Director: Jonathan Hensleigh

Cast: Tom Jane, John Travolta

Sometimes, just to get over the week’s intellectual burden on your mind, you need a real solid dose of a blood-and-gore slug fest. So, here’s the perfect weekend watch. Based on a lesser known Marvel Comics character, Frank Castle, It’s a slam-banger, akin to the 1970s vigilante flicks with Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood. Undercover FBI agent Frank (Tom) poses as a drug dealer to bust a major deal involving the ruthless mob boss Howard Saint (John). All hell breaks loose when Howard’s son dies in the shootout. Howard promptly butchers Frank’s family. As betrayals fester, head roll and cars explode in robust grandeur, Frank decides that revenge is not enough, that he must mete out punishment as judge, jury and executioner, that Howard must pay for all his un-Saintly acts. And those are good reasons for all his un-saintly acts. And those are good reasons for all action freaks to push play!

HOT Tip: A blast from the retro-action past; nothing ‘comic’ about this!

Shiney as the action man-that’s a new one! Chandigarh airport ground officer Vikram’s life goes haywire when the Amritsar-Delhi flight is hijacked and forced to land at Chandigarh. Reason: His daughter’s on the flight. He manages to sneak into the aircraft with the help of feisty airhostess Saira (Esha). And they start to trounce the terrorists, one by one. But do they manage to save the day? Of course! But how? Watch to find out…

Director: Takeshi Kitano

Cast: Takeshi Kitano (Beat Takeshi), Tadanobu Asano, Michiyo Okusu; Japanese with English subtitle;

A placid countryside in Japan. A blind, blonde man sits on the roadside to rest his aching limbs. A few rogues appear and entice a child to steal his shiny, red cane. The child does the job but gets slap instead of the promised coins. In a flash, the blind man leap up, a snatches back his sword (disguised under the very shiny cane all this while) and slashes all the rogues to very bloody ands. If you liked what Quentin tarantino did in the gory Kill Bill series, you’ll now know where his inspiration came from! A high-budget film production of the immensely popular Zatoichi TV action series of sparring Samurais and the local Yakuza gang wars, this flick adds more finesse to swordfights, more gore to blood (Which incidentally is computer generated) and more panache to the reticent, grimacing, muttering oddball of an actor Takeshi Kitano (aka Beat Takeshi). This pop-cultural icon of Japan has scripted, directed, acted in and edited the film as well! Zatoichi is aided by a pair of sibling geishas (including a cross-dresser!) trying to avenge their parents murder. He has to vanquish the powerful Hattori (Tadanobu), the bodyguard of the gang chief, to reclaim peace and fairplay in the village. Look out for the gang chief, to reclaim peace and fairplay in the village. Look out for the stylistic ending-quite unlike the gory tempo of the gory tempo of the entire movie.

HOT Tip: Won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Fest and the People’s Choice award at the Toronto Film Fest, both in 2003.

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Cast: Konstantin Khabensky, Aleksei Chadov, Gosha Kutsenko, lgor Lifanov, Zhanna Friske.

This one is a sequel to the 2004 flick Night Watch and is based on the second and third party of Sergey Lukyanenko’s fantasy series The Night Watch.