Festivals: Action Fest Reviews

2012-04-15T22:46:00Z by Swarez

ActionFest 2012 Review: COMIN' AT YA 3D

[With Comin' At Ya having just screened at ActionFest we revisit our prior review.]Back in the 80's when 3D was taking its dying breath yet again, as it is starting to do now, a couple of guys based in Italy,...

2012-04-15T16:17:08Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest 2012: SLEEPLESS NIGHT Review

[One of ActionFest 2012 secret screenings was Frederic Jardin wonderfully convoluted thriller, Sleepless night. Here is a previous review of the film from our archives.]During an early morning drug robbery, the culprits make off with a dozens of kilograms of cocaine,...

2012-04-14T17:00:35Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest 2012: GOD BLESS AMERICA Review

If Bobcat Goldthwait was in charge of the Idiocracy doomsday clock, we will not have to wait until the year 3001, America is sitting at one-minute-to-midnight in the here and now. Case in point, his protagonist Frank is a down to earth,...

2012-04-14T09:00:29Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest 2012: I DECLARE WAR Review

One weekend day a number of the nerdier kids from the local middle school gather their sticks and twine and balloons filled with red dye, and head into the local woods to play capture-the-flag. Oh, those tweens today with their...

2012-04-13T15:43:04Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest 2012: HEADHUNTERS Review

Flat out surprises like Headhunters is one of the main reasons I attend festivals; a gem that pops seeming out of the blue (at least to North American audiences) and sets the bar for quality genre thrills. The mechanics of a good...

2012-04-12T19:30:50Z by Todd Brown

ActionFest 2012 Review: SOLOMON KANE Is The Pulp Adventure Conan Should Have Been

[With Solomon Kane opening the 2012 edition of ActionFest tonight we revisit our earlier review.]Life's a bitch when your soul is owed to the devil. It's even more of a bitch when you're not even the guy who sold it...

2011-04-11T13:35:10Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest '11: A LONELY PLACE TO DIE Review

Where has the mountain climbing thriller gone? Was it ever here? Sure there was the epic string of them in the 1930s in Germany and a 2008 adventure movie called The North Face, a couple great documentaries (Everest, Touching...

2011-04-09T16:47:31Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest '11: 13 Assassins Review

[Hey it's available on VOD right now if you wish to follow along, but in light of it being the closing film of this years edition of ActionFest, here is my TIFF review, rescued from the archives to annoy chanbara...

2011-04-09T10:20:34Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest '11: NEVER BACK DOWN II (Rough Cut) Review

The tricky proposition of reviewing a rough-cut of a film is that it probably still has several passes through the editing suite, but since they screened Michael Jai White's directorial debut in front of many a Mixed Martial Arts enthusiast here at...

2011-04-09T09:18:49Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest '11: TOMORROW, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN

Tired of waiting for either MGM's bankruptcy or the decision to change the Chinese villains to North Koreans in the beleaguered Red Dawn remake? Australia has your solution in the form of Tomorrow, When The War Began. A group of teenagers take a weekend...

2011-04-08T16:17:02Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest '11: The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch Review

[With an upcoming sequel, and its North American Premiere at ActionFest, it's high time we revisit James Marsh's review.] Who would have thought there was a Belgian comic book hero out there to rival Tintin? I will come clean on...

2011-04-08T09:59:59Z by Kurt Halfyard

ActionFest '11: Ironclad Review

"What a tedious little man!" snarls Brian Cox after dealing-slash-politicking against Paul Giamatti for the hearts and minds of the British peasantry. Far from it, to enjoy Ironclad is to embrace one of the most ridiculous, yet delightful moments of over-the-top royalty...