What Could Have Been: New York Ninja

Reveling in its 1990's era setting, Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller Caught Stealing (2025), finds new ground within the criminal underworld while also being somewhat reminiscent of movies from that time period like Guy Ritchie’s early works in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000), as well as one offs like The Fugitive (1993), Carlito’s Way (1993), The Boondock Saints (1999), and several others. A rare change of pace for Aronofsky

Opening with infinite possibilities, today’s feature could have been a prison set boxing movie, a searing drama about the conditions in an Alaskan jail, or simply a prison break narrative, but instead, it becomes... Runaway Train (1985). A movie that has become a bit forgotten over time (after its initial disappointment at the box office), director Andrei Konchalovsky’s action thriller follows a rough around the edges bank robber, Manny (Jon Voight) – who has attempted to break out of Stonehaven Maximum Security Prison in Alaska several times. A sort of hero figure amongst the rowdy inmates, the obsessive Warden, Ranken (John P. Ryan), has locked him away in solitary confinement for a most punishing three years.

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),

Upon hearing that The Naked Gun: from the Files of Police Squad (1988) and its sequels The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) were getting their own reworking of a sequel all these years later, simply titled The Naked Gun (2025), dare I say, it was a tad worrisome. The last decade has been kind to the action and horror genres, but not so for much else... with the last comedies I can remember being either liked or successful ranging all the way back to the buddy cop action comedy The Nice Guys (2016), Game Night and Tag (both 2018), and Good Boys (2019) – of course, there are a few rom/coms and other such things strewn in there, but it hasn’t been a solid stretch for the laugh factory out of Hollywood. Yet, somehow this one has dodged the current comedy killer bullet and survived the dreaded thirty plus year remake/reboot sequel.

A late era entry in the last decade of Sean Connery’s impressive catalogue, Rising Sun (1993), co-written and directed by Philip Kaufman, was brought to the page by Michael Crichton – yes, the mind behind Westworld and Jurassic Park, who helped adapt it from his own novel of the same name, building a woven web of corrupt mysteries and thrills in this edgy crime movie. For James Bond fans, it may bring to mind a direct connection to You Only Live Twice (1967), as in that 007 adventure, Connery plays a character deeply immersed within the Japanese culture