Coming soon: Punisher: War Zone

Back when I reviewed Hooligans -- a.k.a, Green Street Hooligans -- the impressive debut feature of filmmaker Lexi Alexander -- I predicted that the German-born director (and prize-winning kickboxer) "has the chops to bring a fresh take to onscreen rough stuff. Hollywood will beckon." Judging from this trailer for her second film, Punisher: War Zone, I called it right.

Lexi blogs!

The babe-o-licious Lexi Alexander, director of the criminally underappreciated Green Street Hooligans, has started her own blog as she prepares to make a movie showcasing The Punisher, the Marvel Comics anti-hero whose exploits previously inspired (to use that term very, very loosely) two other films. I am going to go way out on a limb here and predict hers will be a big improvement.

George Clooney: Action hero

Unlike some of the snootier types here in the blogosphere, I’m not ashamed to say that I shop at Wal-Mart. Indeed, I even have a Wal-Mart credit card (though maybe not for long, if I keep forgetting to mail my monthly payments on time). And I’m positively addicted to trolling the bargain bins and display shelves at various superstores for great deals on marked-down DVDs.

All of which is explains why, while in a Wal Mart today, I happened upon a sale on “action-packed movies” that were “specially priced” – i.e., $4.88 each -- just in time for Father’s Day gift-giving. So I picked up a Two-Disc Special Edition of The Wild Bunch – for my money, still one of the greatest Westerns ever made – and Green Street Hooligans, a gritty Brit football drama directed by Lexi Alexander, the most babe-o-licious filmmaker this side of Mira Nair.

But here’s the inexplicable part: On the same shelf, I also found – and later purchased – a copy of George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck, a movie that, truth to tell, I’ve never really considered “action-packed.” Nor, for that matter, would I use that term to describe Syriana, the flick for which Clooney won his Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. And yet, there it was, in the Father's Day display alongside the other bargain-priced, “action-packed” items. Maybe because of all the explosions and assassinations?