The Wolfman (2010, USA)

When you’ve successfully transformed Benicio Del Toro into a gaping, charisma-sucking hole in the middle of your film, you’ve pretty much failed in your job as director. It pains me to say this, but the Hollywood actor who seems the most natural choice to portray a raging beast-man is an abject flop – instead of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Sin City-style Benicio, we get 21 Grams-esque muttering and moping. For a movie with enough problems to begin with (countless reshoots, the leads’ complete lack of chemistry, Anthony Hopkins roaming around in a tiger robe), asking Del Toro to put it on mute is the final nail in the coffin. What could have been a fun throwback romp, a la The Mummy, turns into a dull slog through countless underlit sets – someone should tell director Joe Johnston that a background as an art director doesn’t mean you don’t need to light your actors’ faces – with not nearly enough Hugo Weaving.

Vengeance (2009, Hong Kong/France)

I would have killed to be in on the pitch meeting for this movie, so as to be among the first to hear Johnny(ie)s Hallyday and To mentioned together in the same sentence. The latest micro-release Stateside for the Hong Kong action guru pairs him with the aging French pop star, as the latter blasts his way through Macau and Hong Kong on a mission of – you guessed it – revenge, alongside some of To’s regular faces (Anthony Wong, Ka Tung Lam, Suet Lam). To serves up some terrific action sequences, in particular a stairwell shoot-out and subsequent garbage dump battle. While the action proceeds briskly and the central group of characters have excellent chemistry, there are some inevitable false notes struck with the volume of actors speaking non-native languages. But that’s a pretty specific nit to pick in what is otherwise a highly entertaining, and as per To’s usual, quite lovingly photographed and occasionally farcical, actioner. As with the splendid Sparrow, To’s most interesting work tends to be that which blends his chops as an action master with his more playful sensibilities as a storyteller.