Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)

This is a tremendous film – a bleak, paranoid psycho-thriller with a good, twisting narrative and a woozy soundtrack, plus a strong central performance from Scott Adkins. Scott has a habit of stealing the limelight in Van Damme films, although JCVD is very much on the peripheries of this Universal Soldier sequel. If Regeneration was John Hyams’ attempt to refashion the franchise as an industrial, dystopian Jason Bourne-style smash ’em up, then this is his more observed, existential antidote. Hyams takes the undead superhuman concept to its lurid, eerie and horrific extremes with machete battles, grisly surgical scenes and gun …

Read More

The Lady Assassin (2013)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
The Lady Assassin (2013)

Fun Vietnamese girl power which does the Roger Corman trick of masking it’s message of female empowerment in sexually provocative bathing scenes. A quartet of lethal, colour-coded, beautifully manicured sexpots lure hapless men into their beach-bound bamboo tavern like sirens in Greek mythology and use their wire-fu swordplay to rob them blind. A rich general’s daughter winds up in their group and sticks out like a fifth Beatle. The team are initially hostile towards Linh (Tang Thanh Ha) until she vows to learn their deadly skills to take revenge for the death of her family. Her training mostly involves kicking …

Read More

Dr. Wai in “The Scripture with No Words” (1996)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Dr. Wai in “The Scripture with No Words” (1996)

The kind of movie that suits a massive screen, this is Indiana Jones done Hong Kong style. Being a Tony Ching film, it is especially mad. His expert wirework dominates the action, coupled while supernatural elements which make the most of zany special effects and elaborate make up. Running beneath the cacophony is a struggling romance played out by young lovers Jet Li and Rosamund Kwan (reuniting following their Once Upon a Time in China series), whose marriage is at breaking point. Jet Li’s writer character escapes his real-world dilemma by imagining an ulterior world set in the 1930s. He …

Read More

Skiptrace (2016)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Skiptrace (2016)

Given its mostly Hong Kong setting and his angry but proud cop persona, there are slight shades of Jackie Chan‘s action movie prime in this bloated buddy movie. He leaps and tumbles like a man half his age, motivated by revenge rather than national pride or a political agenda, unlike much of his recent Beijing work. It is interesting that it takes a former Hollywood-based director, Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2), to create a new Jackie Chan film which aspires to be so much like his older ones. Despite being 62, he’s positively sprightly in his run-ins with former …

Read More

Railroad Tigers (2016)

Posted in Reviews
2 Comments
Railroad Tigers (2016)

“Talk less” is the motto of Jackie Chan‘s noble rogue, Ma Yuan, leader of the Tiger group of rural Chinese pillagers who earn their swag by cleaning out passenger trains in Japanese-occupied China. The Tigers are a jovial, carefree bunch who make snapping the necks of Japanese soldiers look like a barrel of laughs. These patriotic peasant folk exhibit all the plucky hallmarks of your typical Beijing-backed Jackie Chan action hero. Whether he’s battling the might of the Japanese army, or dynastic rule in China (1911) or the ancient Romans (Dragon Blade), these nationalistic films tell of the everyday struggle …

Read More

The Martial Arts Kid (2015)

Posted in Reviews
1 Comment
The Martial Arts Kid (2015)

A warm and welcome return to the screen for B-movie action heroes Cynthia Rothrock and Don “The Dragon” Wilson, who seem to be having a blast in this gentle, domestic entertainment. They play a sweet married couple living retired lives among the safari shirts and palm trees of a suburban Florida beach town. They also act as producers, and as a result, the film feels deeply personal, almost autobiographical in places. The story centres around renegade orphan kid Robbie (Jansen Panettiere) whose Ohio granny gets so sick of his troublemaking that she sends him off to live with Aunt Cindy …

Read More

Bruce Lee Against Supermen (1975)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Bruce Lee Against Supermen (1975)

Cheap, nonsensical Bruceploitation from Alpha Films – synonymous for their crass Bruce Li output – which attempts to replicate the superhero campiness of an episode of The Green Hornet, only without any of the competency required of telling a structured, coherent story. The film obviously has an excellent title, and for the most part it lives up to its bonkers reputation. An elderly Chinese scientist has discovered a secret formula to make food from petroleum – just go with it – so some foreign-backed HK gangsters kidnap the old man in a bid for world domination. It looks like another …

Read More

District 13 (2004)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
District 13 (2004)

A futuristic action film sold primarily on its stunts; more specifically, the French free-running art form known as Parkour, co-created by the film’s star, David Belle. He leaps majestically over iconic landmarks, buildings and street scenes in sequences of high-octane, gymnastic self-expression. The chase scenes are channelled through a crime story centred around gang culture among the urban decay of Paris’ B13 region, noted for its lawlessness and poverty. Belle plays a tattooed thug escaping from prison to protect his kidnapped sister, teaming up with Cyril Raffaelli’s hard-bitten undercover cop to help take out the baddies. Nuclear detonators are strapped …

Read More

The Disciples (2000)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
The Disciples (2000)

Made-for-TV fare which follows the Hollywood trend for hyper-stylised Asian-inspired action, although this is quite obviously at the cheaper end of the market. The story centres on a group of Cuban communist enforcers who are sent on a mission to remove the arm of the country’s top baseball star, who is looking to make a move to America. In their wake are the Disciples: a group of young, Miami-based kung fu fighters who are sent by their sensei to protect the sports star. The leader is played by the rapper Ice-T, who claims to have played Monopoly with Bruce Lee. …

Read More

Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog (1978)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog (1978)

One of those titles which probably makes more sense in Chinese, this was the first film from the Gar Bo Motion Picture Company – a subsidiary of Golden Harvest consisting of Karl Maka, Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-wing (brother of Lau Kar-leung). Sammo’s coveted ‘invincible armour’ is stolen by a sexy seductress with detachable arms. A body vest of indestructible chain mail, the armour is soon pounced upon by every insecure kung fu heavy in town, and ‘Crazy Frog’ Sammo hops into action to demand it back, teaming up with the cunning ‘Dirty Tiger’ (Lau Kar-wing). Dean Shek plays a …

Read More
« Previous Page
Next Page »