Jackie Chan is a huge star across the world after making many great Hong Kong action pictures such as “Police Story”, “The Legend Of Drunken Master” and “Armour Of God”. He’s also made it big in America with films such as “Rush Hour” and “Shanghai Noon”. However, his earlier attempts to be a hit in the United States didn’t go so well.

Apparently, he left Hong Kong partly due to trouble with local gangs. However, he obviously was also focused on becoming more of an international star with recognition in Hollywood. He landed a role in “The Cannonball Run” alongside big stars such as Burt Reynolds (“Smokey and the Bandit”) and Roger Moore (“Moonraker”). However, Jackie barely got to do anything. His amazing martial arts skills were used so briefly that you may not even realise that you’re watching one of the best martial arts stars in the world.

Chan then got a starring role in “Battle Creek Brawl” (also known as “The Big Brawl”). Unfortunately, they had him fight a lot of big guys that moved rather slowly. They just can’t keep up with Chan’s fast-paced style and as a result, the choreography is pretty poor. It’s a shame considering this was a film from Robert Clouse, who had made Bruce Lee’s “Enter The Dragon” (a movie Chan was a stuntman in).

Chan decided to do one more Hollywood movie in the 80s before giving up and returning to Asia. He starred in “The Protector”. It’s a typical 80s cop movie with violence, bad language, nudity and drugs. All these things are the opposite of what Chan is known for. While the movie is not terrible by any means, it feels more like a film for Clint Eastwood (“Dirty Harry”) or Sylvester Stallone (“Cobra”) than Chan. Jackie was so disappointed by the movie that he went and made his own cop films with the “Police Story” franchise.

Chan eventually returned to the United States after some help from other action stars such as Stallone, who helped ensure that Chan’s films got a better distribution in America. Hollywood would fully embrace Chan after the hit that was “Rush Hour”. His earlier attempts to be a Hollywood star are still intriguing to look at as we see how the Americans just got everything wrong.

Jackie Chan is the martial arts movie master that seems to have been around forever. Here’s a list of my personal favourite films from him. However, I’m excluding any where he only has a cameo or a stuntman role so don’t expect to see “Enter The Dragon” on the list.

5. Chinese Zodiac

A sequel to “Armour Of God” and “Operation Condor”, this sees Jackie travelling across the globe as he searches for ancient Chinese relics. The movie opens with an unforgettable sequence in a roller-skate suit. Despite his age, Chan showed that he was still capable of producing some incredible action.

4. Jackie Chan: My Stunts

If you want to know how Jackie Chan does all those impressive stunts and fights then this documentary will show you how he does it. For anybody even vaguely interested in how action movies are made, this is essential viewing as it shows you the tricks used by the best in the business.

3. Thunderbolt

Jackie mixes martial arts fighting with race car driving in this exciting action movie. “Thunderbolt” not only has some great fight sequences but the racing scenes contain some of the best car stunts ever put to film.

2. Shinjuku Incident

This one may surprise a lot of people because it’s not a martial arts film and it’s certainly not light-hearted. Jackie stars an illegal Chinese immigrant in Japan that has to fight against the local Yakuza in this gangster movie. Chan gives a moving performance that shows that actually has some real acting range.

1. Rumble In The Bronx

A pure action movie where the plot never gets in the way of the thrills. Jackie plays a Hong Kong cop visiting relatives in New York. He finds himself having to defend his family’s business from street gangs. It’s non-stop action with fights, chases, vehicular stunts and I still absolutely love the sequence where he jumps from one building to another.

Honourable mentions:
First Strike, The Legend Of Drunken Master and Who Am I?

From “Back To The Future” to “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” to “The Planet of the Apes”, there are a lot of time travel films out there. Here’s a list of some very strange time travel films.

5. A Sound Of Thunder

In the future, rich people pay to travel back in time to hunt dinosaurs. However, somebody accidentally kills another animal and evolutionary history gets completely messed up. We have all sorts of horrifyingly weird creatures show up as the changes come in waves. Scientists then rush to restore things. Why would anybody think that it was a good idea to just let rich folk go back in time for some casual fun?

4. Timecop

Jean-Claude Van Damme (“Bloodsport”) does the splits in this goofy sci-fi/action flick that seems he travel through time to stop criminals travelling to the past. It all ends with one of the goofiest death scenes ever put to film when Van Damme defeats the bad guy by kicking him into another version of himself.

3. Donnie Darko

Would you get your advice from a strange man in a bunny costume? Well, that’s what Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal “Jarhead”) does as he slowly unfolds the mysteries surrounding a plane crash that almost killed him. The whole movie is just incredibly weird and it continues to spark debate amongst its admirers.

2. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Bill (Alex Winter “The Lost Boys”) and Ted (Keanu Reeves “Speed”) are dumb students that get a time-travelling phone box (like Dr. Who) so that they can find history’s greatest figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan to help them with a report for school. Seeing such powerful tech in the hands of such morons is a sight to behold.

1. Batman Ninja

It’s a choice that may surprise people but really, what can be more absurd than seeing Batman and his greatest foes sent back in time to feudal Japan? The villains form their own clans so that they can conquer Japan so Batman must stop them in this outrageously silly yet very fun animated adventure.

“Cannibal Holocaust” was the shocking Italian cannibal exploitation movie that got banned in many countries around the world. It contained a mix of fake violence involving people and real violence involving animals. Parts of it are done in a documentary style that helped blurred the line between fiction and reality. The director (Ruggero Deodato) was even taken to court amid allegations that it was a snuff movie (charges were dropped when he proved the actors were still alive). Here are of the film’s most shocking moments.

5. Eating The Flesh

For a cannibal movie, it’s surprising that the least shocking moment on this list is a moment of cannibalism. I think it’s because we at least know that it’s not real (unlike other parts of the movie). In order to get the reels from the documentary crew, a character has to eat human flesh. It looks pretty darn convincing and it’s sickening.

4. The Ritual Rape

Another moment that was at least fake. There’s nothing funny or remotely enjoyable about this scene as a young woman is tied up, penetrated with some sort of object and then repeatedly bashed in the head until she dies.

3. Shooting The Pig

This is where we start getting into the real stuff. There are several animals getting killed in this film. The scene where a pig is shot dead is one of the more horrific ones as we see it struggle before it dies.

2. The Turtle

If you’re talking about graphic, this might be the most graphic depiction of animal violence (real or fake) that I’ve ever seen in a movie. The fact that it is real just makes it more horrendous. A turtle is decapitated and then it is ripped open with shots lingering on the insides of the poor creature. If you love animals, you’ll despise this scene.

1. The Last Road To Hell

Halfway through “Cannibal Holocaust”, we see some footage from the documentary crew’s other work. This sequence includes actual footage of execution from different countries such as Nigeria. While it’s not as gory as the turtle sequence, footage of real people being killed is so traumatic. This was stock footage that was not shot for this movie.

The Italian cannibal exploitation film craze arguably peaked with “Cannibal Holocaust”. This is a very harsh and disturbing movie that was banned in many countries and the director (Ruggero Deodato) was even tried for murder after the movie was wrongly accused of being a snuff film. The movie does however feature real violence involving animals.

During a rescue mission in the Amazon rainforest, Professor Monroe (Robert Kerman) finds the footage shot by a group of documentary filmmakers. The filmmakers had been murdered and eaten by the tribespeople. The content of those reels may be more horrifying than anything you could possibly imagine.

“Cannibal Holocaust” used real indigenous tribespeople, again helping it to blur the lines between fiction and non-fiction. The acting in this film is generally really bad and most of the people are just there to be killed in gruesome ways. We see people get bashed repeatedly in the head with stones and there is also a lot of sexual violence. If you’re an animal lover, you’re going to despise some of the scenes where people torture and kill real animals. The turtle sequence is especially graphic as it is decapitated before being ripped open. Most of the people die in really gory fashion but when some of the tribespeople get shot near the start of the film, there is no blood.

This is a weird movie because only parts of it are done in a documentary style so you know you’re not watching a real documentary. Much of the violence is very graphic but the shootout near the start has no gore. All this is immersion breaking. Also, I really did not feel comfortable with the graphic depiction of animal violence. There’s also a sequence in the middle where they show actual executions from Nigeria (these were not shot for “Cannibal Holocaust”). There are some interesting ideas but the movie is just an unpleasant mess.

“Red Eye” is a very competent thriller directed by Wes Craven (“Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”, “Scream”) that is along the lines of “Phone Booth” and “Panic Room”. It’s primarily set on a plane and it’s a lot better than “Executive Decision” and “Flightplan”.

In “Red Eye”, a hard-working hotel manager by the name of Lisa (Rachel McAdams “Mean Girls”, “Sherlock Holmes”) is on a flight to home in Miami and meets the seemingly friendly Jackson (Cillian Murphy “Batman Begins”) but soon Lisa finds herself caught up in assassination attempt. Jackson tells her that her father (Brian Cox “Manhunter”) will be killed unless she helps change rooms for an important homeland security figure in order to aid his murder.

Rachel McAdams is very entertaining and convincing and transition from being sweet and innocent near the beginning to being brutalised towards the end is done very well. Cillian Murphy is excellent as no matter how gentlemanly he acts, there is always something creepy about the guy. The interactions between the two are very convincing and it’s great to see both very laidback and then very high intensity interactions as the film progresses. Brian Cox is also fairly good but has very few scenes. The other characters are a little dull.

“Red Eye” is a terrific thriller because of the performances and it remains relatively believable throughout. However, you could argue that the assassination plan seems a little too reliant on having Lisa co-operate. If you liked “Phone Booth” and “Panic Room” then I can see no real reason why you wouldn’t enjoy “Red Eye” because it’s yet another intelligent thriller. Perhaps the film’s greatest strength is that it keeps the intensity and thrills after the plane lands for some thrilling chase and confrontation sequences. Overall, if you want a smart thriller with very good performances then you should definitely check out “Red Eye”.

Serial killer movies often feature some of the most disgusting violence as the vicious murderers are pursued by authorities. Here is a list of some really gruesome serial killer films.

5. The Cell

While it undoubtedly has some goofy moments, this serial killer flick sees Jennifer Lopez (“Anaconda”) use technology to get inside the head of a madman. He has kidnapped a woman and she’s going to die unless Lopez can find the answers hidden deep inside the mind of the killer.

4. The Bone Collector

Denzel Washington (“Malcolm X”) plays a disabled man with Angelina Jolie (“The Changeling”) having to do all the dirty work as the two cops struggle to find a serial killer. One particularly horrible scene has Jolie’s character try to saw through a dead person’s bone.

3. Saw

The elusive Jigsaw is setting deadly games for his victims to play. A whole franchise about serial killers torturing people with traps has emerged thanks to the success of this movie. Its gory style has helped make it one of the most popular series in the horror genre as it blurs the lines between slasher cinema and more conventional serial killer movies.

2. The Silence of the Lambs

“The Silence of the Lambs” is easily the most popular film to feature the cannibalistic Hannibal Lecter character. Here, he’s played by Anthony Hopkins (“Thor”, “The Rite”). However, he’s not the main villain as his services are called upon to locate a sadistic killer that wants to make a literal suit out of women’s flesh.

1. Se7en

Brad Pitt (“Fury”) and Morgan Freeman (“Bruce Almighty”, “Unforgiven”) star as two cops on the hunt for a serial killer that seems to be using the seven deadly sins as inspiration for his killings. This is a really disturbing film with the killer starving people, overfeeding people and even tricking others into carrying out horrendous acts of violence.

Marlon Brando is often hailed as one of the greatest actors of all-time with performances in “The Godfather”, “Apocalypse Now” and “On The Waterfront”. However, when one actually does some reading into how Brando behaved during the making of these films, you see that he’s not the master that many people consider him to be.

Brando often didn’t learn his lines and would often need to read off cards being held at the side. This is even noticeable in films such as “The Godfather”. Not only did he not read his lines, he also didn’t always do his homework before starting a project. He didn’t read the novella that “Apocalypse Now” was based on and this infuriated director Francis Ford Coppola. Brando often ad-libs and while there is nothing wrong with that, it seems that he sometimes did this more because he just didn’t know what he was meant to say.

Brando was known for making strange demands and halting production of films. He frequently clashed with Ford Coppola on the set of “Apocalypse Now”. For “The Island Of Dr. Moreau”, he became obsessed with having the world’s shortest man appear more prominently in the movie among other strange requests.

Although some of have praised his delivery as realistic, a lot of people have pointed out that his mumbling performance in “The Godfather” is somewhat hard to understand. He also mispronounces the name of planet Krypton (Superman’s home world) in “Superman: The Movie”.

Whether you think he’s brilliant or not, there’s no denying that Marlon Brando has appeared in many iconic movies.

“Red Dragon” is another instalment in the “Hannibal Lecter” franchise. This one is brought to us rather surprisingly by the director of the action/comedy “Rush Hour” Brett Ratner. “Red Dragon” serves as a remake of “Manhunter” (both are based on the same book).

F.B.I. agent Will Graham (Edward Norton “American History X”, “The Incredible Hulk”), who has an excellent understanding of the criminal mind, manages to capture vicious cannibal Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins “Silence of the Lambs”, “Thor”). However, several years later, he needs Lecter’s help if he is going to capture a mysterious and grotesque serial killer, nicknamed the ‘Tooth Fairy’ (Ralph Fiennes “Schindler’s List”, “The English Patient”).

Hannibal Lecter is absolutely fascinating. He’s cold, he’s calculating and he’s sickening yet he seems to have a great level of sophistication and a wonderful British wit, making him the kind of guy you would love to play chess with but the last person you would want to shake hands with. Hopkins perfectly delivers in the role. Edward Norton is decent as Will Graham and I really like the idea of the character. The Tooth Fairy character is where the film just collapses as we spend the majority of the second hour with him. He lacks the charm of Lecter and becomes just a psychotic maniac. He just feels very dull and unoriginal.

Hannibal Lecter has a line in this film which says, “A rational society would kill me or put me to some use”. Surely, a rational filmmaker would put Lecter to some use and not just have him sitting there most of the time. A prequel to “Silence of the Lambs” and “Hannibal” should have Lecter as the main villain as having him help the good guy find another killer is very similar to the earlier films. The first hour of the film is enjoyable but the second half feels like a different film and removes the great atmosphere created.

2012’s “Red Dawn” is an enjoyable film. I haven’t seen the original but this film is pretty fun (I have no real clue as to whether it’s the better version or not). The film tells the tale of America being invaded. It was originally made with the Chinese being the invading army but was changed via digital alterations and reshoots to North Koreans due to the fact it wouldn’t have sold as well to the Chinese movie market.

This is yet another film to open with a stringing together of various news footage pieces being manipulated to create a new narrative. “Red Dawn” has American townsfolk trying to repel North Korean invaders. Apparently, an electromagnetic pulse managed to wipe out America’s defence systems, allowing the North Koreans to fly their jets over the U.S. and then parachute down to take control. It’s this kind of ridiculousness that makes the movie a good piece of entertainment.

The characters are appalling. We have Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”, “Rush”), Josh Peck (“The Wackness”), Josh Hutcherson (“The Hunger Games”) and a bunch of others being about as exciting as teens in a slasher film but who cares? The action sequences are the film’s substitute for character. The North Korean military are only there to be shot at. It’s like watching a Stallone or Schwarzenegger action picture, you don’t care about the psychology and the discussion but you care about if the exploding stuff looks good.

“Red Dawn” is silly and in many ways, it’s nothing special. However, as a spectacle piece, this is as fun as something like the first live-action “Transformers” film. Forget that the characters are dud, the plot is preposterous and the stunts are unbelievable and just enjoy the shootouts because while physics-defying, they are great. Maybe now, I’ll get round to checking out the original “Red Dawn” with the Russian invaders.