The second fully computer-animated feature, and a significant advance. The illusion of three-dimensionality, with finely sculpted and shaded bodies in cavernous and engulfing space, is quite remarkable. And the nuanced facial expressions, to say nothing of the perfect synchronization of mouth movement and spoken word, suggest an evolutionary leap that …
The world's No. 1 hitman, contemplating retirement, going soft, refusing to kill innocent bystanders, developing an amorous attachment to his latest "mark," has been targeted for elimination by the ambitious, amoral No. 2. (Where are these rankings published? Soldier of Fortune magazine?) Something so silly ought to be more fun. …
A bullet rips through the heart of two studio logos, announcing the return of Walter Hill to the genre that brought him fame, the action comedy. Sylvester Stallone and Sung Kang perform a nifty reversal on the characters Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy played in Hill's 48 Hrs. With a …
First announced under the title of An Alan Smithee Film, it then turned into an actual Alan Smithee film: Alan Smithee being the official Hollywood pseudonym of any director who, for any variety of reasons, has withdrawn his name from a project. Arthur Hiller (who appears in the outtakes at …
Chuck Wepner first became a semi-household name as the white guy given a title shot at Muhammad Ali. That was followed by well-publicized bouts with Andre the Giant, Sylvester Stallone, a wrestling bear, and a coke habit. In each case, Chuck’s ticket to fame was his willingness to play the …
The ten-minute prologue, of the Rocky Mountain Rescue team in action, should drench the palms of the mildest acrophobe. From there, it's pretty much downhill (so to speak), despite a plane crash, three scattered valises containing $30 million each, and a gang of bad guys who keep trying to outdo …
Sylvester Stallone portrays a member of the L.A.P.D. Zombie Squad -- whatever that is -- named Cobretti, hence Cobra. (His given name is disclosed, with some boyish abashment, to be Marion -- just like John Wayne's real one, although somehow less likely to have been bestowed by Italian parents than …
An anomaly, maybe an antilogy: a Sylvester Stallone film for critics. Written and directed by James Mangold (of the low-budget independent Heavy), it is a Sidney Lumet-style expose of police misconduct, in which the action star sets out as a resigned sideline-sitter, an overweight wannabe cop, hampered with one bad …
The director (Ryan Coogler) and star (Michael B. Jordan, cut like an Abercrombie & Fitch model) of 2013’s Fruitvale Station re-team for a Rocky remake retooled for Generation Affirmation. Their first collaboration had a real-life tragedy to ground it. This one, unfortunately, has an increasingly fantastical franchise to give it …
A pleasant crowd-pleaser. Ryan Coogler, having gone on to bigger and bigger things with Black Panther, steps aside and lets relative newcomer Steven Caple, Jr. do the job of mixing the beats of Rocky III — losing your edge and finding it again — and Rocky IV — facing the …
Effects-laden urban disaster thriller -- an explosion and cave-in in an underwater commuter tunnel -- with a dreamlike freedom of imagination, freedom from logic, freedom sometimes from comprehensibility. Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Stan Shaw, and Claire Bloom; directed by Rob Cohen.
There are sufficient amounts of imagination and energy here to fuel a brisk improvisational sketch. But the material -- broad indictments of American hero worship, car cultism, and bloodthirst, plus broad impressions of TV personalities -- is stretched to cover a feature-length, coast-to-coast car race (the territory crossed all looks …
2032 A.D. The repressive utopia of San Angeles (merger of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego) is disrupted when a 20th-century criminal called Simon Phoenix (the name is bad enough; the yellow hair is worse) escapes from cryo-prison. The cop who put him there, and who has inhabited an ice …
The pretty girls and prettier boys of the glamorous world of "open-wheel racing." Vapid talk, careening camerawork, screeching rock songs. With Sylvester Stallone (who also wrote the script), Kip Pardue, Til Schweiger, Estella Warren, Stacy Edwards, Gina Gershon, Cristian de la Fuente, and Burt Reynolds; directed by Renny Harlin.