Pete Volk

Hi! I'm Pete. I'm an editor, writer, and consultant with over a decade of digital media experience in entertainment and sports. I have consulted for major film and games studios, including writing production notes and mock reviews. Here is a collection of just some of my work!

Reviews

PV Guide •

The Furious is a stunning showcase of martial arts excellence

Essentially the martial arts movie version of a musical supergroup, The Furious had mighty expectations to live up to. Previous efforts at an international all-star martial arts movie have fallen short, but The Furious shatters the ceiling, delivering an exhilarating, non-stop thrill ride with the best fight scenes I’ve seen in years. Other great action films this decade might be more complete, but The Furious delivers the martial arts action you would hope for from this unbelievable lineup of t...
PV Guide •

Ghost Killer review: A hilarious, electric action comedy with a ghostly gimmick from the team behind Baby Assassins

The all-star team behind the excellent Baby Assassins franchise is back with another banger, the ridiculous and entertaining supernatural action comedy Ghost Killer, from writer Yugo Sakamoto (who wrote and directed the Baby Assassins movies) and director Kensuke Sonomura (who designed the action on those movies). Featuring terrific action choreography, likeable characters, and a lead actress with superb control over every part of her performance, it’s a great time that is now available for digi...
PV Guide •

Cloud review: A searing action thriller about our increasingly digital world

The internet has a funny way of making us feel insulated from the consequences of our actions. Anonymous user names, private browsing, digital avatars … the sheer intangibility of the virtual world can make everything that happens online feel like it’s less real.Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is deeply interested in this phenomenon, and exploring it through his work. The Japanese horror master delved into this topic in Pulse, one of the scariest horror movies of the century, in which ghosts invade th...
Polygon •

Lazarus is so stylish, I don’t need to care about its mystery

Lazarus, the new anime from the legendary Shinichirō Watanabe, has a lot on its mind. There are scientific marvels, explosive action sequences, and a mind-spinning mystery that’s only just begun to be mined. But even better than all that? A show that looks and feels so good, so evocative in its designs, that nothing else matters.A new project from Watanabe is always exciting, but the lineup behind Lazarus is special, even within that context. In addition to Watanabe and animation from MAPPA (Juj...
Polygon •

Netflix’s hidden action-comedy gem The Man Who Feels No Pain delivers on all fronts

I haven’t watched Novocaine yet, but I’m looking forward to it. The action comedy about a man who doesn’t feel pain and looks to save his co-worker from a hostage situation has been described to me as “what if the Crank movies were romantic comedies,” which sounds exactly up my alley. My wait for the movie to come to home viewing was a great excuse to watch a similar movie that’s been on my Netflix queue for years — the 2018 Hindi action comedy The Man Who Feels No Pain, listed on Netflix under...
Polygon •

The Thai horror gem Operation Undead takes a big swing with its zombie twist

It’s easy for a genre as specific as zombie movies to start feeling repetitive, no matter how many micro-variations on the story directors have explored. Whether the undead are lumbering or sprinting, whether the plague was human-made or seemingly random, the general notes remain: a sudden apocalypse, loved ones separated, society crumbling, “Brains!!!” You get the picture.Enter Operation Undead, the 2024 Thai zombie movie from writer-director Kongkiat Komesiri, which is finally out digitally in...
Polygon •

In the Lost Lands is getting trashed critically — but it shows off exactly what genre movies need

In the Lost Lands, the latest collaboration between Hollywood power couple Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich, continues the collaboration trend they started back in 2002 with Resident Evil: With him directing and her in the lead role, they make kick-ass, highly stylized genre movies that critics reject. But genre movies deserve care and technical acumen, too, and Anderson and Jovovich’s projects teem with it. In the Lost Lands is no different.The only Anderson-directed movie with a score abo...
Polygon •

Tsui Hark’s stylish new movie puts a wuxia king back on his throne

When a genre master returns after years away from the field, you pay attention. Wuxia veteran Tsui Hark, one of the major figures from Hong Kong cinema’s golden age, has returned with the historical fantasy Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants. While he’s worked in many different genres, Condor Heroes marks the sixth consecutive decade in which the legend has directed a wuxia film. And while it doesn’t reach the stellar heights of some of his masterpieces (the Once Upon a Time in China ser...
Polygon •

Tubi’s new home invasion thriller is secretly a charming action comedy

I’ve always found the home invasion thriller to be the scariest subgenre of horror: the terror of people infringing on your space, the loss of the sense of safety, the spooky masks. But it doesn’t have to be that way. By making the wannabe burglars into incompetent, hopelessly overmatched buffoons and focusing on the complex familial relationship at its center, Tubi’s new Don’t Mess with Grandma is a charming, tension-free, low-budget home invasion action comedy with plenty of laughs and some ex...
Polygon •

One of the year’s best underrated action thrillers just dropped on Netflix

The year is already filled with strong action movies from all around the world, and one of the standout under-the-radar entries just got added to Netflix. Land of Bad, a military action thriller starring Russell Crowe and the other two Hemsworth brothers, is a tense thrill ride with strong character beats and a typically grumpy Crowe performance.After a rescue mission in the Philippines goes wrong, a drone pilot (Crowe) is tasked with aiding his endangered team (Liam Hemsworth, Luke Hemsworth, R...
Polygon •

2024’s funniest comedy runs silent movies through a video game filter

Instead, the genre is littered with shows and movies alike that gesture at jokes without ever delivering any, relying more on comedic atmosphere than actual punchlines. Mike Cheslik’s outrageous silent comedy Hundreds of Beavers, now out on VOD after a limited theatrical run, is here to resuscitate a crucial cinematic genre, bringing back silent comedy in an uproarious, deliriously silly micro-budget experience. It’s the single funniest movie of 2024, delivering punchline after punchline through...
Polygon •

One of Denzel Washington’s best steamy thrillers is leaving Netflix

This essay on Devil in a Blue Dress was originally posted in conjunction with the movie’s arrival on Netflix. It has been updated and reposted now that the film is leaving Netflix on July 1.One of the great mystery movies and neo-noirs of the late 20th century is leaving Netflix soon, featuring one of Denzel Washington’s finest roles. Devil in a Blue Dress, Carl Franklin’s adaptation of Walter Mosley’s excellent 1990 novel, is leaving the streaming service July 1. The movie is 100 minutes of atm...
Polygon •

Netflix’s Sixty Minutes is a hard-hitting action thriller with an immersive gimmick

Professional MMA fighter Octavio Bergmann (Emilio Sakraya) is getting ready for one of the biggest fights of his career. His opponent is late, and that’s a problem: It’s actually the night of his daughter’s birthday party, and he promised to attend. However, as he’s entering the ring, he finds out that his ex-wife is filing for sole custody unless he can get to the party in the next hour. Octavio drops everything and runs to them — angering elements of the criminal underworld who bet big on his...
Polygon •

Netflix has reportedly canceled its best zombie show, so watch Netflix’s best zombie show

It’s not a surprise, but it still stings: Netflix appears to have closed the door on Black Summer, the best zombie show on the platform. Co-creator John Hyams had initially tweeted a third season wouldn’t be happening back in April, but a new report indicates Netflix has officially canceled the show.A prequel spinoff of Syfy’s Z Nation, Black Summer takes place a few weeks after the start of a zombie apocalypse, and follows a group of people all trying to survive and find their loved ones. This...
Polygon •

The Beekeeper compels you to join Jason Statham’s hive

A Jason Statham action movie titled The Beekeeper comes with the weight of expectations. “Beekeeper” must have a double meaning. The movie must be littered with tongue-in-cheek bee puns and references. The action must be fun and creative, ideally with bee-centered hijinks. And above all, the movie must be ridiculous, but with a straight face that hides the knowing wink behind the curtain.I enjoyed the movie when I first watched it, but it has grown on me since, like honey in a comb. Yes, some of...
Polygon •

2024’s best action movie came early

Every few years, a new action movie recalibrates expectations for the genre. It happened in 2011 with The Raid: Redemption, it happened in 2014 with John Wick, and it’s about to happen again with Mayhem!, the new revenge thriller from many of the people behind the brilliant first season of Gangs of London. Mayhem!, which first made waves at Fantasia Fest under its original title, Farang, will be released in U.S. theaters on Jan. 5. Director Xavier Gens, action designer and second unit director J...
Polygon •

How to Blow Up a Pipeline: A perfect blend of radical politics and heist-movie thrills

Two years later, director Daniel Goldhaber (Cam) and his co-writers Jordan Sjol and Ariela Barer (who also stars in the movie) have taken that message and run with it, delivering an unconventional and captivating adaptation of the book. Instead of a straightforward conversion of the source material, the movie How to Blow Up a Pipeline builds off the book’s ethos with a fictional scenario, to great success.In the film, a group of young people from many different backgrounds and areas of the Unite...
Polygon •

Fist of the Condor: part Bruce Lee, part Rambo, part Sergio Leone, all Marko Zaror

John Wick: Chapter 4 treated audiences to a bevy of action legends. Many American viewers were likely already familiar with Donnie Yen and Hiroyuki Sanada, and those slightly entrenched in the world of action movies probably at least knew of Scott Adkins. But the guest appearance that got me the most amped up was Chilean martial artist Marko Zaror.A onetime stuntman for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Zaror has since emerged as one of the most dynamic under-the-radar action stars working today. I was...
Polygon •

Reacher is the Lee Child adaptation fans have been waiting for

One of the chief complaints from die-hard readers about the Tom Cruise-led 2012 Jack Reacher movie was, well, Tom Cruise. While Cruise has the manic energy to bring something unique to the role, he did not even remotely physically fit the description of the 6’5”, broad-shouldered behemoth from Lee Child’s novels, a fact Reacher-heads will never let you forget. This caused quite a stir, and Prime Video’s latest TV series, Reacher, is looking to correct the record.Prime Video’s Reacher adaptation...