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Killer Elite (2011)
If the Professionals was a movie....
Expecting your standard Statham Thick-Ear action flick? Well, that's what you get....sort of. The USP is that it is set in 1980 with all that implies in terms of cars and haircuts ( esp Dominic Purcell! ).
Welcome to the movie that "The Professionals" could have been. From the dodgy right-wing worldview to classic UK motors screaming round corners, it's all there. With a Daily Express world view and A Daily Star view of women ( mostly slappers with one exception ) one half expects Cowley to show up.
Of the talent Statham is Statham - there's an attempt to tire-lever in a love angle but it just makes you miss the shooting. Robert De Niro takes yet another pay packet for phoning it in. Clive Owen glowers and postures and looks faintly embarrassed to be in this codswallop.
A Friday night pizza action movie with classic motors, dodgy politics and Jason Statham.
Koruto wa ore no pasupooto (1967)
Fantastic Japanese Action Noir
CHIPMUNK. The lead actor looks like a chipmunk. It needs too be said because that's all you see initially. Apparently it was a result of cheek surgery.
Once you get past that this movie is a little treat. A Noir/Yakuza/Spaghetti Western mash-up that actually works.
Like "The Killers" we are in the company of a two-man hit team. With a tricked-out car complete with a massive two-way radio they are much in demand from the Yakuza. Then the job goes wrong and it's time to get out of town. However there's a gal at the motel who complicates matters.
The music is a combination of cool jazz (which could be in a contemporary Caine movie ) and a touch of the Morricones for the cowboy-like action sequences. It shouldn't work but it is really effective.
Scorpion (2014)
What Genius wrote this?
The Scene : Robert Patrick's palatial home. The phone rings. It's his Agent.
Robert Patrick's eyes narrow. His shoulders tense. He lowers his voice. His eyes widen. It's another "gruff but tender Authority figure". With a weary sigh he agrees. A man's gotta eat.
The series comes from that weird land ( see also "Numbers" ) where Genius comes with smouldering Mediterranean looks ( for the lead ). It's tough to take the supposed angst of the paper-thin characters but each week we are invited to. At least the Asian character isn't all super sexy and ninja.
You never know. Occasionally a series like this kicks into gear but at the moment it makes NCIS look like Dostoyevsky.