Nightshooters (2018)

Posted in Reviews by - March 04, 2019
Nightshooters (2018)

A shouty, sweary, surprising delight, and one of those very rare things: a UK action comedy with both good action and good comedy. A crew of bickering, millennial media snowflakes making a zombie flick in a derelict office block witness a murder by a bumbling bunch of violent British gangsters and must fight them to escape. Luckily for the film crew, their stuntman is Jean-Paul Ly (star of Cambodian martial arts film, Jailbreak), who uses his lightening-fast kung fu skills to kick, punch and slice up the bad guys. So it’s part-Die Hard, part-The Raid, part-Guy Ritchie and part-Edgar Wright. But despite those more obvious influences, the story is still effective when it needs to be, with writer-director Marc Price showing a real knack for zingers, penning a smart, punchy script. The film-within-a-film concept adds logic to its single-set location, with each of the film crew forced to perform their production duties during their perilous fight for survival, and the great cast provide the film with real pep and emotion. Jean-Paul Ly may ultimately step-up to become the saviour at the centre of the story, but he makes for an innocent, unassuming hero. Perhaps in the hands of someone more seasoned (this is Ly’s first English-language starring-role), the part could have overwhelmed the film and ventured into more clichéd territory – but instead, he helps to make the film feel more like a genuine ensemble piece. It’s great stuff.

This post was written by
Editor and creator of Kung Fu Movie Guide and the host of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast. I live behind a laptop in London, UK.

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