A Dangerous Man (2009)

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A Dangerous Man (2009)

Dangerous is certainly one word to describe Seagal‘s ex-Special Forces character in this mediocre slug fest. Another would be homicidal, or borderline psychotic. He’s released from the slammer after six years for a murder he didn’t commit, only to promptly commit several hundred actual murders in an increasingly gruesome manner. He crunches chopsticks into an adversary’s neck and impales a guy on a giant wood saw. He’s a man of few words and strange hair at the heart of a ridiculous plot involving a kidnapped Chinese accountant, the Russian mafia, bent cops in the Bellingham Police Department and a triad …

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Police Story 2 (1988)

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Police Story 2 (1988)

Explosive sequel to Jackie Chan’s 1985 smash hit, this follow up features less of the knockabout antics from the original film (although the comedy does hold up) and is a much darker, straight-laced cop thriller with the usual outbreaks of delirium.

Hong Kong supercop Ka Kui (Chan) returns to face another barrage of subplots. One in which the baddie from the first film (Chu Yuan) is diagnosed with a fatal illness and vows to take revenge before he clocks it. And another in which a gang of petty arsonists threaten to blow up a major corporation in exchange for cash, kidnapping …

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The Keeper (2009)

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The Keeper (2009)

Another delusional film from Seagal‘s instantly forgettable straight-to-DVD canon. He is recruited by a powerful Texas oil tycoon to protect his nightclubbing daughter. Despite apparently being the inspiration for anyone wanting to join a SWAT team, Seagal’s ex-cop still manages to lose the girl to Daddy’s mining rivals. Cue an onslaught of knife throwing and head breaking in much the same way he always does.

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True Legend (2010)

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True Legend (2010)

All-star fight film from Yuen Woo-ping after over a decade away from the director’s chair. Here, he fills in the back story of street-bound alcoholic pensioner Beggar So (or ‘Sam the Seed’ Su Can from Drunken Master) with a self-referential but no less gratifying Fearless-like sense of romanticism. The character was made famous by Woo-ping’s own father, Simon Yuen, in his very first films. Here, his formative years are represented by Vincent Zhao.

The film is rife with great visual effects – some scenes are filmed in 3D – and surprising cameos: Gordon Liu as the white brow monk; Leung Kar-yan …

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Police Story (1985)

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Police Story (1985)

One of the best contemporary martial arts films ever made, this is a triumph for its choreographer, director and star Jackie Chan. The film is a direct riposte to the frustration he felt working in Hollywood on the set of James Glickenhaus’ misguided cop film The Protector. The amazing stunt work and action sequences of Police Story would form a defining moment in helping to revolutionise Hong Kong action cinema, from the stale costumed schlock of old to the slick, urban carnage of the modern age.

When police tracking master criminal Chu Yuan bodge up the organised capture, the boss’ dame …

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Equilibrium (2002)

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Equilibrium (2002)

Set in a totalitarian future where human emotions have been outlawed, a kingpin’s talented protector rebels against the system. Christian Bale stops taking his sense control drugs, listens to Beethoven, cries a lot, and falls in love with a resistance fighter played by Emily Watson. The film’s Orwellian message is poignant if heavy handed, but Equilibrium works where it should. The action scenes could have been lifted from The Matrix; striking and stylish with slow motion, minimalist sets and stoic performances. The best sequences are a Kendo routine and a hallway shoot out, choreographed like a kung fu battle with …

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Sherlock Holmes (2009)

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Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Guy Ritchie was perhaps an obscure choice to helm this big budget caper – a Victorian romp which revises Conan Doyle’s super-sleuth as a neurotic, unhinged bare knuckle brawler, overly dependent on his friend Dr Watson to the detriment of any would-be suitors. Indeed, the only woman he does take a fancy to is completely the wrong sort: the pretty, double-crossing crook Irene Adler, played by Rachel McAdams.

But on closer inspection, perhaps Ritchie was actually the perfect choice. His London-centric cockney rebel films deal within the buddy formula, and he is great at handling big action set pieces as well …

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Sister Street Fighter (1974)

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Sister Street Fighter (1974)

Imagine a flimsy Japanese Enter the Dragon knock off with a female lead and support from a cartoon gang of B movie villains straight out of a kung fu re-imagining of a Roger Corman movie and you’ve basically got this. A competent Etsuko ‘Sue’ Shihomi raids Bruce Lee’s wardrobe to play a karate fighter sent on a dangerous rescue mission to locate her kidnapped brother, who is being stuffed with drugs and kept locked in the underground lair of a narcotics nutcase. He’s putting heroin into wigs, and somehow this inane endeavor attracts a rabble of completely barking underlings, including …

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Holy Weapon (1993)

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Holy Weapon (1993)

Mad and bawdy wuxia romp, in the truest sense of the word. The suggestive title is no accident. Wong Jing’s film is rife with sex gags and includes scenes involving Dicky Cheung communicating with his penis, a mistaken lesbian romance, a villain who rapes nubile young virgins to fuel his life source, and a strong female cast utilising a girls-only sword fighting manual. It moves like wild fire, too, so good luck trying to keep up.

Set during the Ming dynasty, the film charts a three-year feud between Japanese fighter Super Sword (Simon Yam, who morphs into a man-sized saber and …

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The Warlords (2007)

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The Warlords (2007)

Bleak story set during the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s. The Ching dynasty’s most devastating civil war caused the deaths of approximately 25 million people. Director Peter Chan, formerly a custodian of much lighter fare, busies up a rather regimented history lesson with some horrific battle scenes. We’re talking Braveheart proportions here, with an armoured cast of thousands clashing in austere landscapes detailing one general’s lust for power.

There is a rather limp romantic subplot in which Xu Jinglei divides the film’s three central characters by falling in love with the first one, shagging the second and snubbing the third. The …

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