One of the standard Swashbuckler plots has the hero masquerading as a fop so his real self can right wrongs and win the maiden, and no film did it better than The Mark of Zorro. Leslie Howard recited doggerel poems as the The Scarlet Pimpernel and Louis Hayward dithered on about banking as The Son of Monte Cristo, but Tyrone Power is on
Superman returns to Earth (thus the title) after a five year absence. While he was away, Lois has had a child and Lex Luthor has gotten out of prison. Luthor’s plan is once again based on real-estate and will kill millions. Superman must stop Luthor as he attempts to reintegrate with society. So, Superman has
The caped crusaders (George Clooney taking over for Val Kilmer, Chris O’Donnell) face two new threats, Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman), while their own relationship is falling apart. And Alfred (Michael Gough) is dying, which brings his niece (Alicia Silverstone) to visit. She gets a costume and becomes Batgirl, because at
A half-vampire (Wesley Snipes) hunts the undead with guns, swords, spikes, and drugs. When an upstart vampire gang leader (Stephen Dorff) decides to overthrow the old order of their society, Blade’s job gets a lot harder. An early entry in the style-first monster film sub-genre (Resident Evil, Underworld), Blade, like those that followed, is exciting, rich
In this third entry in the series, Blade (Wesley Snipes) joins up with a vampire hunting band (Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds) to stop Dracula (Dominic Purcell) and perhaps to end the vampire race forever. With big, shiny, action films, it’s easy to ignore the skill level of the director. This isn’t Shakespeare after all, so anyone
After introverted Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) is murdered, she is resurrected by cats. With a new sense of purpose and style, she hunts for her murderer, assumed to be the head of a cosmetics company (Lambert Wilson) or his wife (Sharon Stone). At the same time, a policeman (Benjamin Bratt) courts Patience while chasing the town’s new
Policewoman Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) seeks the aid of demon hunter John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) in finding the secret behind her twin sister’s alleged suicide. The trail will lead them to demons, angels, Hell, and the Spear of Destiny, the weapon that kill Christ and may be the key to the destruction of the world. I
Dave (Aaron Johnson) is a nerdy, comic-book reading, bullied, high school student who decides that he will be a costumed superhero, though he has no reason to believe he will be any good at it. Wearing an unusual wetsuit, he sets out to foil crime, and fails miserably. But a hospital stay later, he becomes
Don Alejandro de la Vega’s (Antonio Banderas) unwillingness to retire from being Zorro strains his marriage to Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and his relationship with his son, Joaquin (Adrian Alonso). After receiving divorce papers, things get even worse, as a group of gunmen pressure locals to sell their land, a huge explosion rocks the woods, and
Spanish dueling champion Don Diego Vega (Frank Langella) returns to California to find that his father has been forced out as governor, replaced by the corrupt Luis Quintero (Robert Middleton) who has the peasants whipped, over-taxed, and generally abused. Realizing that he can help best in secret, he acts bored and effeminate in public, behaving