Popular reviews

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★★

  "Water's wet. The sky is blue. Women have secrets. Who gives a fuck? You want a beer?"

  A truly iconic Bruce Willis performance, a deep love of nasty violence, and some of the most elegantly smarmy dialogue ever make this, in its nihilistic way, one of the most insidiously entertaining (to me anyways) pieces of cinematic misogyny ever. The women are objects in the background, vague symbols of virtue to be earned while the film goes about almost casually dismantling the macho assholes at its mean little core in order to rebuild their "chivalry" a bullet at a time. Their stupid little rituals take a few of those shots too: right from the start a "great night for football" is…

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  Review by Will Menaker ★★★★★ 2

  There is a scene in this movie where a man fully engulfed in flames from head to toe is ripped apart by shotgun blasts. Absolute masterclass. Why don't they make movies like this anymore? Beautiful squibs for every bullet hit, gratuitous nudity, a black guy and a white guy, yo mamma jokes, and an uplifting message about how evil NFL owners are.

  Mr. Trump please make Hollywood bring back classic movie magic and action films like this!!

  God Tony Scott. God Shane Black.

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 2

  "Nobody likes you. Everybody hates you. You're gonna lose. Smile, you fuck."

  Tony directs the hell out of this buddy conspiracy actioner that is about as mean-spirited and vulgar and front-to-back filled with ugly humor and violence as something like this gets. The fiery, bloody football stadium massacre finale truly needs to be seen to be believed. Genuinely lost my mind when Bruce started end-zone dancing after [redacted]. Feels in many ways like a precursor to what would eventually become the face-melting, sleazy American maximalism of something like Bad Boys II.

  Full discussion on ep 188 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.

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  Review by Karsten ★★★½ 2

  “it’s called vocabulary, you read much?”
  “yeah my subscription to juggs magazine just ran out”
  automatic 3.5 stars for that dialogue

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  Review by Will Sloan ★★★★ 2

  Honestly this rocks. Great action, snappy Shane Black repartee, Bruce Willis at the peak of his powers, powerful "dudes rock" chemistry between the leads, and incredible cinematography that nobody even noticed at the time!!! Nowadays, all a butt-ugly, affectless digital movie needs to get a cinematography Oscar nomination is a bunch of shots of Frances McDormand standing in front of sunsets.

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  Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★ 1

  one of the most vile and idiotic american blockbusters.

  superbly shot and edited into a pop-art dreamscape by tony scott.

  a reprehensible fluke of a film; essential scumbag-core.

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★

  A perfect marriage between Black's wannabe hardboiled desires, Scott's bombast visuals and Joel Silver shit blows up idea of action blockbuster. Lots of wounded machismo, a strong undercurrent of conservative nostalgia, so much nasty violence and no shortage of NFL bashing. The plot is non-existent beyond allowing Willis and Wayans, both at their best, to play off each other, but Scott films everything for all its worth. And the gusto displayed as it goes all in at every violent and vile instinct is remarkable. It’s a pretty ugly fantasy of self-hatred and resentment that gets released through as much vulgar displays of violence as the 105-minute running time allows. It starts with Billy Banks as a hotshot running back going…

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  Review by Michael James ★★★★ 4

  This got to be one of the most under appreciated Tony Scott movie. The buddy cop action comedy is full of his visual style and flair, along with a good screenplay and enjoyable dialogues. The witty sarcastic one liners keep dropping. Coming to the performances, it belongs to the days of grumpy cool Bruce Willis, who is well supported by Damon Wayans. It’s misogynistic, silly at times but damn, it’s too much fun, explosive and entertainment.

  “Nobody likes you. Everybody hates you. You're gonna lose. Smile, you fuck.”
  
  "Water is wet, the sky is blue, women have secrets. Who gives a fuck?"
  
  "I was just trying to break the ice."
  "I like ice. Leave it the fuck alone."

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  Review by Jacob Knight ★★★★½ 2

  “I wish the sky wasn’t blue. I wish water wasn’t wet. And I wish I didn’t still love my wife.”

  By all accounts, it’s amazing this movie exists at all. Legendarily troubled during production, with Tony Scott having to deal with a despotic Joel Silver*, diva Bruce Willis, and the fact that Damon Wayans apparently hated his new Shane Black buddy noir partner. LETHAL WEAPON cutter Stuart Baird apparently saved the entire film from an unwatchable workprint, but you’d never know as it still feels like one of the purest distillations of Scott and Black’s style. Willis plays antiquated “man’s man” PI Joe Hallenbeck (in honestly his best performance) as this immovable object, plowing through one bad guy after another,…

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  Review by bree1981 ★★★★★ 8

  "Water's wet, the sky is blue, women have secrets. Who gives a fuck?
  Joe Hallenbeck

  I fucking love this film more and more every time I see it. An early 90's, hard nosed, action comedy in the style of 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon that see's everyone involved at the absolute top of their game. It was the start of a superb three film run from director Tony Scott, writer Shane Black had just done the afore mentioned Lethal Weapon and it's sequel, while star Bruce Willis had just come through a bit of a rough patch to turn in what is one of my favourite Willis performances.
  Willis stars as Joe Hellenbeck, a former secret service agent who once…

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★½ 7

  Action!: The Scott Brothers - 80s Never Dies With Tony At The Helm

  Black's writing and direction can be hit or miss. It is always a pleasure to see something new come from him, whether he is at the helm or just penning the project. More than Tarantino, for example, even when someone like Tony Scott is directing his script, his trademarks are indisputable and its influences are very prominent, so the movie turns into a Shane Black film. Speaking of which, the script hasn't aged well with some of the heavy mysogny and Harris cursing like a fucking sailor was just too extreme and awkward for me; despite this, the jokes are for the most part very funny (especially…

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  Review by Joe Lynch ★★★½ 6

  Not every horrible production yields a horrible film. Profane pop poetry at its sleaziest but I enjoy every bombastic, haze-filled moment of it. 
  Weirdly lacking Christmas references. Come on, Shane. 
  Would love to read the original script.