This week I gave myself an afternoon of purely action movies, all available on Netflix. I highly recommend these if you are in the mood for high suspense.

 

Venom: Tom Hardy is well known for going all out with his films. Whether in The Dark Knight Rises, or Mad Max: Fury Road, he is fully present physically and emotionally. In Venom, he is a comic-book hero so fully engaged with his character that the film is worth seeing just for the intensity of his performance. He plays an anti-hero, a sort of dark pseudo-Spiderman whose victim in this story happens to be a journalist dealing with the secrets of a shady businessman and the dangers encountered by his very own old love interest. 

 

Megalodón: How can you have a decent summer without a good shark movie? This one is directed by Jon Turteltaub gives us an insight into a tremendous natural force. It shows the arrival of an immense prehistoric shark that threatens the life of an underwater crew trapped in the depths of the sea. Only the hero, played by Jason Stratham, is capable of confronting the creature that could destroy the entire world.

 

The Old Guard: This 2020 superhero film was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, based on Greg Rucka’s book by the same name. It mingles action and fantasy with a group of immortal warriors who have been battling for centuries against the injustices of the world. Their new leader, played by Charlize Theron, will take them on a battle as the new immortal, against a businessman who sets traps for them in an attempt to capture and perform experiments on them. They will have to face the possibility that they may not be as immortal as they believed. 

 

Mission Impossble: Fallout: This is the fifth sequel to Mission Impossible, and it may possibly be the best. Tom Cruise even broke a foot performing some of the most challenging scenes, showing the intensity with which he took on the role in spite of his age. There is more action, more plot twists, more international locations and characters than ever. The director, Christopher McQuarrie certainly delivers all that one would expect from this kind of film as shown when Henry Cavill energetically punches the air.