First Blood (1982)
First Blood is quintessential Reagan-era violent individualism, and one of the benchmark flicks that set the standard for most Hollywood action films for the next several years. Resonant in the American psyche, this first...
First Blood is quintessential Reagan-era violent individualism, and one of the benchmark flicks that set the standard for most Hollywood action films for the next several years. Resonant in the American psyche, this first...
2010s / Action / Science Fiction / Superhero
by Vincent Leo · Published May 6, 2017 · Last modified July 4, 2018
Upping the action, as well as the CG components, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 should go down easily for fans of the first film, even if it’s not quite on the same footing in terms of...
I went out on a bit of a limb in proclaimingFruitvale Station the best film of 2013. It was the debut film of previously unknown director Ryan Coogler, and yet, no other film moved me...
Sylvester Stallone plays Ray Tango, a flashy, business-savvy LAPD narcotics officer. Kurt Russell plays Gabriel Cash, a blue-collar, devil-may-care type who scores big busts with equal success. Drug kingpin Yves Perret (Jack Palance) wants the...
Action / Science Fiction / Thriller
by Vincent Leo · Published August 22, 2008 · Last modified January 28, 2019
Demolition Man starts off in Los Angeles’s near future of 1996, where crime has run rampant. It takes someone ruthless to catch ruthless criminals, and that man is super-cop John Spartan (Stallone, Rocky V), whose take-no-prisoners...
1980s / Action / Adventure / War
by Vincent Leo · Published December 31, 2007 · Last modified October 5, 2019
A purely propagandist return of the popular 1980s hero sees Stallone donning the tightly-bound bandana to the forehead again for another one-man rescue attempt. This time it’s a bit more personal as his former...
1980s / Action / Adventure / War
by Vincent Leo · Published December 31, 2007 · Last modified September 28, 2019
Rambo: First Blood Part II is one of those films that doesn’t really have much going for it these days save for the social significance for the time in which it was released, where...
“I must break you”. At the time wrote the words above are uttered, it’s hard to discern whether writer/director Sylvester Stallone was speaking through Rocky’s fiercest opponent yet, Ivan Drago (Lundgren, Masters of the Universe),...
The inspiration for Rocky came on March 24, 1975, when struggling actor and writer Sylvester Stallone attended a closed-circuit presentation in a Los Angeles movie theater of Chuck Wepner fighting Muhammad Ali. Wepner was...
1990s / Action / Science Fiction / Thriller
by Vincent Leo · Published April 24, 2006 · Last modified July 1, 2019
Warden: “So, tell me, Rico, what’s the meaning of life?” Rico: “It ends.” The above passage of dialogue could just as aptly be applied to answer what the meaning of the movie is. Judge...
Reviews from film writer Vince Leo, covering all eras and genres of films from classics to the latest releases.
Film reviews from Vince Leo, from classics to new releases, since 1996.