Been watching some fairly recent hard-boiled / neo-noir films lately....
Dead Man Down (3 Star):
This got some pretty harsh reviews on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes and the discussions on IMDB are less than kind, but people need to learn to go with it. Full of intensity and style, the plot is only as flawed as a Raymond Chandler novel - and we forgave him. Colin Farrell is great - a haggard, yet composed mercenary living on a knife edge, and even Terrance Howard came across as interesting. There is one scene about three quarters of the way in ("the trap") that will leave you pondering, but besides that it was a grippingly tense thriller, well worth a watch.
Welcome to the Punch (4 Star):
Here's a film that won me over with its two lead actors - James McAvoy and Mark Strong. They're the sort of actors that can carry a film on their own, but when they are the two leads, with a support cast that is not to be sniffed at, you get an enjoyable film. Wrap it up with some interesting conspiracy theories that verge on satire, pump it with some excellent action and smother with tonnes of style and grit and you're onto a winner.
Parker (2 Star):
There was a certain inevitability about this film. I was never really much of a fan of Richard Stark's books about Parker - the con man with rules and a distorted take on morality. And with Jason Statham I fear a film will only ever be so good, and so this one was. Set on a path of revenge by a completely unnecessary act, Jason beats the crap out of everyone he meets (on his trail to get revenge for an assault he suffered!?). This is all to track down the wholly unbelievable and uninteresting gang headed by that guy from "The Shield". To sum up: this was just another Statham romp, nothing more.
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