ACTION: “Tornado.” / “Trap House.” / “Stone Cold Fox.” / “Old Guy.” / “Far Haven.”

“Tornado” (2025, Hulu) British period action drama. The plot follows a young Japanese woman named Tornado in 1790s Scotland who seeks vengeance after a brutal gang led by Sugarman kills her puppet-master father. 


This movie was written and directed by John Maclean, the same cool Scottish whose only other full length feature is 2015's “Slow West,” the stylish Western with topnotch Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn. 

       In this his second movie, John has the master of deadpan, Tim Roth, suave Jack Lowden, Takehiro Hira, and Joanne Whalley + the kickass Kōki as Tornado.

       The “melange of tones” (jidaigeki drama interfaced with American frontier vibe) + character names such as Tornado, Sugarman, Little Sugar, Squid Lips, and big, supposedly big guys called Kitten and Mint, you know this is “different” kind of trip. 

        I like it. 🎥💻📽


“Trap House” (2025, Netflix) action thriller. Set in El Paso, Texas, the film follows an undercover DEA agent and his colleagues in a game of cat and mouse with their teenage children, who use their parents' tactics and intel to rob a dangerous cartel. 



       Dave Bautista is The new ice-cold action star and he's good at that steely protagonist dude role. The action here fits his “I'm an action man, no time to talk” DEA agent. Add super-villain Tony “Better Call Saul” Dalton who talks a lot as the cartel boss? We got game. 

       But this gig isn't really centered on the Dave vs Tony duel. It is about the “Red Dawn"-styled teenagers battling with (and stealing from) cartel goons, like it's all a skateboarding contest. Impossibly silly. It's like “he knows bombs because he’s good in Chemistry class” bit? 

       Hey, the frame says a sequel is upcoming? Nah ah! 🎥💻📽


“Stone Cold Fox” (2025, Netflix) action thriller. A woman breaks out of an abusive commune, but when the queenpin kidnaps her younger sister and sends a crooked cop after her, she has no choice but to infiltrate the very place she escaped from. 



       I enjoy this movie. Funny without trying too hard. Anchored by kickass Kiernan Shipka as Fox, the easy, loose direction of Sophie Tabet is entertaining. 

       And Krysten Ritter as badass drug dealer Goldie, and Kiefer Sutherland as corrupt cop Sergeant Billy Breaker are so much fun. 🎥💻📽


“Old Guy” (2024, Amazon Prime) action comedy. A contract killer on the verge of retirement due to arthritis is given a new chance at fieldwork training Wihlborg, a prodigy assassin with an attitude. Stars Christoph Waltz and Lucy Liu. 



       Although Christoph Waltz as aging hitman Danny Dolinski, Lucy Liu as his love interest Anata, and Cooper Hoffman (son of Philip Seymour) as young blood killer Wihlborg are clear winners per performance, I am a bit uncomfortable with the plot and how it was carried out. Seems so easy? 

       Directed by action dude Simon West, the film's execution (literally) is bland, palliative, and unexciting. 🎥💻📽


“Far Haven” (2023, Amazon Prime) Western drama. After serving two years in a territorial prison in Yuma, Arizona for a crime he didn't commit, Hunter Braddock is released in 1887. He moves to the Arizona town of Far Haven to start a new life with his two young children. 



       This is an old-school Western movie. Bailey Chase channels Glenn Ford, Robert Taylor and Clint Eastwood of yore. And perennial Indian character actor A. Martinez and once TV debonair Bruce Boxleitner are here, too. 

       A genre cliche but not too bad. 🎥💻📽


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