From the gladiatorial arenas of Ancient Rome to the farthest reaches of outer space, let these movies take you into the thick of the action.
Mickey 17
If you’re a fan of Robert Pattinson, you’ll get more of him than you bargained for in this sci-fi dark comedy.
Pattinson plays Mickey Barnes, who signs up to be an ‘expendable’ on a spacefaring colonisation expedition. Mickey is subjected to dangerous conditions as a guinea pig for the colonists, repeatedly dies, and is ‘reprinted’. Things get out of hand when Mickey 18 gets printed while Mickey 17 is still alive, as only one expendable is supposed to exist at a time. Now, both Mickeys risk being eliminated altogether. They must overcome their initial hostility towards each other to work together and fight back against the megalomaniacal politician Kenneth Marshall’s (Mark Ruffalo) control.
Mickey 17 is adapted from Edward Ashton’s novel, Mickey7 (“I kill [Mickey] 10 more times,” quips writer-director Bong Joon-ho). Bong, the highly acclaimed director of Parasite, Snowpiercer, Okja, and Memories of Murder, explores his signature theme of class inequality against a big-budget, sci-fi action backdrop.
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The unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job... to die, for a living.
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The Amateur
Rami Malek, known for playing hacker Elliot Alderson in Mr. Robot and rock star Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, might not be the name that springs to mind when one mentions “action hero”. Don’t count him out, though. Here, Malek stars as a man whom his enemies underestimate at their own peril.
Malek plays Charlie Heller, a brilliant cryptographer at the CIA. When his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), is taken hostage and killed in a terror attack in London, he becomes preoccupied with vengeance. Charlie blackmails his superior, Deputy Director Alex Moore (Holt McCallany), so he can be trained as a field agent. He is subsequently mentored by Colonel Robert Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), who doubts that Charlie possesses the killer instinct to make him an effective operative. With the aid of a mysterious contact known only as ‘Inquiline’, Charlie tracks down the terrorists responsible for his wife’s death.
The Amateur is the second film adaptation of Robert Littell’s 1981 novel of the same name, giving the story a high-tech sheen while retaining its tension and intrigue.
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A CIA decoder hunts for his wife’s killers, his intelligence as his weapon.
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A Working Man
Jason Statham is back doing what he does best — meting out justice to bad guys in brutal fashion and looking cool while he’s at it.
Statham plays Levon Cade, a Royal Marines Commando turned construction foreman. When Jenny Garcia (Arianna Rivas), the daughter of Levon’s boss Joe (Michael Peña), is kidnapped, Levon pursues her captors, abandoning his vow to leave his violent past behind. Using his contacts, Levon infiltrates the Russian organised crime syndicate that is behind Jenny’s kidnapping and comes face to face with a father-and-son mobster duo.
A Working Man reteams Statham with his Beekeeper director, David Ayer, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sylvester Stallone, based on the novel Levon’s Trade by Chuck Dixon.
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Levon Cade left behind a decorated military career to live a simple life. But when his boss’s daughter is taken by human traffickers, his search to bring her home uncovers a world of corruption.
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Captain America: Brave New World
At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Steve Rogers passed the mantle of Captain America on to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), formerly the Falcon. The TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showed him first donning the red, white, and blue uniform, and now, Sam gets put to the test, headlining his first Captain America movie.
Sam is getting used to inhabiting the Captain America identity with Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), the new Falcon, by his side. Sam’s friend Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), the forgotten Captain America who was imprisoned by the government, is framed for an attack on the president, Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (Harrison Ford), at the White House. Seeking to clear Isaiah’s name, Sam must uncover a conspiracy masterminded by a shadowy figure hellbent on enacting his revenge.
Captain America: Brave New World portrays how Sam will cope with the pressure of being the new Captain America. He is set to lead the Avengers in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe undergoes its latest evolution.
As he takes on the mantle of Captain America, Sam Wilson soon finds himself in the middle of an international incident. In a race against time, Sam must unravel a nefarious global plot…
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Gladiator/Gladiator II
Released in 2000, director Ridley Scott’s Gladiator revived the then-dusty swords-and-sandals historical epic genre and snagged the Best Picture Oscar the following year. The movie boasts a heroic — even iconic — performance from Russell Crowe as Maximus, while Joaquin Phoenix enters pure villain-you-love-to-hate mode as Commodus.
The sequel, Gladiator II, centres on Lucius (Paul Mescal), Maximus’ illegitimate son. He was exiled by his mother, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), for his own safety 15 years ago. He has been living in the North African kingdom of Numidia, under the assumed name ‘Hanno’, with his wife, Arishat (Yuval Gonen). When Numidia is attacked, he is captured and brought to Rome as a gladiator. He confronts Lucilla’s husband, General Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who led the attack on Lucius’ home. Meanwhile, devious gladiator-owner Macrinus (Denzel Washington) plots to overthrow the tyrannical emperors, brothers Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn).
Gladiator II is dynamic and action-packed, not so much concerned with historical accuracy (as is typical of Scott) as it is with spectacle. The movie’s set pieces include the siege of Numidia by the Roman navy, a battle between gladiators and vicious baboons, and a simulated naval battle in a Colosseum flooded with water and filled with sharks. Sprawling sets built in Malta and Morocco bring the second-century Rome setting to life.
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A general whose family is murdered by a corrupt prince embarks on a desperate quest for revenge that sees him fighting in front of thousands of Romans in the Colosseum.
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After his home is conquered by the tyrannical emperors who now lead Rome, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum and must find strength to return the glory of Rome to its people.
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