These days, explosions and chases in movies have become indicators of dumb and dumber. But, this year, we’re seeing a welcome rebirth of the smart action film.
Like last year’s Inception, Source Code, The Adjustment Bureau, Drive and even Hannah, brought some originality to the genre. Drive was the most visually interesting, but Source Code combined great production values with a great hook in Ben Ripley’s screenplay: Supersoldier Jake Gyllenhaal can inhabit the brain of a terrorism victim for the same 8 minutes – over and over again. Each time, he has 8 minutes to seek more clues. Can he build the clues into a solution and prevent the terrorist atrocity?
The smart action movie: a welcome trend, indeed.