Movies
Brosnan's final entry in the series is a slight step up from his two previous films. Not so much because of Brosnan himself, he still feels woefully out of place in this more action-packed version of James Bond, but at least the action scenes and set pieces are a bit more outrageous in this film. Bond goes on a risky mission to North-Korea. He is captured and tortured, but his life his spared when it can be traded for a North-Korean spy. Bond's hellbent on unmasking the mole who betrayed him. His travels take him to Iceland, where he learns about a new weapon that threatens to start a new war. Tamahori did well with the action scenes, which are a good step up from previous installments, while still offering enough kooky Bond nonsense (live him surfing the tsunami). Berry's a bland addition to the cast though and Stephens is a dull bad guy, Yune and Pike are slightly better. Certainly not the greatest Bond, but quite entertaining.Read all
A very basic cop thriller. No doubt this film was made in the wake of the success of some profiler TV series, Lee Tamahori probably didn't have to try very hard to get this film made. He also didn't very hard while making this film I guess, since it's probably one of the most standard films in the genre I've seen. When Alex loses his partner, he has a lot of trouble getting back on his job. Until Megan Rose, the daughter of a local senator, is kidnapped and the kidnapper drags Alex into the case. He partners up with Jezzie and together they start to chase their prey, but not everything is as it seems. The story is pretty plain, so are the performances and the direction. It's really a bog-standard genre flick that lays out its puzzle piece by piece. You can expect some twists in the final act, but nothing too baffling or worth getting excited about. Watch this if you're starved for some basic genre filler, otherwise it's difficult to recommend.Read all