The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

★★★☆☆

Oz is a very kind moralistic suburban dentist living in Canada, while his wife, Sophie, is real pain. A new neighbor moves in next door and Oz discovers that it’s Jimmy ‘The Tulip’ Tudeski, a mob hitman exiled to Canada. After Oz realizes that his family needs money, his wife convinces him to go to Chicago to turn in Jimmy to mob boss Janni Gogolak and claim the bounty money. Little does he know that everything falls apart and now he is trapped in the middle between his wife and a mob war. I enjoyed this movie, I think it had a great cast, some quirky performances and a story that was very engaging. The only problem is, for a movie about the mob it seems a tad slow and not too eventful.

The Last Boy Scout (1991)

★★★☆☆

After a hit was placed on an alleged exotic dancer, the LAPD hires a sleazy but skilled cop to protector. However, after she was brutally gunned down her cop bodyguard and boyfriend are flung into a web of underground sports gambling. Now they must figure out who is behind all the car bombings, killings and kidnappings before these people begin targeting their families. If only they knew just how deep it went. I really enjoyed this corny, over-the-top action flick. The chemistry between Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans is what stole the show but I couldn’t help but think the rest of the film was just stupid fun. The whole movie comprised of one-liners and the romantic scenes between Willis and his wife were… stale. It’s a great movie if you just want to turn your brain off and enjoy some gunfights and explosions.

Die Hard: With A Vengeance (1995)

★★★★1/2

He’s back and he has a hangover. A really bad one too. This time we fined John McClane in his home territory of New York City. A crazed, riddle-speaking terrorist as strategically placed bombs all over the city and now McClane (under the specific request of Simon, the terrorist) has to solve the riddles before the bombs go off. Making matters worst is that John has been forcefully paired up with a racist African American electrician who despises white people, and that the terrorist Simon has indentified himself as the brother of the late Hans Gruber. But, this simple game of Simon Says goes further than what McClane suspects. This movie was a step above the second one because it was a very awkward buddy-cop movie but in the end it had great character development and the entire cast seemed to work well with each other. The action was outstanding and the entire movie felt like they were running out of time.

Die Hard 2 (1990)

★★★1/2

John McClane is back and this time he’s keeping his feet on the ground, unfortunately a group of rogue terrorists seize control of Dulles Airport and threaten to blow up planes if their needs aren’t met. Their needs are to secure a safe and easy transfer of a rogue South American general. Now McClane must find a way to stop the terrorists before the planes start dropping like flies, the only problem is, he is met with a very stubborn airport security division. Despite the fact that this film is way hammier with one-liners and they constantly allude back to the original, I found it to be very thrilling and exciting. McClane does what he does best and I expected nothing more, although it may seem a little long… it does make it feel like John really has the odds against him.

Armageddon (1998)

★★★★1/2

It happened before and it will happen again. With those terrifying words of warning we find a giant asteroid (roughly about the size of Texas) on a collision course with Earth. Earth’s only hope lies within the hands of a group of skilled, but redneck, oil drillers. The mission is simple: two teams take off from Earth to land on the hurtling asteroid. While on it they have to drill to 800 feet so that they can release a bomb that would split the asteroid in two. Though many arthouse and film students will bash and trash this movie you have to ask yourself: what is it that you want from a movie about people landing on an asteroid? It’s a great action-packed thrill ride that doesn’t let up even in its more tender moments. I think it’s one of the great modern action movies and one of Bay’s greatest (and that’s saying something).