Shameless Self Expression

Set in a small Texas border town where human remains and a sheriff’s badge are uncovered, believed to be slain former sheriff Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson), dead for around thirty years. Chris Cooper is the current sheriff, Sam Deeds who suspects his famed late deputy father Buddy Deeds (Matthew McConaughey) was the killer of the intimidating, bigoted Wade, whom he succeeded as Sheriff when Wade mysteriously went missing after a fight between the two. Everyone else in town hasn’t got a single bad word to say about Buddy as Sam (forever in his dead father’s shadow) tries to get people to open old wounds, and we sense that Sam knows differently about his father. Meanwhile, we meet other members of the racially mixed community; Elizabeth Pena is Sam’s former lover from way back. She’s now a schoolteacher whose more balanced history teachings to reflect a multicultural perspective are raising eyebrows amongst some of the white parents in (the predominantly Hispanic) town. Her waywa...

007 (Daniel Craig) is nearly killed on assignment in Istanbul during an attempt to nab a hard drive with crucial info on NATO agents. He gets accidentally (and almost fatally) shot by flirty fellow agent Eve (Naomie Harris), whilst in a tussle with a baddie on top of a train. Laying low for a bit, he is eventually called back into active duty by M (Dame Judi Dench) when MI6 HQ in London is bombed by a rogue (and frankly loony) former agent named Silva (Javier Bardem), a cyber terrorist who has one helluva axe to grind (Not the most original motive for a Bond villain, but nevermind). Meanwhile, MP Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes), M’s superior, is hovering about seemingly wanting to put M (and Bond for that matter) out to pasture. Bérénice Lim Marlohe plays the exotic Severine, an abused woman closely associated to Silva, whom Bond attempts to get to. Ben Whishaw is the new Q, and Albert Finney turns up as a grizzled old man with a long-standing connection to Bond himself.   ...

Eddie Murphy stars as a smart-arse locator of lost children hired by a humourless young woman (Charlotte Lewis) to locate a missing Tibetan boy (played by a girl, J.L. Reate) with special mystical powers, who has been kidnapped by a disciple of Satan, played by Charles Dance, who is surrounded by idiot thugs (Played by Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb and Tiger Chung Lee). Murphy treats everything flippantly, even when it becomes obvious that Lewis isn’t a crackpot and Dance clearly is operating on some higher power of evil than the everyday crims one encounters. Victor Wong plays a Chinese mystic and pickpocket, and fellow “Big Trouble in Little China” alum James Hong and Peter Kwong also have minor roles. Some people revisit the films they loved as a child. Me, I’ve been revisiting childhood duds lately, including this golden turkey from 1986, directed by Michael Ritchie ( “Fletch” , “The Couch Trip” ) and scripted by   Dennis Feldman (who would later pen the mediocre, “Alien” -esque ...

68 year-old Danny Trejo stars as 60ish Vietnam veteran Frank Vega, who has found employment opportunities limited and has mostly worked as a hot dog vendor. However, he at least becomes a YouTube sensation when he decides to bring the pain to a couple of dopey skinheads on a bus, which is filmed by another passenger. Sadly, that same day his best buddy (Harrison Page) is murdered, and decides to do something about it, since the cops don’t seem to be getting anywhere. The trail leads to a gangster named Panther (Charles S. Dutton, of all people), who is in cahoots with the town’s corrupt mayor (Ron Perlman, much easier to believe). Meanwhile, Frank also gets involved with a young boy (John Duffy, in an amateurish turn) and his mother (Joyful Drake), who has a douchebag husband.   Although the title and star Danny Trejo suggest a “Machete” -esque arse-kicking action movie, this 2012 film from director/co-writer Craig Moss (who mostly works in the field of parodies like the ...