Second in Command (2006)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Second in Command (2006)

One of Van Damme‘s straight to video shit storms, this one plays like an episode of 24 and looks like one too. He’s an ex-Navy SEAL military attache (nicknamed Bodycount) sent to Moldavia to protect the President from a revolutionary militia who attack the US embassy by lobbing rocket propelled grenades through the windows. With the embassy on lock down, Van Damme must protect the Moldavian head of state from constant assassination attempts, coordinate the rescue of the hostages, tackle conflicting orders from commanding officers and the Secretary of State, take down the terrorists and protect his reporter girlfriend. He …

Read More

The Shepherd: Border Patrol (2008)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
The Shepherd: Border Patrol (2008)

Now that’s a pretty terrible title for a Van Damme film. He stalks this one with the resigned look of someone who has already made this movie a dozen times. He plays a despondent New Orleans cop who joins the New Mexico border patrol to take on the drug cartels, with a ball-busting sergeant and a pet rabbit for company. The main culprits are a disillusioned troop of army-trained US mercenaries who use their Afghan contacts to control the shipment of heroin into the country. They’re bomb nuts and have experience dealing with jihadists. Undisputed II director Isaac Florentine sparks life …

Read More

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Hyper-kinetic big budget American debut for Edgar Wright – without longtime collaborator Simon Pegg – who somehow scrambles an ambitious, eclectic and surreal masterpiece with indie sensibilities past the gaze of a major American studio.

Famed for his satirical Brit-coms Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, this epileptic delight feels more like his quick-fire sitcom Spaced in its deadpan delivery and chaotic knack of mixing the sublime with the ridiculous. Few contemporary comic book adaptations revel so richly in cult appeal that you can’t help but applaud the film’s brash, unapologetic vigour.

There is simply no let up in both sassy …

Read More

Invisible Target (2007)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Invisible Target (2007)

Ballistic Benny Chan cop movie which contrives to showcase a trio of hot HK talent: Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue and Jaycee Chan (son of Jackie) in his first meaty role. Jackie Chan‘s shadow looms large over the film, as long time collaborator Benny Chan fashions out a slick, contemporary and overly long action film in keeping with his previous Chan actioners (New Police Story, Robin-B-Hood) with moments of genuine charm. Much of this resides with Jaycee who looks remarkably like his father in a baby-faced role as a young rookie traffic cop administering justice the professional way. He lives a …

Read More

Rage and Honor II: Hostile Takeover (1992)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Rage and Honor II: Hostile Takeover (1992)

One of the better Rothrock–Norton outings – the so-called Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers of martial arts movies – which forms the apex of their onscreen partnership. Australian stunt coordinator and director Guy Norris plays to their individual strengths, offering them the mutual respect they deserve. He delivers straight and stocky B-movie action with a no frills approach, but it’s still a damn sight more convincing than the first film, even if this is the kind of movie where characters think out loud and brainy people wear glasses.

Rothrock returns as Kris Fairchild, a governmental Special Ops enforcer sent undercover in …

Read More

Four Robbers (1987)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Four Robbers (1987)

Cheap Hong Kong action film which rides the late 80s heroic bloodshed wave and rips off (mainly) films like A Better Tomorrow and City on Fire, only without any of the same quality. It starts off a bit like Scarface with a posse of four immigrant Mainland Chinese settling in HK and resorting to a life of crime, ruffling feathers among the local triads and the cops. The triads ship the boys over to Thailand to honour a drug deal but the local enforcement officers soon clock their whereabouts and an inevitable pursuit ensues. There’s nothing here particularly interesting, other than …

Read More

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

A North Korean contingent of rogue, highly militarised terrorists smash fighter jets into the Washington Monument and storm the White House, trapping the President (Eckhart) and most of his senior staff in the underground bunker to issue their demands. Led by young sadist Krang (Yune) – who for a hater of the west has an impeccable grasp of the English language – the terrorists demand interim Pres’ Morgan Freeman to remove US troops from the Korean demilitarised zone and threaten to detonate American nukes across the country.

So with the world going to shit, thank our lucky stars that ex-Secret Service …

Read More

Eagle Shadow Fist (1973)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Eagle Shadow Fist (1973)

Set in China during Japanese occupation, this film follows a group of actors/resistance fighters who are kicked out of their theatre and forced into a shabby hideaway. It is from here they fend off the appallingly presented Japanese whose only intent, it seems, is to rape, maim, kill and terrorise. The only reason this one hasn’t been banished into celluloid hell is because of a sprightly support from a young Jackie Chan. But even hardened Chan fans will find this pulp a little hard to swallow. To simplify, it is a bad, bad film.

AKA: Fist of Anger; In Eagle Shadow …

Read More

Bichunmoo (2000)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Bichunmoo (2000)

Chaotic Korean swordplay epic, the first of its kind, utilising the skill of Hong Kong choreographers in a clash of cultural talent. Bichunmoo was credited for reviving populist interest in Korean film making, but many other productions of the same period are considerably better (cop thriller Shiri being a prime example). Despite the length, first time director Kim Young-jun still crams far too much information into his film. It confuses more than it shimmers – a stark contrast to what the hype would have you believe.

The tale of a lone swordsman seeking revenge for his murdered family and lost lover …

Read More

American Shaolin (1991)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
American Shaolin (1991)

Affable if honkingly predictable Sino-American romp from Seasonal Films who add a lighter tone to the Shaolin temple story.

After humiliation at a kickboxing tournament at the hands of contemptuous head-crunching uber-douche Trevor Gottitall (see what they did there?), American teen slacker Drew Carson (Madigan) boards a quick flight to China to study at a mostly English speaking Shaolin temple.

Shaolin is portrayed as a military boot camp, where new inmates are bossed about by a stern kung fu captain who has them breaking rocks like prisoners. Drew has a Spartacus moment after befriending his fellow …

Read More
« Previous Page
Next Page »