These day , Finland - born director Renny Harlin is mostly known asGeena Davis ’ ex - husband who directed her inthe infamous Cutthroat Island . But his prospicient and now and again unusual career encompass right smart more than that . For case : super - chic sharks !
Though his recent credits reflecthis segue into the Chinese plastic film diligence — including 2016 ’s Skiptrace , a buddy cop flick that pairedJackie Chanwith Johnny Knoxville — his filmography is gruelling on activity movies , most of which do n’t fall within the common kingdom of “ genre . ” That ’s whyDie Hard 2and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane are n’t on here — sorry , Bruce Willis and Andrew Dice Clay superfans — but we ’ll admit we did unfold the bounds with a couple of these .
Also , we leave off 2014 ’s The Legend of Hercules ( not the2014 Hercules starring Dwayne Johnson ; Harlin ’s movie starred Twilight 2nd banana tree Kellan Lutz ) because it sucks .
He’s right behind me, isn’t he? Exorcist: The BeginningImage: Morgan Creek
6) Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
In 2004 and 2005 , two different interpretation of what ’s essentially The Exorcist IV ( though both are prequels ) run into theaters . Studio execs who were n’t proud of with Paul Schrader ’s take on the material ( in a film titled Dominion : Prequel to the Exorcist ) engage Harlin to “ revise ” the motion-picture show into Exorcist : The Beginning , then end up fall in Schrader the cash to end up his film anyway . Neither picture egress the achiever when it came to reviews — Schrader ’s was generally view as ranking , but not by much — though Harlin ’s film , which came out several months prior to Schrader ’s and received a wider discharge , did better at the box office .
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Fifteen - plus years afterwards , all that directorial scrambling feel like just another empty-headed footnote in Hollywood ’s endless quest to make a gain by any way necessary . Exorcist : The Beginning is dress in 1949 and stars Stellan Skarsgård as a younger yet already supremely globe - aweary Father Merrin , though the role player was in reality almost a decade aged than an aged - upMax von Sydowwas in The Exorcist . On leave of absence from the Catholic Church , haunted by the Nazi horror he witnessed in World War II , and struggling mightily with his faith , Merrin joins an archeological dig in East Africa ( a place portrayed with more or less iffy cultural sensitiveness ) and get wind evil lurking amid the artifact .
candidly , The start is n’t as terrible as show biz legend has made it out to be , though it ’s mediate - of - the - road enough to feel unworthy of its post in repugnance story . For one thing , it lean right smart too heavily into macabre imagery — maggots , roil , pick at - out orb , violence against children — yielding nauseated cushion that carry none of the late - crawl apprehensiveness so absolutely conveyed by the 1973 original .
5) Cliffhanger (1993)
true , deal - rescue thriller Cliffhanger is barely a genre movie , but there are a duet of elements that nudge it over the top . Sylvester Stallone , who co - wrote the screenplay , whizz as Gabe , a Colorado rescue fire warden who blames himself for a devastating stroke that get off a woman plunging hundreds of feet to her death ( where was that level of pulse - impound panic in Exorcist : The Beginning ? ) in the picture ’s first act . sweep over that guilty conscience — and getting back in the good graces of underpin characters act by Janine Turner and Michael Rooker — is a prompt factor when Gabe agrees to help with a deliverance call during a sudden storm .
That leads not to stranded hikers , but rather a gang of initiation - happy thieves — led by John Lithgow , flexing a “ British supervillain ” accent — who’ve crash - landed along with the $ 100 million they ’ve just rip off from the U.S. Treasury . Cliffhanger , which necessarily take spot almost entirely on a snow-clad slew , is filled with jaw - dropping stunts and some equally jaw - dropping scenery — both of which pad a plot that feels craft from someone ’s coffee - in - my - groundnut - butter idea involving a heist gone wrong and extreme wintertime sports .
4) Cutthroat Island (1995)
Harlin and then - married woman Geena Davis were roasted for this notoriously over - budget plagiarist yarn , which follow out almost a decade beforethe first Pirates of the Caribbean movieturned swashbuckling into boxwood - office atomic number 79 . We ’ve already function to themat for Cutthroat Island before , but to ingeminate : it ’s admittedly too big and giddy , and sure thing about it have n’t aged especially well , but it ’s also a legitimately fun movie . How can you be mad at a film that gave the world Geena Davis as a saucy plagiarist ?
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3) The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
You know we love those expensive pirate , but Harlin and Davis ’ final coaction before their 1997 split was well their good . In this photographic film scripted byShane Black , Davis plays Samantha , a small - townspeople instructor with a cute daughter and a devoted boyfriend whose life would be pretty stark … except she has amnesia and ca n’t remember anything prior to the last eight years . As Sam before long discovers , with the helper of a secret oculus play with great elan bySamuel L. Jackson , she ’s in reality Charly , a super - undercover agent assassin who left some major at large end dangling in her late liveliness and is in danger the moment her enemies gain she ’s back in action mechanism .
The Long Kiss Goodnight pop the question some very satisfying action scenes in which the frumpy Sam discovers the badass lurking within , but it also gives Davis room to mentally get through the two super clashing sides of her individuality — as well as rip into the hyper - charged Charly character with relish .
2) A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street’sthird entryis often praise asthe series ’ best . This fourth installment takes a more light-hearted plan of attack tocreator Wes Craven ’s slasher saga withFreddy Krueger , a full - blown cultural juggernaut in 1988 , grin and cackle his way through each kill . But you ca n’t contend with its uncanny pollyannaish Department of Energy , bolstered by a mid-1980s MTV aesthetic and conspicuously station soundtrack jams ( including the Fat Boys ’ “ Are You quick for Freddy ? ” , boast the scoundrel ’s own rapping attainment ) that make the whole matter experience more like a medicine video than a movie at times .
Though The Dream Master does land the cruel black eye of bolt down off all the teenager who managed to survive the third moving picture — fun fact , next Oscar winner Brian Helgeland ( L.A. Confidential ) co - write the script — there ’s a disgusting sentience of bodily fluid run throughout , with punning ( a fictitious character ’s dog-iron is named “ Jason ; ” the heroine works at the “ Crave Inn ” diner ) and exceptionally ridiculous murders , including one in which a bug - phobic young lady is transform into a cockroach and squish in a Roach Motel . by the bye , the diner is also the setting for my personal favorite conniption in any Nightmare movie , in which we see Freddy snacking on a pizza covered in meatballs that are really the flyspeck , screaming heads of his victims — a magically vulgar second only 1988 ’s fine practical effects could bring to life .
1) Deep Blue Sea (1999)
A few long time after The Long Kiss Goodnight , Samuel L. Jackson reunite with Harlin for a humble purpose in this aquatic thriller that culminate in one of thegreatest on - screen deaths in any film , ever . That scene helped elevate Deep Blue Sea into the cultus - movie pantheon , though the basic premise ( sharks become terrifying geniuses after dish as guinea fowl pigs for an experimental Alzheimer ’s treatment ) , set ( a floating lab in the middle of the ocean , with a storm tramp in ) , and the rest of the form ( especiallyLL Cool Jas the resident chef ) are also extremely noteworthy . No inclination of superior shark movies is complete without this group B - flick with a very toothy bite .
https://gizmodo.com/ranking-the-shark-smarts-of-horror-s-most-toothsome-pre-1844123489
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