Violent Night is a 2022 American Christmas action comedy film starring David Harbour as Santa Claus, who fights mercenaries who have taken a wealthy family hostage in their home. It is directed by Tommy Wirkola, written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller, and also starring John Leguizamo, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Edi Patterson, Cam Gigandet, Leah Brady, and Beverly D’Angelo.
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Emancipation is a 2022 American historical action film directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Will Smith as an enslaved man in Louisiana in the 1860s who escapes his plantation. The film, written by William N. Collage, is loosely based on the real-life story of Gordon (named “Peter” in the film), a former slave, and the photographs of his bare back, heavily scourged from an overseer’s whippings, that were published worldwide in 1863, giving the abolitionist movement proof of the cruelty of slavery. The film also stars Ben Foster and Charmaine Bingwa. (Wikipedia)
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Top Gun: Maverick will no doubt be the highest grossing movie of 2022, with $1.38 billion worldwide box office earnings (without a China release, no less) thus far. Now, this phenomenal success caught everybody in the movie industry by surprise. After all, while Top Gun: Maverick is a sequel to a popular movie, that was 36 years ago! Would the sequel be able to resonate with modern day audiences? We all know the answer to that now but the questions remains – why did Top Gun: Marverick work?
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Prey is a 2022 American science fiction action film directed by Dan Trachtenberg and written by Patrick Aison, based on the Predator franchise by Jim Thomas and John Thomas. It is the fifth installment in the franchise and a prequel to the first four films.
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The Old Man Episode 7 is the seventh (and final) instalment of the first season of an American action thriller television series based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Thomas Perry. The premise involves a former CIA operative who has been living off the grid for over 30 years. When an assassin arrives and tries to take him out, the operative (“old man”) must go on the run. The series debuted on FX in mid-June (USA/Canada) and will be streaming on Disney+ (worldwide) from mid-August.
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The Old Man Episode 6 is the sixth instalment of an American action thriller television series based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Thomas Perry. The premise involves a former CIA operative who has been living off the grid for over 30 years. When an assassin arrives and tries to take him out, the operative (“old man”) must go on the run. The series debuted on FX in mid-June (USA/Canada) and will be streaming on Disney+ (worldwide) from mid-August.
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The Old Man Episode 5 is the fourth instalment of an American action thriller television series based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Thomas Perry. The premise involves a former CIA operative who has been living off the grid for over 30 years. When an assassin arrives and tries to take him out, the operative (“old man”) must go on the run. The series debuted on FX in mid-June (USA/Canada) and will be streaming on Disney+ (worldwide) from mid-August.
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The Terminal List is an American action thriller television series starring Chris Pratt based on the novel of the same name by Jack Carr. The series began streaming on Amazon Prime Video on 1st July, 2022.
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The Old Man Episode 4 is the fourth instalment of an American action thriller television series based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Thomas Perry. The premise involves a former CIA operative who has been living off the grid for over 30 years. When an assassin arrives and tries to take him out, the operative (“old man”) must go on the run. The series debuted on FX in mid-June (USA/Canada) and will be streaming on Disney+ (worldwide) from mid-August.
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The Old Man Episode 3 is the third instalment of an American action thriller television series based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Thomas Perry. The premise involves a former CIA operative who has been living off the grid for over 30 years. When an assassin arrives and tries to take him out, the operative (“old man”) must go on the run. The series debuted on FX in mid-June (USA/Canada) and will be streaming on Disney+ (worldwide) from mid-August.
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The Old Man Episodes 1 – 2 are the first two instalments of an American action thriller television series based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Thomas Perry. The premise involves a former CIA operative who has been living off the grid for over 30 years. When an assassin arrives and tries to take him out, the operative (“old man”) must go on the run. The series debuted on FX in mid-June (USA/Canada) and will be streaming on Disney+ (worldwide) from mid-August.
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The King’s Man is a 2021 spy action comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn from a screenplay by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek and a story by Vaughn. The third installment in the Kingsman film series, which is based on the comic book The Secret Service (later retitled to Kingsman) by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, it is a prequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017).
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The Best Films of 2021 is based on the films that we have reviewed on Power of Pop in 2021. Most of these films were watched online, as visits to the cinema were hampered by the damned pandemic. Truth be told, overall, TV series were stronger than films in storytelling and characterisations and we will get to that particular list in a later post.
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The Matrix Resurrections is a 2021 American science fiction action film produced, co-written, and directed by Lana Wachowski. It is the sequel to The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and the fourth instalment in The Matrix film series. The film brings back Keanu Reeves, Carrie Anne-Moss and Jada Pinkett-Smith to reprise their roles from the original trilogy.
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Free Guy is a 2021 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, and a story by Lieberman. While in general, video game adaptations have failed miserably, Free Guy succeeds by being inspired by and referencing video game culture. Yes, Free Guy is able to engage despite the superficial trappings of its premise, due mainly to excellent writing, eye-catching special effects and Ryan Reynolds’ on-screen ‘everyman’ charisma.
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The Tomorrow War is a 2021 American science fiction action film directed by Chris McKay in his live-action directorial debut. The movie stars Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J. K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson and follows a group of present-day soldiers who are sent into the future to fight an alien army (called the White Spikes).
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Logan’s Run is a 1976 dystopian scifi action thriller drama film directed by Michael Anderson, and starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Richard Jordan. The screenplay by David Zelag Goodman is based on the 1967 novel Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson.
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Blade Runner is a 1982 dystopian scifi film drama directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford as the titular character. The film was loosely based on Philip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Despite the initial commercial and critical failure of Blade Runner (when it was first released in 1982), the film has attained cult status in the years since and has been retroactively hailed as one of the best science-fiction films of all time.
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Predator is a 1987 scifi action thriller drama film directed by John McTiernan and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film spawned a direct sequel – Predator 2 (1990) – a couple of spin-offs with Alien vs Predator (2004), Alien vs Predator (2007) and Predators (2010) – as well as a reboot with The Predator (2018).
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Infinite is a scifi action thriller drama directed by Antonio Fuqua. The movie is based on D. Eric Maikranz’s 2009 novel The Reincarnationist Papers and stars Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The premise of Infinite revolves around the concept of reincarnated beings who retain the memories of past lives.
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The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 war action drama film directed by Robert Aldrich and based on the novel written by E.M. Nathanson. The story is a work of fiction, set during World War II and centred around twelve court-martialled soldiers who are promised a reprieve from their capital sentences if they are successful in completing a virtual suicide mission behind enemy lines, just before D-Day.
S P O I L E R S
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Army of the Dead is a 2021 American horror action drama film directed by Zack Snyder, with a screenplay he co-wrote with Shay Hatten and Joby Harold, based on a story by Snyder. The film had been in development hell at Warner Bros since 2007 before being picked up by Netflix in 2019. Army of the Dead marks Zack Snyder’s first new film since Justice League and the release was accompanied has been accompanied with the attendant hype from the buzz over The Snyder Cut and so on.
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Nobody is a 2021 American action-thriller drama film directed by Ilya Naishuller and written by Derek Kolstad. The film’s premise involves a bystander who intervenes to help a woman being harassed by a group of men who then becomes the target of a vengeful drug lord. Cue an ultra-violent revenge flick that is reminiscent of the John Wick franchise.
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John Wick is a 2014 American neo-noir action-thriller drama film directed by Chad Stahelski, in his directorial debut, and written by Derek Kolstad. The movie was a commercial success, spawning two sequels and perhaps inspiring a new ultraviolet action sub-genre. Certainly, John Wick revitalised the career of Keanu Reeves to such an extent that Matrix 4 was surely made on the back of his renewed popularity.
With the Disney+ streaming platform being available worldwide since February this year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“MCU”) movies can be found in one convenient place. Power of Pop has been a staunch supporter of the MCU since the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (which is NOT available on Disney+ due to distribution issues) in 2008. Thus, we continue our look back at the MCU with Iron Man 2, which was released in 2010.
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