Rewengay films.

[vzzbux]

Well if Taken counts then Commando must count as well and Commando is the best film ever (with the best baddie).

John, I'm not going to shoot you between the eyes. I'm going to shoot you between the balls.

Let off some steam, Bennett.




V

[Professor Bear]

You're a funny guy Sully, I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you last.

Rewengay, starring Kevin Costner and Madeline Stowe is surely the most obvious contender?  Or ABC's Rewengay, a tv series - also starring Madeline Stowe - based on the premise of the Count of Monte Cristo being a rich white girl, which kind of went shit(er) in the last couple of episodes when they rewrote some stuff to accomodate the fact they were getting another season, but until then was screamingly camp nonsense you either loved or hated.  The bit where they're crying over a dying dog who "used up everything he had to crawl back here" and then the bloke breaks down and sobs "THANK YOU FOR TEACHING ME HOW TO LOVE" is one of the tv highlights of the year for me.

Straightheads I watched accidentally (I didn't know beforehand that Danny Dyer was in it) climaxes with Agent Scully screaming and crying while she bum-rapes an old man with a shotgun, which pretty much tells you all you need to know.  It's fantastically terrible.

A Time To Kill is admittedly more interesting in theory (black guy in the Deep South murders two men in cold blood rather than accidentally or in self defence or whatever) than in practice, but it's worth a look.  Matthew McConaughey basically tries to act and fails and this becomes a paradigm for the film itself, which is a courtroom drama where the main character gives up trying to defend his client on the charge of murdering two men in rewengay because he actually did it and won't stop saying so, even going so far as to drag someone into court who witnessed the act just so he could apologise to him for accidentally shooting him while murdering those other two dudes.  McConaughey at one point looks right at the camera and it's like he's pleading with the audience to give him a chance rather than making the ballsy Hail Mary Pass of asking the jury to just let his client go even though he did it.  I suspect it's just compellingly awful, all the same.

Mad Max.  Not a post-apocalyptic series at this point, it's still a pretty good rewengay flick if you haven't seen it yet.

Ben Hur, the Charlton Heston version is fantastic stuff, especially when you consider that Heston wasn't yet a conservative loon when he made it and was known for taking breaks from filming to fly to wherever he'd been told American businesses practiced segregation and then having himself a protest.  It's not a cold-hearted rewengay flick because Judah pussies out in the end and surrenders to pity for his adversary, but in his defence he meets Jesus - the nice Jesus, not the vindictive one who likes people to cover up pedophile rings and victimise women.

Licence To Kill is a terribly under-rated 007 outing about Bond masterminding the destructing of the drug lord who murdered the wife of Bond's best buddy and then maimed him with a shark.  The plans come off the rails and Bond goes "fuck it" and decides to just straight-up murder the guy instead, but then that comes off the rails when ninjas attack - it is still a Bond film, after all.  It's pretty entertaining hokum.

[Syne]

I have a soft spot for Payback. For all his foibles, Mel Gibson is pretty convincing as a stone-cold hardass who'll demolish anyone who crosses him.

[Noisybast]

Noisyblast is the winner! sorry to inconwenience you.

Awesome. I'll have to have think about what to do with all these points...

[Spaceghost]

Well if Taken counts then Commando must count as well and Commando is the best film ever (with the best baddie).

John, I'm not going to shoot you between the eyes. I'm going to shoot you between the balls.

Let off some steam, Bennett.




V

Commando isn't a revenge film, it's about the unrequited love of a man with the gayest moustache/string vest combo ever commited to celluloid for his former commanding officer.

He wants Arnie sooooooo baaaaaad.

[Dandontdare]

Best Kung-fu revenge movie - Old Boy. Best westerrn revenge movie - The unforgiven.

ooh, and definitely Commando!

[Spaceghost]

Best Kung-fu revenge movie - Old Boy.

But...there's absolutely no kung fu in that film whatsoever.

It is a good revenge flick though, as is Lady Vengeance by the same director.

[Professor Bear]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRBwvIX7Sao&feature=related

[Mudcrab]

Heh, wouldn't have spelt it that way perhaps but me and a mate have always said that too, probably cos of Blackadder. I do love a good revenge fantasy.

Having been reminded about Taken, yes, that was a good one.

Some good British ones. Harry Brown of course and wow, thanks google, put "british revenge film" in and the top result was spot on...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419677/ 

So yeah, Dead Man's Shoes, stunning film.

Watched one with Jodie Foster (fairly recent) as a radio host, can't remember the name of it. Yes, The Brave One, enjoyed that.

[Dandontdare]

Best Kung-fu revenge movie - Old Boy.

But...there's absolutely no kung fu in that film whatsoever.

yeah I guess you're right. Okay, amend that to best 'pissed-off-Korean-bloke-with-a-clawhammer' revenge movie (admittedly a narrower field).

[Spaceghost]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRBwvIX7Sao&feature=related

That's not really kung fu is it? I think kung fu is defined by more than 'Oriental blokes having a scrap'.

[auxlen]

@ mudcrab. heard of the brave one but mrs heard she gets sexually assaulted so wont watch it. is it explotative or sit-throughable.(if you get what i mean).

[Tiplodocus]

Rather than PAYBACK should we not be recommending POINT BLANK.

And TAken is a bit racist surely?

[Mudcrab]

@ mudcrab. heard of the brave one but mrs heard she gets sexually assaulted so wont watch it. is it explotative or sit-throughable.(if you get what i mean).

Hmm, I don't think she does actually. Certainly not in the same way as the "classic" raped on a pinball machine film that I can't remember the name of. The Accused? I think that's the one. No, nothing like that, the revenge isn't for that in particular at least, so I think you'll be ok there. It is fairly brutal, but not in that way.

It's more that someone tries to, rather than actually does.

[Heath C Ackley]

 I agree with Dead Man's Shoes and Taken but what about the Kill Bill films? And has anyone seen Lady Vengeance? I'm not a fan of the Death Wish movies. I never got into them as I found Micheal Winner a hopeless director who should have stuck to making Frankie Howerd vehicles.