The Equalizer 2, Review: Unequal combat
When you have one man battling four or more mercenaries, the combat is apparently unequal. Turns out that the inequality is in favour of the one man, since he is played by Denzel Washington, the protagonist, who does the requisite equalising. Washington is not the quintessential action hero, though he tries hard to be one. Passable stuff that keeps you mildly excited with its action, and takes pains to make the story move at a reasonable pace, making th...
The Magnificent Seven, Review by Siraj Syed: Rogue Bogue’s Epilogue
You might say that The Magnificent Seven is not as iconic a Western as some others in the genre, like Stagecoach, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Last Train from Gun Hill, Annie Get Your Gun, Billy the Kid, Shane, the Sergio Leone trilogy, The Alamo, True Grit, MacKenna’s Gold or Cat Ballou. But it is not very far either. For one, it has spawned several remakes, sequels and bootleg versions (including a few Hindi fil...
Southpaw, Review: Loses on points
South is to left what north is to right, and paw stands for hand, in boxing parlance. So, a ‘southpaw’ is a boxer who takes a right side on stance, but leverages his left-hand to telling effect. In other sports, southpaw is often used to describe a person who is left-handed, as a left-handed batsman in the game of cricket. Southpaw, the film, derives its title from this terminology. In the film, the protagonist makes very little use of his left, a...