Genre: Revenge

Films driven by a protagonist settling a debt. The revenge structure is one of the oldest engines in storytelling and one of the most reliable, because it supplies motive, direction, and an ending in a single stroke. What separates these films is what they do with the cost. Some treat the debt as righteous and pay it off, and others sit with what the payment does to the person collecting. The reviews here track that distinction across westerns, thrillers, and the samurai tradition.

Carey Mulligan as Cassie in a bar scene, her expression serious and focused as she executes her nightly routine to catch

Black Comedy

Promising Young Woman (2020) Review

Carey Mulligan plays a medical school dropout who fakes being drunk to catch predatory men. The first act is a 7, the middle sags to a 4, and the third act took me by surprise. It's a 6.5, worth it…

Foreign Movies

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)

Kenji Misumi's 1972 first Lone Wolf film. The film depicts disgraced shogunate executioner Ogami Itto and his infant son Daigoro wandering Edo-period Japan after the Yagyu clan has destroyed Itto's wife and falsely accused him of treason.

Action

I Am Wrath (2016)

The film depicts Stanley Hill, a Columbus Ohio engineer whose wife is murdered by killers tied to a corrupt police department. The work operates as standard late-career Cage action revenge thriller.

Foreign Movies

Oldboy (2003)

Park Chan-wook's 2003 Korean revenge film. Peak of Park's vengeance trilogy.

Foreign Movies

Oldboy (2013)

Spike Lee's 2013 remake of Park Chan-wook's Korean original. Josh Brolin and Sharlto Copley.

Action

Man on Fire (2004)

Tony Scott's 2004 Mexico City revenge thriller. One of the great late-career Denzel performances.

Action

Death Wish (1974-1994)

Architect-turned-vigilante across two decades of declining quality. The series follows Paul Kersey, an architect whose wife is murdered and daughter assaulted in the original film, after which he becomes a vigilante.