Action | Cagey Films

Richard Lester’s Musketeers (1973-74): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on May 14, 2025May 13, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

D'Artagnan (Michael York) prepares to duel Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Frank Finlay) and Aramis (Richard Chamberlain) in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers (1973)

After his radical influence on film comedy in the 1960s, with movies like A Hard Day’s Night (1964), The Knack … and How to Get It (1965) and How I Won the War (1967), Richard Lester remade himself as a skilful creator of mainstream entertainments in the 1970s, beginning with The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974). The mix of history, politics and violence is in constant tension with irreverent comedy and slapstick, while the large cast epitomizes the ’70s attraction to big-name ensembles. Criterion’s new two-disk set – available in both 4K UHD and Blu-ray – has been mastered from a gorgeous restoration by StudioCanal, supported by more than three hours of extras which detail the unconventional production.

Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (1953): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on March 17, 2025March 16, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Mario (Yves Montand) switches allegiance from the ex-pat group to the newcomer M. Jo (Charles Vanel) in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (1953)

Criterion’s new dual-format 4K UHD/Blu-ray release of The Wages of Fear (1953) presents an opportunity to revisit Henri-Georges Clouzot’s classic and examine just why it troubled its U.S. distributor and some critics with its political and sexual implications.

Dipping another toe into the online stream, part one

Posted on March 15, 2025March 10, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill as mismatched brothers in Enzo Barboni's They Call Me Trinity (1970)

My plunge into streaming has been more rewarding than not, catching up with a slew of recent action movies as well as a variety of older movies I missed decades ago, or remember from television screenings back in the ’70s.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part five

Posted on December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

John Carradine can't believe what he's gotten himself into in Oliver Drake's The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals (1969)

Yet more notes on recent viewing, featuring horror – both high and low end – some documentaries and action movies, gritty realism and slick fantasy … eclectic and somewhat random.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part four

Posted on December 11, 2024December 11, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Stephen Rea chews the scenery as an on-line serial killer in William Malone's fear dot com (2002)

A few more of the movies I’ve been watching this Fall – the feature-length versions of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse homages; David Fincher’s breakthrough thriller Se7en; David Wickes’ two-part TV movie about history’s most famous serial killer Jack the Ripper; Chuck Norris tackling an army of terrorists single-handed in Joseph Zito’s Invasion U.S.A.: John Carpenter’s disappointing remake of Village of the Damned; William Malone’s stylishly confused on-line thriller fear dot come; and Maurice Devereaux’s effective low-budget horror about the Biblical apocalypse End of the Line.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part three

Posted on December 4, 2024December 4, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) loses his sense of identity in George A. Romero's Bruiser (2000)

Recent viewing includes a mix of horror, sci-fi and social commentary, from George A. Romero’s Bruiser (2000), about an office drone whose social invisibility enables him to exact revenge on his abusers, to a pair of Mexican Gothic fantasies about a vampire count; from an Aussie Indiana Jones rip-off to late effects artist David Allen’s passion project The Primevals, left unfinished at his death in 1999 but now completed by his friends.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part one

Posted on November 6, 2024November 6, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Every two minutes Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) finds herself back in the same moment in Junta Yamaguchi’s River (2023)

My Fall viewing has been the usual varied mix, with a number of new and classic Japanese movies, John Boorman’s fantasy sequel to The Exorcist, Alex Garland’s uncomfortably prescient depiction of America tearing itself apart, a slice of anti-drug exploitation from the late-’60s, and a surprising discovery from none other than Bert I. Gordon.

Sam Peckinpah’s final western: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)

Posted on October 16, 2024October 17, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Billy (Kris Kristofferson) breaks out of jail in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)

Criterion gives Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Sam Peckinpah’s final, unfinished Western, stellar treatment in a two-disk Blu-ray set (also in a 4K UHD edition) with three different cuts plus extensive extras. The original theatrical release is presented alongside Peckinpah’s final preview cut and a more polished 50th Anniversary edit which restores and refines much of the material originally removed after the director walked away from the project.

Recent big-screen viewing

Posted on August 28, 2024August 26, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Young Alena (Natalie Jane) and Benny (Christian Meer) share a terrible secret in Sean Garrity's The Burning Season (2023)

I don’t get out to a theatre very often these days, so my choices of what to see are more judicious than they used to be, generally the work of directors I’m particularly interested in. The one dud is the latest superfluous entry in a franchise I’ve quite liked – Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – but the rest have been satisfying to some degree: George Miller’s latest apocalyptic action epic, Furiosa; M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, which as usual I liked in contrast to the predictable critical derision: MaXXXine, the conclusion of Ti West’s trilogy starring Mia Goth: and the small Canadian drama The Burning Season by sometime Winnipegger Sean Garrity.

Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus is a fine franchise reboot

Posted on August 24, 2024August 23, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Too close for comfort in Fede Alvarez's Alien: Romulus (2024)

Bypassing Ridley Scott’s tediously pretentious attempts to reboot the Alien franchise, co-writer/director Fede Alvarez strikes gold with Alien: Romulus, a relentlessly-paced, well-designed return to basics which manages to reference all four of the original movies while creating something which feels fresh and original.

Tag: Action