are fun and silly but are never really ever destined for cinematic superstardom. Films like 48 Hours or Midnight Run or Convoy or Romancing the Stone etc. Solid entertainment, acting and storytelling, but lacking that X-Factor that transforms some cheap-ass script into a franchise. Now there’s nothing wrong with just wanting to make a good movie. It’s just these days it’s all about the expanded universe. The sequels. The bigger picture. There’s no room for those “blue collar” flicks of old. Or so I thought. The Hitman’s Bodyguard proved me wrong.

No Whitney Houston Songs Were Harmed In The Process Of Making This Film

Movie Bastard Hall of Fame: Norman Stansfield

Posted on by

gary oldman stansfield leon the professional

Gary Oldman finally got his Oscar. And a much deserved one at that. His turn as the plucky politician Winston Churchill in The Darkest Hour has finally netted him cinema’s most recognized award. But I don’t think it’s his most memorable role. Nor his best. Admit it – Oldman does his best work as the bad guy. And he’s played some of the baddest. Dracula, that dude who killed JFK, a rasta psychopath in True Romance, some crocked tycoon in Fifth Element, a crazy billionaire with a fucked up face trying to gain revenge on Hannibal Lecter. The list goes on. Yet he was at his most crazed, his most brilliant, in 1994’s Léon: The Professional. 

Death is Whimsical Today

Review: Léon: The Professional

Posted on by

Leon Movie Poster Jean Reno

Following the success of La Femma Nikita in 1990, “renegade” (as labelled by HBO) French director Luc Besson (Lucy) finally had the opportunity to bring Fifth Element, a film he’d been dreaming up on-and-off since he was a teenager, to the big screen. Hollywood studios were paying attention to the hot young talent, offering to back him up with fat wads of greasy green cash. Even genuine A-lister Bruce Willis (Die Hard) was saying he wanted to star. The only snag was Willis was knee-deep in one of the most productive periods of his career; he was booked up until 95′. So Besson decided to wait and in the meantime made a small scale “passion project” he’d thought up whilst shooting Nikita. Léon was born.

No Women No Kids

Review: Lucy

Posted on by

Lucy Scarlett Johansson Japanese poster

You know, twenty years ago if you’d asked me “yo, Movie Bastard, just who is the best French action movie director around”, I would have laughed, “Luc Besson, you idiot” and then slapped you across your ignorant face. Around the mid-90’s mark he was killing it with Fifth Element and Leon and other things. But since then he’s been making all kinds of weird shit like the Arthur movies. But what of him in the mid 2010’s? Has his student, Pierre Morel (Taken, The Gunman) become the master?

Or will Lucy, Besson’s 2014 return to action, reignite his creative shoot-em-up skills? Lets find the feck out.

Read more of this French shit here