A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow, 2025)

Idris Elba in A House of Dynamite

Cast: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, Malachi Beasley. Screenplay: Noah Oppenheim. Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd. Production design: Jeremy Hindle. Film editing: Kirk Baxter. Music: Volker Bertelmann. 

Kathryn Bigelow's A House of Dynamite is a very smart movie that evidently went over some people's heads. A chorus of complaints about its ending followed its theatrical release and multiplied when it began streaming on Netflix. The complainers seem to have been expecting a conventional thriller like, for example, Crimson Tide, Tony Scott's 1995 movie about a nuclear threat that is averted at the last moment. Instead, what they got is a depiction of the potential for annihilation that comes from living in a world that is quite literally what the title of the film implies. I don't know what sort of conclusion the dissatisfied viewers might give to the situation depicted, which comes down to "surrender or suicide," as the adviser (Gabriel Basso) tells the president (Idris Elba). The film makes it seem possible that the fate of the world might depend on what it depicts as flimsy contingency plans, a few frightened government and military officials, and what the secretary of defense (Jared Harris) in the film calls "a coin toss." I watched A House of Dynamite on the day that our president announced that he was resuming tests of nuclear weapons, so I may have been more receptive to the movie's message than otherwise, but it still seems to me a well-made and terrifying film. 

Bullet in the Head (John Woo, 1990)

Waise Lee, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and Jacky Cheung in Bullet in the Head

Cast: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, Simon Yam, Yolinda Yam, Cheung Lam, Fennie Yuen. Screenplay: John Woo, Patrick Leung, Janet Chun. Cinematography: Wilson Chan, Ardy Lam, Chai Kittikum Som, Wong Wing-hang. Production design: James Leung. Film editing: John Woo, David Wu. Music: Sherman Chow. 

A harrowing story that begins in a larky mood, John Woo's Bullet in the Head features the usual copious amounts of bloody gunfire, but it lacks the cheeky over-the-top quality of some of his more popular movies. It centers on the adventures of three friends from the wrong side of the tracks in Hong Kong, who think they're going to make big money smuggling stuff into wartime Vietnam, but misjudge the chaotic situation in the country. In Saigon, Ben (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), Fai Jai (Jacky Cheung), and Ming (Waise Lee) connect with the Eurasian Lok (Simon Yam), who works for the gangster Leong (Chung Lam), but wants to escape his control. The four of them make plans to return to Hong Kong, taking with them the nightclub singer Sally (Yolinda Yam), who has been forced into prostitution by Leong. Needless to say, that doesn't turn out to be easy. After a big shootout at Leong's nightclub, in which Sally is wounded. their escape is thwarted by, among other things, the Vietcong, who capture and torture Ben, Fai Jai, and Ming. The friendship of the three is also tested by Ming's greedy insistence on clinging to a box of gold he found in the shootout at Leong's club. Nothing ends well for them. The darkness and seriousness of the story is sometimes at odds with the elaborate action sequences, and Woo was exhausted by the effort to make the film work. It was not a commercial success, but it has moments of real feeling provided by the fine performances of its actors.  

A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (Tsui Hark, 1989)

Chow Yun-fat in A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon

Cast: Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Anita Mui, Shih Kien, Saburo Tokito, Maggie Cheung Ho-yee, Chen Wai-lun, Andrew Kam, Foo Wang-tat, Nam Yin. Screenplay: Edward Leung, Tai Foo-ho, Tsui Hark. Cinematography: Horace Wong, Yung Chun-wa, Chik Kim-kiy. Art direction: Lu Zifeng. Film editing: Marco Mak, Tsui Hark, David Wu. Music: Lowell Lo, David Wu.

A stand-alone film posing as a prequel, Tsui Hark's A Better Tomorrow III has only the presence of the most charismatic actor in the first two films, Chow Yun-fat, in the role of Mark Lee, to link it with the first two. And the only significant things it adds to the character are explanations of how he learned to shoot and how he got the black duster that he swaggers about in. The plot is summed up in the subtitle, Love and Death in Saigon. It's 1974 and the Vietnam War is coming to its end when Mark goes there to help his uncle (Shih Kien) and cousin, Michael Cheung Chi-mun (Tony Leung Ka-fai), close up shop in Saigon and return to Hong Kong. But he gets in trouble at the airport and has to be helped out by Chow Ying-kit (Anita Mui), a woman with whom he has been flirting. Though Mark finds Kit attractive, it's his cousin Michael who falls hard for her. She, on the other hand, prefers Mark. She also turns out to be involved in a variety of shady businesses, including gun smuggling. So not only do we have a romantic triangle to spin the plot on, we also have various underworld conflicts as well as the chaos of the fall of Saigon to provide the usual bloodshed. It's not a bad movie: There's plenty of action, Mui and Chow are in good form, and there's some poignancy in the fate of the characters. But it lacks the exhilaration of style that John Woo brought to the first two installments.

A Better Tomorrow II (John Woo, 1987)

Ti Lung, Dean Shek, and Chow Yun-fat in A Better Tomorrow II

Cast: Ti Lung, Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek, Kwan Shan, Emily Chu, Kenneth Tsang, Shing Fui-On, Lam Chung, Ng Man-tat, Peter Wang, Lung Ming-yan, Louis Roth, Regina Kent, Ken Boyle. Screenplay: Chan Hing-ka, Leung Suk-wah, John Woo, Tsui Hark. Cinematography: Wong Wing-hung. Production design: Andy Lee, Luk Tze-fung. Film editing: David Wu. Music: Joseph Koo, Lowell Lo. 

When you have a big action movie hit like A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986), you naturally want to make a sequel. But what do you do when the most popular character was killed off in the first film? You give him a previously unknown identical twin, of course. And not just a look-alike, but a twin with the same mannerisms, like chewing on an unlit matchstick. and equal proficiency at gunplay. And so Chow Yun-fat's Mark Lee is reincarnated in A Better Tomorrow II as Ken Lee. The sequel is bloodier and noisier and more improbable than the original, and it adds a fourth protagonist to the original trio of Ho (Ti Lung), Kit (Leslie Cheung), and Mark, now Ken (Chow): Dean Shek as Lung Sei, the target of a police investigation who turns out to be a good guy being framed. The somewhat too twisty plot takes Lung to New York, fleeing arrest for murder, where he meets up with Ken, a restaurant owner who is in trouble with the mob in America. It also introduces a novel kind of psychotherapy: Lung has a mental breakdown when he learns that the mob back in Hong Kong has killed his daughter and he witnesses the murder of a friend and a little girl. Ken takes it upon himself to heal the catatonic Lung by subjecting him to gunfire: They're attacked by both the Hong Kong and American mobsters. Lung recovers in time to help, and somehow the two of them make their way back home, where they join forces with Ho and Kit. Woo, who was reluctant to make the sequel, agreed in order to give Shek, a friend of his in financial difficulties, a job. Tension between Woo and producer Tsui Hark almost derailed the film, which spends too much time in the New York scenes, but the action sequences are the usual spectacular and inventive overkill. 

A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)

Chow Yun-fat and Ti Lung in A Better Tomorrow

Cast: Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat, Emily Chu, Waise Lee, Tien Feng, Kenneth Tsang, Shing Fui-on, Sek Yin-si, Wang Hsieh, Leung Ming, John Woo, Tsui Hark. Screenplay: Chan Hing-ka, Leung Suk-wah, John Woo. Cinematography: Wong Wing-hang. Production design: Lui Chi Leung. Film editing: Ma Kam, David Woo. Music: Joseph Koo. 

John Woo's terrific action thriller A Better Tomorrow is less stylized and more conventionally plotted than his later films, but it provides a satisfactory amount of bullets and blood squibs. It's based on an old trope of melodrama: estranged brothers. Sung Tse-ho (Ti Lung) is a gangster involved in a counterfeit operation, and Sung Tse-kit (Leslie Cheung) is a rookie cop. Ho is trying to go straight, however, and he goes to prison partly to sever his ties with the mob in order to make a fresh start after his release. But Kit finds that his older brother's record is an impediment to his advancement in the police force, and he rejects Ho's attempts to reconcile, blaming him for their father's death. The plot centers on their rapprochement, which is ultimately aided by Ho's best friend and fellow mobster, Mark Lee (Chow Yun-fat). Though billed third, Chow steals the movie as the blithe hit man who gets wounded in a shootout, loses favor with the mob, and eventually turns against them. A Better Tomorrow was such a big hit that sequels became inevitable, but as usual the original is the best. 

The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)

Shauna Macdonald in The Descent

Cast: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone, Oliver Milburn, Molly Kayl, Craig Conway. Screenplay: Neil Marshall. Cinematography: Sam McCurdy. Production design: Simon Bowles. Film editing: Jon Harris. Music: David Julyan.

Neil Marshall's The Descent is notorious for having two endings, one for American audiences and a darker, more ambiguous one for the rest of the world. Neither ending, it seems to me, is satisfactory, but the choice itself points out the difficulty with genre films: What sort of conclusion do you put on a movie that has potential spinoffs lurking in its plot? Structurally, The Descent reflects the influence of sequelitis. As a claustrophobe, I was suitably terrified by the film when it looked like it was going to be an exciting and scary survival adventure. But then, midway, The Descent turns into a monster movie, and at that point it became "just a movie" to me: actors in makeup on obvious sound stage sets. I also preferred the movie when it seemed that there were going to be real characters in it, but then Marshall fails to provide distinct personalities for each of the six women who brave the adventure. Four of them fall by the way as the hero (Shauna Macdonald as Sarah) and the villain (Natalie Mendoza as Juno) battle each other along with the threatening creepers. We know Sarah is the hero because she has previously suffered a terrible loss, just as we know Juno is the villain because she's an adrenaline junkie likely to put them in danger. Skillfully made, and undeniably involving, The Descent sadly falls into genre clichés. 

REC (Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, 2007)

Manuela Velasco in REC

Cast: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Teraza, Jorge-Yamam Serrano, Pablo Rosso, David Vert, Vicente Gil, Martha Carbonell, Carlos Vicente, Maria Teresa Ortega, Manuel Bronchud, Akemi Goto, Kao Chenmin, Maria Lanau, Claudia Silva, Carlos Lasarte. Screenplay: Jaume Balagueró, Luiso Berdejo, Paco Plaza. Cinematography: Pablo Rosso. Production design: Gemma Fauria. Film editing: David Gallart. 

Messy and unsettling, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's REC takes the camera's viewpoint as a vapid young TV reporter (Manuela Velasco) and her cameraman (cinematographer Pablo Rosso, voiced by Javier Coromina) tape an episode for a TV series. They ride along with a small crew of firefighters on what sounds like a routine call: The screams of a woman in a locked apartment have disturbed her neighbors. Once there, however, they and the cops who join them not only encounter the unexpected, but they're also forced to stay in the building after it's quarantined by the authorities for a suspected biohazard. I wish that Velasco's character had not been allowed to grow so screechy and hysterical as the events they encounter escalate -- they're nerve-wracking enough on their own -- but REC does the "found footage" approach to horror as well as I've ever seen it done. Though it winds up as pretty much a routine "zombie virus" movie, it has a bloody actuality that's quite disturbing.
 

The Glass Shield (Charles Burnett, 1994)

Michael Boatman and Lori Petty in The Glass Shield

Cast: Michael Boatman, Lori Petty, Erich Anderson, Richard Anderson, Bernie Casey, Linden Chiles, Wanda De Jesus, Victoria Dillard, Elliott Gould, Don Harvey, Tommy Hicks, Ice Cube, Michael Ironside, Natalija Nogulich, Drew Snyder, M. Emmet Walsh. Screenplay: Charles Burnett, based on a screenplay by John Eddie Johnson and Ned Welsh. Cinematography: Elliot Davis. Production design: Penny Barrett. Film editing: Curtiss Clayton. Music: Stephen James Taylor. 

Charles Burnett's The Glass Shield starts as a movie about racism and sexism, but then wanders into whodunit territory, becomes a trial drama, and winds up as an indictment of the corruption-breeding cronyism of police departments. Michael Boatman and Lori Petty play rookies in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department who, because they're the first Black and first woman in the department, immediately become outsiders, regarded as "diversity hires." Petty's Deborah Fields, trained as a lawyer, remains on the defensive, while Boatman's J.J. Johnson decides to go along and get along. They find themselves, however, investigating a murder that has been pinned on a young Black man (Ice Cube), whose arrest Johnson had a part in bringing about. Boatman and Petty are too lightweight for the roles they've been asked to play, especially since the cast is loaded with such heavyweight character actors as M. Emmet Walsh, Michael Ironside, and Elliott Gould. This miscasting causes the film to lose what focus its rather complicated screenplay possesses. To its credit, The Glass Shield, which was made after the Rodney King trial but before the O.J. Simpson trial, feels prescient, and it doesn't come up with pat answers to the problems it exposes. 

Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)

Marlene Clark in Ganja & Hess

Cast: Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn, Sam L. Waymon, Leonard Jackson, Candece Tarpley, Richard Harrow, John Hoffmeister, Betty Barney, Mabel King. Betsy Thurman, Tommy Lane, Tara Fields. Screenplay: Bill Gunn. Cinematography: James E. Hinton. Production design: Tom H. John. Film editing: Victor Kanefsky. Music: Sam L. Waymon. 

Bill Gunn's astonishing Ganja & Hess is a deconstruction of both the vampire legend and Christian mythography posing as a horror movie. It focuses on the common element of both: blood. And it does it so effectively that perhaps its most chilling scene comes at the end of the film: children singing the hymn "There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood." Made on a small budget, Gunn's film premiered at Cannes to an enthusiastic reception, but failed at the American box office and was pulled from distribution except for a radically recut version called Blood Couple that Gunn had his name removed from. Spike Lee attempted a remake in 2014 called Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, but it lacks the rawness and authenticity of the original. I can think of no other "vampire movie" that has a comparable effect except perhaps Ryan Coogler's Sinners (2025).  

Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark, 1986)

Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung, and Sally Yeh in Peking Opera Blues

Cast: Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh, Cherie Chung, Mark Ho-nam Cheng, Cheung Kwok Keung, Kenneth Tsang, Wu Ma, Ku Feng, Lee Hoi-sang, Leong Po-Chih, Huang Ha, Sandra Ng. Screenplay: Raymond To. Cinematography: Hang-Sang Poon. Production design: Kim-Sing Ho, Chi-Heng Leung, Vincent Wai. Film editing: David Wu. Music: James Wong. 

All flash and dazzle and most of all color, Tsui Hark's Peking Opera Blues is a nonstop action comedy that uses the elaborate costumes of Chinese opera to kaleidoscopic effect. The plot is a tangle of nonsense about stealing some documents that support a revolutionary movement in China in 1914, but mostly it's designed to provide excuses for gunfights and hair's-breadth escapes. The protagonists are three young women who wind up as collaborators, aided by two young men. They don't escape harm: One of the men is seriously wounded by gunfire and one of the women is captured and mercilessly tortured, but both bounce back with a resilience that tests credulity but keeps the action going. There's also a good deal of queerness: One of the women dresses as a man, and the fact that women in Peking Opera were played by men provides some not exactly tasteful humor. Fortunately, Hark keeps things going so fast and furiously that it takes an effort of will to be offended by the movie.