By Dave B.

Beirut (2018, currently on Amazon Prime) is an international spy thriller starring Jon Hamm as Mason Skiles, a former U.S. diplomat who is dragged out of retirement ten years after surviving a tragedy in Lebanon’s capital city in 1972. Once a rising star in the American diplomatic service, Skiles is rapidly drinking himself to death in an effort to forget the pain and loss he has suffered. While battling his personal demons, he tries to use his undiminished negotiating skills to find his former best friend who has been kidnapped by a terrorist organization.

By Dave B.

​There is another world adjacent to our own. A world of the afterlife filled with Spirits, Hollows (creatures that feed on Spirits), and Soul Reapers (sworn enemies of the Hollows). This is the basic setup of Bleach, a Netflix foreign-language adaptation of the classic manga and anime of the same name. In it, high school student Ichigo Kurosaki obtains the power of a Soul Reaper and must battle Hollows to protect his family.

By Dave B.

Very few people know this, but the first Season of Iron First is the show that initially put the idea into my head to write movie and television reviews. It was so bad that I didn’t want my friends and family exposed to it. That said, Season Two of Iron Fist was (understandably) released with little fanfare. In it Danny Rand (Finn Jones) finds that former friends have become implacable enemies determined to strip him of his powers. The first season of Iron Fist wasn’t really reviewable, mostly because it wasn’t good enough to be watchable. There was no need to say much about it besides, “everything about it is terrible;  avoid at all costs”. Season Two is undoubtedly an improvement in the sense that it is definitely watchable. That, however, does NOT make it good. 

By Dave B.

​In the near-future, some humans have their minds augmented by advanced implants that allow them to do everything from mentally control machines to regain their power to walk if seriously injured. That’s the world of Kill Command (2016, currently on Netflix). When the corporation that makes these implants seeks to expand their nominally altruistic remit by removing human soldiers from battlefields, they create an advanced artificial intelligence and implant it into an army of advanced drones for training purposes. As everyone (except for the hapless company) can guess will happen, something goes wrong and the robot army takes control of the island where they are being tested. When marines on a training exercise unwittingly stumble across the drone army, havoc ensues.

By Dave B.

​In Jack Ryan (Amazon), the eponymous character (played ably by John Krasinski) finds himself embroiled in a battle of wits and will against a ruthless international terrorist. From the computer screen to the battlefield, Ryan uses his incomparable intellect, fighting prowess, and unwavering moral certitude to uncover the dastardly terrorist’s ultimate plot.

By Dave B.

​Full disclosure, I’m a big fan of the Mission Impossible franchise. However, I have a contrary nature so I’m not really inclined to like things other people like, unless there is a good reason do to so. Mission Impossible: Fallout provides that reason. It’s entertaining from beginning to end and so thrilling, that it’s the very definition of an “edge of your seat” moviegoing experience. 

By Dave B.

​I’ll admit that for the first three-quarters of Tag (Riaru Onigokko) (2015, currently on Netflix), I had almost no clue what was happening in the Japanese-language, quasi-horror film. The heroine, Mitsuko is a quiet student at an all-girls high school who enjoys writing poetry. While on a bus trip with her classmates, a supernatural wind gruesomely kills everyone on the bus except for her. During her attempt to escape the wind, she is apparently transported to an alternate reality where none of the events that she recalls happening that morning actually occurred. Throughout the movie, Mitsuko is transported to several other alternate realities where, each time, her friends are brutally slain in a variety of unexpected ways.

By Dave B.

​If you watch enough movies, you’ll eventually come across some that are truly unique. Yakuza Apocalypse (2015, currently on Hulu) is near the top of that list. A Yakuza boss, who is loved by the people of his town (and unbeknownst to most, is a vampire), is confronted and killed by a rival syndicate. Before expiring for good however, he passes along his powers to a trusted underling, Kagayama, who begins a quest for revenge against the syndicate and those within his own organization who betrayed the boss. Kagayama then inadvertently (at first) begins to spread vampirism around the town. My synopsis may sound a bit odd, but I assure you that these are the least odd events in the entire movie.

By Dave B.

​This is my first time watching Battle Royale (2000, currently on Netflix). I have heard of it, of course, as the book and movie that provided the inspiration for Hunger Games (that’s my polite way of saying that Suzanne Collins stole and Westernized the plot of Battle Royale, but I digress). Briefly, in Battle Royale, due to a massive wave of youth criminality and disrespect for authority brought about by high unemployment, the government institutes a law that requires one 9th grade class be randomly selected every year to compete in a three-day battle to the death on an abandoned island. If more than one student is alive at the end of the three days, all of the remaining survivors are killed. With that plot, it’s easy to see why this movie caused so much controversy when it was initially released.

By Dave B.

​The first scene in The Villainess (2017, currently on Hulu) is already legendary. It’s a seemingly single-take, 10-minute long, mostly first-person fight scene for the ages with a ridiculously high body count that introduces us to our protagonist, the “femme fatale”, Sook-hee (Ok-bin Kim). Fortunately, this South Korean action movie offers more than just a stellar opening sequence.