Movie Review: Commitment (2013; Showbox/Well Go USA)

...Youth Pre-empted. Interrupted. Innocence, abruptly thrust into maturity. Whether by design, by accident, by choice or by way of necessity...for better or for worse, a hiccup in life, that's quite literally life-changing. For some of us, such a revelation is quite relatable (...for this viewer, here's a hand raised, having had 'youth interrupted', at least in part, by way of an early and lengthy stint in the military). A misfit-flavored sort of loneliness...sometimes, a blurring confusion of identity. In that respect, possibly given way to conditioning and adapting, one is forcibly expected to perform in a mature manner, dealing with serious issues and situations...all while forced to suppress that sense of youth, wanting ever so much to break free (...once again, hand raised over here, in that the military tethered and restricted my youthfully driven creative side). In films, this personal aspect has been examined many times, and in most cases and varied scenarios, has been found quite compelling and intriguing...the sudden thrust into an adult world...how one performs in such a situation...the lonely, misfit feeling of surrendering one's self in a mature role...trying to fit in a coat that's several sizes too big, and forced to shelve one's youth...and the resulting knowledge incorporated, should that sense of lost youth, be recovered. Such is the dilemma of Myung-Hon Ri, a labor-camp youth, turned assassin, and assigned a most unusual, yet ideal undercover...as a high school student, in inaugural director Park Hong-Soo's compelling examination of unconventional espionage, family loyalty, and the struggle to maintain identity...2013's "Commitment"...

Movie Review: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

Swaggerdly suave, handsome & worldly...dashing, dapper and debonair...always dressed to kill, a picture of cool & crisp intrigue...fast, cars, fast money, fast wit...well-armed & well aimed...deftly skilled at hand-to-hand combat...a resourceful, finely-honed ability at surveillance, concealment & infiltration...the dogged bane of world-wide villainy...the most nefarious of men, want him dead...the most nefarious of women merely WANT him. THIS guy?? Uh, he's NOT James Bond, folks, and he most assuredly DOESN'T have a clue. He's agent OSS 117, Hubert Bonniseur de la Bath, though the name of the game remains the same...spies, naked thighs and bad guys, albeit in a much more comical meld, with this rollicking and hilarious send-up to classic '50's & '60's spy movies...the 2006 French comedy, "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies"...a nostalgic precursor bit of cinema, from director Michael Hazanavicius, the Academy Award winning filmmaker of 2011's critically acclaimed and equally nostalgic jewel, "The Artist."

Movie Review: In Like Flint (Blu-ray)

The spy movie boom of the 60's was in full gear by the time Gordon Douglas' In Like Flint hit the screens. Our Man Flint had very good success amongst critics, with a solid box office take that made a follow-up to Our Man Flint, starring the incomparable James Coburn (Major Dundee, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid). Twilight Time tackled the limited Blu-ray release of the first film with very impressive results - could they do it with the In Like Flint as well?

Our Man Flint director Daniel Mann doesn’t return to helm the sequel here, this time around it’s in the very capable hands of Gordon Douglas (Stagecoach, Them!) to direct the follow-up. Lee J. Cobb reprises his role as Cramden, head of ZOWIE. It seems that Cramden has lost a few minutes of his memory during which the President (who he’s golfing with at the time) has been abducted. This leads to yet another phone call from Cramden to his retired super-spy agent Derek Flint (Coburn).

Flint helps save the world again but somehow this time around it's not as much fun. Don't get me wrong, In Like Flint is an enjoyable entry into the spy sub-genre, it's just that it's way too goofy at times. Some quality laughs are to be had though with one of the biggest being Flint's ability to converse with dolphins. It's so incredibly stupid I couldn't to this wilder brand of humor The action is solid, again with Coburn showing off his excellent martial arts skills. I even noticed a sequence that could very well have been lifted for, get this, the Bond film Moonraker.

Movie Review: Our Man Flint (Blu-ray)

Looking back at film history, it seems that so many of the most influential films in the super spy sub-genre graced the silver screen in the 1960’s. The decade is arguably the peak for these types of movies - with that said, they are still a blast now to watch. The James Bond films had the biggest impact which helped in turn bring about rip-offs from Europe and even some enjoyable franchises in their own right like the Matt Helm series (The Silencers, The Ambusher’s and Murderers’ Row) and the less goofy but delightfully entertaining Derek Flint films, Our Man Flint and In Like Flint. Daniel Mann’s Our Man Flint makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Twilight Time in a brand-new release decked with all kinds of extra goodies.

Derek Flint (James Coburn, Cross of Iron and Major Dundee) is a super agent who really doesn’t need to be a super agent – the guys loaded. He also has zero trouble with the ladies enjoying his own “me” time meditating between two chairs. Flint isn't doesn't have as much an obligation as say James Bond but when his boss calls onto him to save the world from a diabolical chaos-creating group called Galaxy, Flint is summoned away from his carefree life to do his duty.