Tiger Love (1977)

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Tiger Love (1977)

This gets really weird, really quickly. Believing her boyfriend (Lo Lieh) to have been killed, Hu Chin leaps off a rock in a suicidal death plunge, only for her fall to be broken by some trees. She wakes up to find herself next to a tiger (a real, actual tiger). In her panic, she pisses herself, which the tiger interprets as some form of power move. So instead of eating her, the tiger decides to nurse her back to health inside its tiger cave. Flash-forward 18 years and Hu Chin has since given birth to the sprightly Stephen Tung Wei, …

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Maximum Impact (2017)

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Maximum Impact (2017)

For a film featuring so many action stars – and a title which sounds like a combination of two Van Damme films (Maximum Risk, Double Impact) – this meandering surveillance comedy is actually very light on the physical stuff. That’s disappointing enough, but it’s the least of the film’s worries. A Russian-American co-production butchered in an overzealous ADR process, the script has been rendered completely void of any vigour or zing (quite important for a comedy), and the best efforts of a top-notch Hollywood cast are wasted in routines which mostly fall completely flat. Mark Dacascos and his hired muscle, …

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Redcon-1 (2018)

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Redcon-1 (2018)

A daring, highly ambitious UK zombie film which attempts to achieve a vast amount in terms of style, production and scale despite its low budget. Director Chee Keong-cheung (Underground) produces effective, gory carnage in the rabid style of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, before settling into an emotionally wrought second-half which leans more towards the excellent Korean film, Train to Busan. Then there is a Mexican influence courtesy of El Mariachi producer and actor, Carlos Gallardo, with a Mad Max-style biker gang in ‘Day of the Dead’ masks and occasional bursts of traditional song. The energetic first-half involves a crack team of …

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I Am Vengeance (2018)

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I Am Vengeance (2018)

Former WWE hard-man Stu Bennett steps into more heroic territory with this UK indie, even if he still kicks down doors, shoots people at point blank range and gauges out a few eyeballs. The good guy image is not an easy fit for someone so huge with a face like a rugby player who delivers all his lines with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Writer-director Ross Boyask plays this to his advantage; the dialogue is kept light, sprinkled with decent one-liners, leaving Bennett to concentrate mostly on smashing up the bad guys. As vigilante John Gold, he stomps through the …

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The Debt Collector (2018)

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The Debt Collector (2018)

As Jesse V. Johnson matures as a filmmaker, his action movies have become a lot more laden with dialogue, breathable characters, and even a touch of pathos. He is capable of making the sort of nuanced observations that are more akin to indie filmmaking than your average beat-’em-up. This is his third film in a row with the king of the low-budget fight films, Scott Adkins, working on a story which was first mooted in the early 2000s. Its a male buddy premise outlining a weekend in the life of two hired enforcers for a low-level crime boss, and it …

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Accident Man (2018)

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Accident Man (2018)

Scott Adkins‘ dream project – his first as producer, co-writer and star, based on a British comic-strip – is a seething, potty-mouthed, unapologetic action comedy. The film’s barbed political incorrectness champions a loutish and somewhat dated male attitude, and makes attempts to sympathise with a materialistic misogynist. Mike Fallon is an against-type role for Adkins, who is normally a lot more charming than this. Its dark humour is very much in keeping with the original anarchic comic-strip from the 1990s, focusing on Fallon’s exploits as a high-class hitman who makes all of his kills look like accidents. When his pregnant …

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A Karate Christmas Miracle (2019)

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A Karate Christmas Miracle (2019)

Low-budget independent faith film centring around Jesse, a clever kid haunted by visions of his missing father who disappeared following a shooting at a local cinema. Through a series of strange nightmares (involving Eric Roberts and Martin Kove, who deliver most of their lines direct-to-the camera in an acting job which must have taken them both about 20 minutes), Jesse believes his dad will come back if he achieves his karate black belt by Christmas Day. As he progresses his way through the belts, his worried mother, Abby, believes her son may be suffering from some serious psychological trauma. So …

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10 Magnificent Killers (1977)

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10 Magnificent Killers (1977)

Relentless action with a huge cast and one of those confusing, twisting storylines which doesn’t make any sense. The film has something to do with Cheung Lik and his sifu defeating the dreaded ‘ten magnificent killers’, who are sent from various regions to fight the duo for reasons unclear. Let’s face it, it doesn’t really matter, because the real star of the show is a succession of great kung fu shapes. Another significant feature is a cool supporting role from the ‘Beast from the East’, Bolo Yeung, who can beat the crap out of people without even looking.

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Escape Plan: The Extractors (2019)

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Escape Plan: The Extractors (2019)

For anyone looking to play ‘action movie bingo’, this one has a full board: a supporting Asian cast who all know kung fu; not one, but two, damsels in distress; terrorists involved in a hostage situation demanding an insane ransom, holed up in a mysterious impenetrable fortress in another version of Die Hard; two grizzled, no-nonsense alpha-buddies; and, for an extra bonus point, this one even has Sylvester Stallone in it. Cliches and stereotypes aside, its still a great Hollywood debut for Chinese martial arts star, Max Zhang, who looks incredible with his trademark mop of black hair and smart …

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Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

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Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Big dumb fun from stuntman-turned-director David Leitch, parachuted into the Fast & Furious franchise after not messing up the second Deadpool film. He’s not trusted to control part of the official canon, mind, but rather a spin-off produced by franchise stars The Rock and Jason Statham, who first traded blows in the seventh Fast film as renegade agent Luke Hobbs and east-end thug Deckard Shaw respectively. Foes become friends this time around as the alpha-duo are thrown together by the CIA to track down a genetically engineered superhuman tough named Brixton (Idris Elba) who, backed by a covert crew of …

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