Free Republic

Who's the best action hero of all time, in your humble opinion?

SHANGHAI (Hollywood Reporter) - Action hero Jet Li gives a respectable turn as a terminally ill father grooming his autistic son to survive on his own in "Ocean Heaven" -- a decent, if orthodox job by Xue Xiaolu. Film Xue off-sets some of the wholesome soppiness of this genre by keeping the tone light, the story simple and steered clear of grueling ordeals. Compared with another father-son story "Together," which she co-scripted and Chen Kaige directed, it is less melodramatic and artificial. Set mostly in a marine park in Qingtao province, its interpretation of autism owes less to "Rain Man"...

  Action Heroes - One Liners The 1980s were the golden age of the one-liner, with the films of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Clint Eastwood, and the ascension of such screenwriters as Steven E. de Souza and Shane Black, who penned many of the decade's high-concept action and buddy movies (Die Hard, Commando, and Lethal Weapon chief among them). Yet, like many action film conventions, the one-liner has roots in other genres. In the landmark Western The Searchers (1956), John Wayne growled, "That'll be the day," prompting Buddy Holly to immortalize the catchphrase in a hit single...

A high-level U.S. executive who was kidnapped after crossing the border managed to escape yesterday after grabbing a revolver while two kidnappers were dozing. Yong Hak Kim, a U.S. citizen who was born in South Korea, locked his abductors in a bathroom of the house where he was being held and ran outside for help, Mexican authorities said. Kim was picked up by police after a resident called authorities to report a street disturbance. Hours later, as he was en route to the United States, Mexican authorities announced the detention of five suspects in connection with the Thursday morning kidnapping....

OAKLAND, CALIF. - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Year of Reform" is fast becoming a year of retreat. What began in January as an outsized agenda - encompassing a range of issues as arcane as redistricting and as controversial as merit pay for teachers - has steadily shrunk as a chastened governor is set back on his heels, stung by his own missteps and an increasingly emboldened opposition. Already, he has abandoned an initiative to privatize the state's pension system, as well as promises to drastically cut the bureaucracy in Sacramento. Now, he appears to be considering a plan to drop...

Hollywood hates Bush. Richard Clarke hates Bush. Is it any wonder that Sony Pictures has bought the rights to Against All Enemies, Richard Clarke's indignant I-was-there-so-I-should-know polemical memoir? At Sony, John Calley will be responsible for overseeing the project's development. "You could shoot the first 56 pages and have an extraordinary half of a movie," he told the New York Times, "then it goes on to more enthralling stuff."A remarkable suggestion, and reason enough to devote this column to John Calley and Richard Clarke jointly. Good job, boys. (Confetti, streamers, so on.)Now, the first 56 pages of Against All Enemies are...