Throughout the 1990s, Wesley Snipes was one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars, appearing in a string of box office hits that put his charisma, comic timing and lifelong martial arts training to good use. However, some trouble with the law certainly stopped his career in its tracks, and major roles in high profile projects have been hard to come by ever since he finished a three-year stint in prison for tax evasion.
He even made a joke about it when he joined the cast of The Expendables for the third installment, but over the last decade you’re a lot more likely to see him in a bargain basement thriller than a marquee blockbuster. A shift into more dramatic territory could yet pave the way towards a sustained reinvention, though, based on his acclaimed supporting turn in Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name, while he’ll re-team with the streaming service in Kevin Hart’s semi-biographical miniseries True Story.
However, one of the best movies he’s made in years is the latest surprise entrant on the platform’s Top 10 list, with Cut Throat City currently the most-watched movie in the United States. The third feature from Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, the heist thriller arrived to little fanfare last summer, and earned less than $900,000 at a pandemic-ravaged box office.
A formulaic if energetic entry into the subgenre, the strength of Cut Throat City comes from the cast, with Wesley Snipes ably supported by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘s Shameik Moore, T.I., Terrence Howard, Eiza Gonzalez and Ethan Hawke. It isn’t high art by any means, but the success of Snipes’ latest star vehicle only serves to reinforce just how important B-tier actioners continue to be for the Netflix library.
Published: Jan 22, 2021 03:14 pm