Aarcflick

Ever since the release of John Wick, every story about an individual with a violent past who turns to his old ways to do some good has been labeled as a rip-off of the action movie starring Keanu Reeves. But the fact is that this particular plot is as old as movies themselves. Akira Kurosawa used this trope in The Seven Samurai in 1954. Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name is a recognizable figure in this action subgenre, and that character began his journey on the big screen in 1964.  In the 90s, we had The Long Kiss Goodnight. David Cronenberg gave us his own take on this kind of story with A History of Violence in 2005. If you dip your toes into Tamil and Telugu films and their Bollywood remakes, almost every project featuring an aging star has the same old narrative. I don’t know if the Japanese started all of this, but with Demon City, we are definitely witnessing a moment of coming full circle. Now, the question is, is this cliché running out of gas or does it still have somethi...