Montreal Magnum

When it comes to car chase scenes, the one that is always highlighted, and for good reason, is from Peter Yates’ 1968 action thriller Bullitt starring Steve McQueen... but some eight years later, the city of San Francisco was replaced by Montreal, Quebec in this little known Italian production with quite the epic speedy sequence of its own, Shadows in an Empty Room (1976), directed by Alberto De Martino. Fusing this touch of Bullitt with a Dirty Harry style storyline – hence why it is called Blazing Magnum in some markets (including the UK), while also including a hint of the ever popular at the time 70s giallo for some murder mystery elements, the narrative follows gritty, hard as nails Ottawa cop Capt. Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman) as he dispatches some bank robbers in his own city... before getting the tragic call that his much younger sister, Louise (Carole Laure – Sweet Movie), who lives in Montreal, has died under very suspicious circumstances.

A very important film from 1935 that is probably not as well known today as it should be, the swashbuckling action adventure Captain Blood, directed by Michael Curtiz (The Sea Wolf, The Breaking Point), featured numerous important happenings that would leave rippling effects on the industry for many years to come. Though Curtiz had immigrated to the United States years before, having some success in the silent era with Noah’s Ark (1928) and with the early sound pictures Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), it was this bigger budget extravaganza that would help him become a top tier film maker, someone who would go on to make an inordinate number of future classics, including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces. Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, and perhaps most importantly, Casablanca... among others.

After director John Kosinski got the need for speed while making the big smash hit sequel Top Gun: Maverick back in 2022, he clearly wanted to stay in the fast track, deciding to co-write and direct what has become one of the 2026 Academy Award Best Picture nominees – F1: The Movie (2025). With racer Lewis Hamilton on board as a producer and the film making team getting permission from all of the actual F1 racing teams, they shot at real Grand Prix weekends throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons, with a faux garage set up between the Mercedes and Ferrari pits... making things look as accurate and impressive as possible. Following longtime driver Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt – who did most of his own racing), he has become a jack of all trades of sorts – driving everything from F1 and Daytona, to taxi in New York, he is basically a meandering racer-for-hire.

The action renaissance continues to flourish late into the summer of 2025... as Timo Tjahjanto’s Nobody 2 (2025) becomes the most recent blow-up to grace the big screen after nearly a decade of successes (even if that doesn’t always mean at the box office) from the likes of the John Wick franchise (and its spinoff Ballerina), Tom Cruise doing his thing in the last four Christopher McQuarrie fueled Mission: Impossible adventures, George Miller’s post apocalyptic landscape of Mad Max: Fury Road (and its prequel), as well as many memorable standalones like Baby Driver, The Nice Guys, et al. Following the rhythm and cadence of the first movie of the franchise (thanks to screenwriter Derek Kolstad being back– he’s also the mind behind the John Wick universe),

There is no doubt that Tom Cruise has taken up much of the action attention over the past couple years with his possible finale of the Mission: Impossible franchise... which was released earlier this summer. Yet, there is another action franchise that also deserves some viewership –Jackie Chan’s Police Story, which started in 1985 and most recently hit theatres in 2013 (though there is talk of another one in the works). With parts one and two already reviewed here on Filmizon.com, here goes number three – which is sometimes called Police Story3: Supercop, but in North America is usually referred to simply as Supercop (1992). Directed by Stanley Tong – his first of six directorial collaborations with Jackie Chan, the star returns once more as Insp. Chan Ka Kui, this time often being referenced as the titular Supercop. Grudgingly sent by his longtime friend and boss ‘Uncle’ Bill Wong (Bill Tung) from his home in Hong Kong over to mainland China to help run a dangerous undercover sting on an underground drug smuggling operation, he must also leave behind his longtime girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung) for at least a month.

This is not the first time this is being said here... but there is no denying that the James Bond franchise, which is one of my favourites, has been outplayed by other action franchises over the past few decades. With No Time To Die (2021), a glorious door opened wide with Ana De Armas... after a twelve minute cameo from the actress as Paloma got the fandom going crazy – a perfect avenue for a female spinoff as fans were clamoring for more. Outmaneuvered once again, it was not the Bond producers that speedily green lit a new production, but one of their main rivals who signed the actress up for an action saga with: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025), directed by Len Wiseman and co-written by action guru scribe Derek Kolstad (who has been involved with the first three John Wick’s, as well as the sole penman of Nobody). The other writing credit goes to Shay Hatten (who helped with parts three and four of Wick).