Chad Stahelski has gotten a large share of kudos for reinvigorating the action genre the last ten years (deservedly so). Yet, one director seems to have been forgotten despite having directed two of the most action-packed and brutal action film of the last 15 years.
I am talking about Welsh-filmmaker Gareth Evans of The Raid and The Raid 2 fame. His work on these Indonesian martial arts action films have been celebrated for years, yet Evans hasn’t really been given a chance by the major studios with any major projects.
Since leaving Indonesia and going back the UK, Evans has made one film (The Apostle) and an action series (Gangs of London). The former was distributed by Netflix and its through them that Evans returns to the scene with another film that looks to be as brutal and action-packed as any he has made in the past.
Havoc stars Tom Hardy who may be competing with Gerard Butler for anti-hero of the 2020’s as he sports such a grizzled and beaten down look as a detective who must navigate his through the corrupt underworld and politics of the city in order to save a politician’s son.
The official and final trailer for Havoc is now out just weeks before it premieres on Netflix on April 25, 2025.
M3GAN in 2022 was a surprise hit that no one saw coming. What would’ve been a a nice little horror film from Blumhouse that would’ve come and gone with little fanfare suddenly became a major hit due to the viral marketing of the titular character’s dancing shown in the initial trailer becoming a huge internet meme.
Now we are back with the sequel (I don’t think anyone was surprised that Blumhouse quickly greenlit a follow-up) and it looks like the original team of director Gerard Johnstone and writer Akela Cooper are back to headline M3GAN 2.0.
The sequel looks to be bigger and a bit more ambitious with more than just a bit of a Terminator 2 vibe with the title character looking to be more of the savior and not just an overprotective killing AI doll.
Will M3GAN 2.0 be able to replicate the viral success of the first film? We shall find out on June 27, 2025.
Jedadiah Leland wrote and very good review on the 1986 crime drama At Close Range (dir. by James Foley) that brought up some nostalgic memories growing up as a teenager during the 1980’s. Pretty much every teenage boy had a crush on Madonna when she first debut and the years following. I wasn’t immune to such a crush.
The latest “Song of the Day” is Live to Tell”, a song that Madonna co-wrote and co-produced with songwriter and film composer Patrick Leonard for At Close Range who also happened to star her-then husband Sean Penn. “Live to Tell” was a major departure for the pop-centric Madonna in that it was a bluesy, torch ballad that evoked feelings of regret and the scars of childhood tragedy.
Even Madonna’s look in the accompanying video shows her in a much more toned-down and mature image that brought to mind singers and actresses of the 1940’s and 50’s. Ironically, while the song itself was one of Madonna’s least controversial releases during her early years, her performance of the song during 2006’s Confessions Tour was seen as controversial by the Roman Catholic Church due to her hanging from a cross on stage.
Live to Tell
I have a tale to tell Sometimes it gets so hard to hide it well I was not ready for the fall Too blind to see the writing on the wall
A man can tell a thousand lies I’ve learned my lesson well Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned till then it will burn inside of me
I know where beauty lives I’ve seen it once I know the warmth she gives The light that you could never see It shines inside you can’t take that from me…
A man can tell a thousand lies I’ve learned my lesson well Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned till then it will burn inside of me…
The truth is never far behind You’ve kept it hidden well If I live to tell the secret I knew then Will I ever have the chance again?
If I ran away I’d never have the strength to go very far How would they hear the beating of my heart…? Will it grow cold? (will it grow cold?) The secret that I hide Will I grow old? How will they hear? When will they learn? How will they know…?
A man can tell a thousand lies I’ve learned my lesson well Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned till then it will burn inside of me…
The truth is never far behind You’ve kept it hidden well If I live to tell the secret I knew then Will I ever have the chance again…? A man can tell a thousand lies I’ve learned my lesson well Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned till then it will burn inside of me…
“You know the thing about a shark, he’s got…lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white.” — Quint
People have blamed Spielberg and his breakout film, Jaws, as the cause of the blockbuster mentality that studios have had since this film came out. Studios and producers wanted to recreate the ultra-successful box-office numbers of Jaws. Despite the fact that this film was modestly budgeted, people nowadays who think they’re film experts point to it as the culprit. They’ve called it the film that begun the dumbing down of Hollywood when creativity was sacrificed for profit.
Why did I pick a scene from this film as a favorite? I picked this particular scene because it’s one reason why the film succeeded and made people come back again and again. It’s a scene that perfectly captures one reason why we love to see films in a communal setting. We want to share the same experience and emotions this scene brought up from the pit of each audience’s psyche.
Jaws didn’t ruin the creativity in filmmaking. I like to think that this one film was a filmmaker at his most creativie (shark wouldn’t work properly so Spielberg kept it off-screen which just added to the terror and tension in the film). This very scene goes down as one of the greatest film monologues. It sets up the danger the trio faces with some anecdotal evidence from the very person who survived the experience, but who might have become unhinged because of it. I love the look of frozen terror on the face of Richard Dryefuss’ character as he listens to Robert Shaw tell the story of the ill-fated journey of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.
This latest “Scenes I Love” is why I consider Spielberg one of the best filmmaker of his generation and probably beyond that.
No matter what side of the ideological aisle one stands on this speech should be watched, debated and studied not just for the powerhouse acting throughout the monologue but as to its content.
There’s opinions and discussion to be had about differing takes on the first half of the speech, but it’s the latter half when Will McAvoy (played with an equal amount of life-earned cynicism and hope by Jeff Daniels) explains why we as a country has lost its way and how we’ll never get back on track until we realize there is a problem and a problem to be solved not through hate and fear but through understanding and hope.
“We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn’t belittle it; it didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn’t scare so easy.
And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.”
I’m sure there’ll be those who will disagree vehemently about the scene’s message and content. Yet, no one seem to be able to find a strong argument as to why they disagree or debunk what was said in the monologue.
The decade since Newsroom aired it’s final episode we see more and more the truth in Will McAvoy’s words and it may take a decade or decades to right the ship.
My latest pick for “Song of the Day” takes me back….way back to those early days post-high school. Only a couple years removed from graduating high school and maneuvering my ways through the turbulent seas of what would be my college years, it was only typical that music would be one of the few things that would anchor things for me during my Adrift Years.
Stone Temple Pilots is part of what I consider as the Big Four of alternative rock of the 1990’s or as some would label that particular sound as “grunge”. Alternative rock, grunge or just plain old hard rock, Stone Temple Pilots made their mark in the early 90’s rock scene with the second single off of their 1993 debut album Core.
“Plush” has always been one of my favorite songs of that era. I played that song on repeat and was one of my go-to Stone Temple Pilots track until “Interstate Love Song” a year later came along. The song was carried by Scott Weiland’s iconic vocals and its dark lyrics. I never knew how dark a song “Plush” was until finding out from a Weiland interview that it was based on a true story of a girl who had been kidnapped and murdered in the early 90’s.
Whether a song inspired by a true-crime story or a metaphor for a failed relationship (as Weiland has said the lyrics represented), “Plush” will remain one of those songs from my young adult years that I would revisit every year to reminisce.
Plush
And I feel that time’s a wasted go So where you goin’ ’til tomorrow? And I see that these are lies to come So would you even care?
And I feel it And I feel it
Where you goin’ for tomorrow? Where you goin’ with the mask I found? And I feel, and I feel when the dogs begin to smell her Will she smell alone?
And I feel so much depends on the weather So, is it rainin’ in your bedroom? And I see that these are the eyes of disarray So would you even care?
And I feel it And she feels it
Where you goin’ for tomorrow? Where you goin’ with the mask I found? And I feel, and I feel when the dogs begin to smell her Will she smell alone?
When the dogs do find her Got time, time to wait for tomorrow To find it, to find it, to find it When the dogs do find her Got time, time to wait for tomorrow To find it, to find it, to find it
Where you goin’ for tomorrow? Where you goin’ with the mask I found? And I feel, and I feel when the dogs begin to smell her Will she smell alone?
When the dogs do find her Got time, time to wait for tomorrow To find it, to find it, to find it When the dogs do find her Got time, time to wait for tomorrow To find it, to find it, to find it
Anyone who lived through the mid-1990’s cannot say that they have never heard of Rage Against the Machine. They ushered in the rap metal/rap rock/alternative metal scene which would include such acts as Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and Body Count just to name a few.
While the genre itself had some early beginnings with such metal and rap groups as Anthrax and Cypress Hill, respectively, it was with Rage Against the Machine that the scene really came into its own. As Scott Ian would later say, it was with Rage Against the Machine that rap metal as a genre was born.
Today’s “Song of the Day” with Rage Against the Machine’s 1996’s second single from Evil Empire, the band’s second studio album. That song is “Bulls on Parade”. The band released their self-titled album in 1992 that gave birth to the rap metal scene with “Killing in the Name” the birth cry of the genre. While success would follow the band pretty quickly with this debut album and their subsequent festival appearances it would be with “Bulls on Parade” that they would also achieve their most mainstream success.
A song decrying the military-industrial complex that the United States has become through the decades, the song was a mainstream-friendly calling card (as mainstream as RATM could ever be seen as) for the band known for it’s anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian and revolutionary lyrics. The band would be the boogeyman for the traditional and conservative movement many years even after the band’s break-up in 2000.
It is at the 2:30min mark that one of the most inventive and unique sounding guitar solos that signifies “Bulls on Parade” as having reached legendary status. Lead guitarist Tom Morello replicates the vinyl scratching typically heard with DJ artists in rap and club records. It is not your typical rock guitar solo, but a rock guitar solo it is nonetheless.
Bulls on Parade
Come wit’ it now Come wit’ it now
The microphone explodes, shattering the molds Either drop the hits like De La O or get the fuck off the commode Wit’ the sure shot, sure to make the bodies drop Drop and don’t copy yo, don’t call this a co-op Terror rains drenchin’, quenchin’ the thirst of the power dons That five sided fist-a-gon The rotten sore on the face of mother earth gets bigger The triggers cold empty ya purse
Rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells They rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells They rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells They rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells
Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library Line up to the mind cemetery now What we don’t know keeps the contracts alive and movin’ They don’t gotta burn the books they just remove ’em While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells Rally ’round the family, pockets full of shells
Rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells They rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells They rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells They rally ’round the family with a pocket full of shells
Bulls on parade
Come wit’ it now Come wit’ it now Bulls on parade Bulls on parade Bulls on parade Bulls on parade Bulls on parade
So, it looks like it’s St. Patrick’s Day here in Through the Shattered Lens. For my lone contribution to all things Irish I present “The Rocker” by Dublin, Ireland’s very own Thin Lizzy.
A song that was part of their 1973 album release Vagabonds of the Western World and it features the Dublin trio of Phil Lynott on bass guitar, Eric Bell on lead guitar and Brian Downey on drums. The song itself has the Thin Lizzy rock sound with Irish folk music influence.
I’ve chosen this song as my choice since it also qualifies as having one of the great rock guitar solos in history. Eric Bell’s guitar solo actually occurs throughout the length and breadth of the song. It’s sometimes hard to hear that there’s even a guitar solo but the whole song could be looked at as being a guitar solo from start to finish with Eric Bell being the lead and only guitar with Phil supporting on bass.
“The Rocker” by Thin Lizzy is not a song that many fans today would ever think is a major classic, but rock aficionados, especially of music of the late 60’s through the 70’s would not hesitate to have this song as one of the classics.
The Rocker
I am your main man if you’re looking for trouble I take no lip, no one’s tougher than me I’d kick your face, you’d soon be seeing double Hey, little girl, keep your hands off of me
I’m a rocker I’m a rocker I’m a roller too, baby I’m a rocker
Down at the juke joint, me and the boys are stompin’ Bippin’ and boppin’ and telling a dirty joke or two In walked this chick and I knew she was up to something And I kissed her right there, out of the blue
I said, “Hey baby, meet me, I’m a tough guy Got my cycle outside, you wanna try?” She just looked at me and rolled them big eyes “Said, I’d do anything for you, for you’re a rocker”
I’m a rocker I’m a roller too, honey I’m a rocker
I love to rock and roll I get my records at the Rock On stall Sweet rock and roll Teddy boy, he got them all
Rocker
I love to rock and roll I get my records at the Rock On stall Sweet rock and roll Teddy boy, he’s got them all
The 1980’s saw the what film enthusiasts saw as the death of the grindhouse experience. Major cities had begun to clean up their skid rows and the $1 all-day matinee theaters were closing down left and right. By the late 80’s gone were the buckets of stale popcorn, watered down sodas, carpets so sticky that one didn’t even want to think was made them that way and, of course, the sketchy individuals who always seemed to in every showing no matter the time.
Yet, the grindhouse never truly left the cinema, but became a bit more “mainstream” under the many independent studios that came about during the early 80’s. You had Cannon, Carolco, United Film and Orion to name a few. It was with Orion that we get the latest guilty pleasure of mine and that was the one really good film that Chuck Norris ever made: Code of Silence.
Chuck Norris was the Jason Statham and Scott Adkins of the 1980’s action scene. He was cranking out action flicks almost on a yearly basis trying to cash in on not just the Bruce Lee martial arts phase, but also the action hero phase that was beginning to be dominated by Schwarzenneger and Stallone. While Norris never reached the heights of those two action stars, his list of action films from the 80’s and into the early 90’s were decent and, dare I say, very workmanlike.
Code of Silence was the one film that had a decent story of the lone good cop that has to fight not just the criminals but also the corrupt cops and system that allows crime to run rampart. Norris as Sgt. Eddie Cusack of the Chicago PD has become the template for the loner hero cop who ends up not just fighting the mob (of differently nationalities) but also a corrupt partner and, they always have one or two, a couple of retired cops who help him but also die in the process.
Norris doesn’t lean heavily on the martials arts of his previous action films. Code of Silence was the film that helped transition him to the gunplay of the action flicks that the public couldn’t get enough of. While the film could and never truly escape it’s grindhouse influence it was very good enough both in characters, plot and direction (director Andrew Davis would later film later classics with The Fugitive and Under Siege).
The film really gets its grindhouse bonafides with the addition of Henry Silva as the main antagonist. Silva would make a career out of being the villain in many 80’s action flicks and in Code of Silence he steals the limelight with his over the top performance as Colombian drug trafficker Luis Camacho. Where Jack Palance got more praise for being the preeminent villain and tough guy of from the 70’s and 80’s, I do believe that Silva was the more sinister of the pair when it came to their performance.
Code of Silence shows that Chuck Norris can carry a film with minimal dialogue and on the power of his silent, seething stares. He was never one for quippy one-liners and Code of Silence is all the better because of it.
The film Brothers, released in 2009, came and went with little fanfare, but it was a film that stuck with me when I saw it a couple years later.
It has definitely made an impression on me after seeing it again while convalescing the summer of 2019. The film deals with PTSD with soldiers coming home from the wars in the Middle East. Yet, it also does a great job of portraying of someone going through severe PTSD after experiencing a major tragedy in their life.
One doesn’t have to have been at work to experience PTSD.
Tobey Maguire does such a great job of acting as the tormented Sam Cahill that one feels discomfort at watching his performance. A performance that shows such unrestrained rage and helplessness in the midst of “drowning” in one’s trauma.
Through the Shattered Lens 