Reviews

GANGS OF LONDON Pilot Review: A Sinister Game Of Whodunit, Played With Wits, Blunt Force And Brutality

Aside from all the other names and minds brought onto help bring Sky’s latest crime series to life, Gangs Of London, it’s those of co-creators, filmmaker Gareth Huw Evans and noted cinematographer Matt Flannery who stand out the most. Being accredited for developing a film franchise with a world that exudes intrigue, suspense and heightened levels of action and gruesome horror would certainly do the trick, as it has for both veterans of Indonesian action in the last ten years with The Raid and The Raid 2. With the apparent denoument of their tenure in Indonesia, and no real iota as to what the prospects were, the announcement of a British gangster series that brought both action auteurs on board, along with Corin Hardy and Xavier Gens, to say the least, drew promise. As an original show with high-end demands for action to incorporate with the world-building drama, it also […]

RAGE Review: A Raw, Chilling Essay In Penance And Forgiveness

Lee B. Golden III

Trigger Warning: This review discusses rape, sexual assault and violent crime. Casting aside the escapist thrills seen in celebrated shorts like Dancer and Night Shift, director John Balazs is first and foremost a filmmaker, and with an eye toward storytelling in as many genres and tones he can harness. His latest dramatic thriller, Rage, inherently exemplifies this, tackling the strenuous journey of a severely damaged married couple on the brink, and a detective, relentless in his pursuits of justice. Rage treads along with a strong cast and equally discernible overtones elucidated in the film’s gruesome visuals, story angle and multi-layered drama. Michael J. Kospiah’s script brings a fierce challenge to moviegoers to imagine victimhood with an intrinsic lens, paving the way for an introspective viewpoint into what makes our characters tick – an aim that treads carefully while fleshing out the most out of the film’s main actors, principally Matt […]

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Wolf Warrior I & II REVIEW: Wu Jing fights for the motherland for the sake of entertainment

Mike Garcia

Back in the 80’s, this type of movies were made by Americans with Chuck Norris or Sylvester Stallone as action heroes, but now the world has changed and that kind of badass war action films, loaded with cheap cinematic patriotism to highlight all the virtues of the action hero are made in China. Some of them are even produced by the goverment with propaganda purposes. Some are big blockbusters as Wolf Warriors, but others are just low budget productios with zero interest that surfaces in the VOD niche. Wolf Warriors is a military action thriller directed by Wu Jing himself, in which he played a Chinese special force soldier that is confronted by a group of dangerous foreign mercenaries who are hired to assassinate him by a vicious drug lord. 90 fast paced minutes of action fest with Wu Jing as action hero, supported by Nan Yu (The Expendables 2) […]

WIRA Review: A Stimulating, Nascient Martial Arts Thriller That Lives Up To Its Name

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been an endeavor to witness today’s industry reshape itself to accommodate certain releases, none more prospective in this day and age for southeast Asia’s regional output with Netflix looking to meet the demand. The prospect and global appeal for director Adrian Teh’s own work is a welcome one, following last year’s introduction to Malaysian action star, actor Hairul Azreen with military thriller, Paskal: The Movie, and a spritely move toward genre fanfare with martial arts action thriller, Wira, that all but seals the fated interest of fans. Written by Paskal: The Movie and Polis Evo 1 & 2 scribe Anwari Ashraf from a story by Teh, a straightforward tale ensues of an ex-commando newly returned from service. Azreen plays Hassan, once a legendary and fearless fighter in the seedy criminal underbelly of his old neighborhood working for untouchable crimeboss, Raja (Dain Said). Hassan’s only goal is to reunite with […]

CHEN ZHEN, THE TOKYO FIGHT Review: An action fest with a desperate romance defying two rival nations.

Mike Garcia

In the chinese movie universe, their most important martial arts historical figures have become in part of their cultural folklore, reimagining their stories countless of times, turning them into superheroes and fictional characters that trascends the passage of time and have overshadowed the real men behind their legend. Is difficult to summarize how many times the story of Chen Zhen (which his real name was Liu Zhensheng) has been adpated into the screen, however, is undeniable that his more iconic incarnations has been the ones performed by Bruce Lee in “Fist of Fury” (1972) and Jet Li in “Fist of Legend” (1994) This new adventure of the character, could perfectly work as prequel of “Fist of Legend”, telling the story of Chen Zhen, when his Master Huo Yuanjia, (another icon in martial arts cinema) sent him to Japan to study engineering in Tokyo´s university, to bring back tho his motherland […]

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SURVIVE THE NIGHT Review: Survive the film, that’s the biggest challenge.

Mike Garcia

We al know who Bruce Willis is, and we all love what he has done in the past, but nowadays is hard to recognize him and is sad to witness his decadence, accepting to participate in any kind of cinematic niches only to cash the check showing his face to rely on the legacy, not caring over the quality and putting the minimal effort on his performances. Is sad but is life, nothing last forever and everyone´s prime fades away with age. Is like when you love a band that is been around for over 30 or 40 years and when you get the tickets to finally see them live, none of those old grandpas in the stage are the kids you worshiped. Same happens with movie stars and Willis is not that young man anymore who saved the Nakatomi plaza 30 years ago. Survive the Night is an action […]

BECKY Review: An angry, nasty bit of violent cinema that is as exhilarating as it is frustrating.

James Couche

If you’ve been on any movie sites of late, you may have heard whispers about “that movie where Kevin James plays a Nazi” or “Paul Blart plays a scary white supremacist fighting a teenage girl in the woods”. There’s high concept, and then there’s casting an actor to play so hard against type that it forces you to look at them in a different light; that’s this movie. Becky is an angry, nasty bit of violent cinema that is as exhilarating as it is frustrating. Lulu Wilson (Annabelle: Creation) plays Becky, a troubled girl trying to navigate the already volatile world of adolescence while mourning the death of her mother. Her father, played by Joel McHale (Community), is taking her out to the family cabin to get away from it all but he has an ulterior motive; he intends to break the news that she’ll soon have a new stepmom […]

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JIAN BING MAN Review: A superhero meta-comedy with a pancake superhero, a full star cast and Jean Claude Van Damme as final enemy.

Mike Garcia

Da Peng is a popular Chinese comedian, who had a successful web series on the Chinese internet called “Diors Man”, who had his moment of glory when Conan O’Brien accused him of plagiarism on his show, and for a few months, the two were throwing fun gibes to each other from their respective shows. For this crazy meta-comedy, he became an orchestra man, being the screenwriter, the main actor, and debuted as a director in a major film, surrounding himself of the best of the chinese entertainment industry. The plot of the film revolves around his own persona, basically playing himself, a popular internet comedian, who in order to buy a ten million engagement ring of ten million for his fiancée, accepts the offer of a triad´s leader to shoot a movie, unfortunately, Da Peng gets involved in a scandal where in addition to losing his shame, he loses the […]

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DECO TRUCK GAL NAMI SAGA Review: Carrying The Legacy Of Trucker Yaro, In A Thrilling Journey With Redemption As Final Destination

Mike Garcia

Deco Truck gal Nami (Hideo Jojo), is a 4 movies series from 2008 to 2012, strongly influenced by Trucker Yaro (Noribumi Suzuki) a 10 film series that were produced by Toei from 1975 to 1979, and starred by the legendary Bunta Sugawara, in the role of Momojiro, a truck driver who in each movie falls in love with a different woman, while lives crazy adventures in the road and always ends with a broken heart. Trucker Yaro original poster (1975) Deco Truck Gal Nami carries the legacy of Noribumi Suzuki´s creation in essence and style, following a same patterns of truck chases, action and adventures on the road, including numerous homages and even fanservice for fans of the original movies, having in every installment a cameo of an actor that resembles to Bunta Sugawara playing Momojiro. However, the storylines between both sagas are completely different, introducing a female version […]

Review: THE DEBT COLLECTOR Pays In Full With Another Solid Adkins/Johnson Package [Reprint/Revisal]

Lee B. Golden III

The following review for Jesse Johnson’s The Debt Collector was originally published on May 28, 2018. Click here to read my review for the sequel, Debt Collectors, out in the U.S. on May 29 from Samuel Goldwyn Films. The past several years have seen quite a bit from stunt multi-hyphenate and filmmaker Jesse V. Johnson. Notable efforts like the classy and cool noir, The Beautiful Ones, and down and dirty action thrillers like Savage Dog and Accident Man have all come to pass as some of the best the genre has put out by far, and not without the measured efforts of our director in his current stride with actor Scott Adkins – a dauntless screen talent with twenty years in film and television – who is a continual quest to break more ground as a prospective mainstream entertainer. It’s a period that’s lasted since before Johnson’s third film, Pit […]

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SPL Review: A Milestone Donnie Yen/Sammo Hung Crime Opus That Still Holds Up

Cesar Alejandro Jr.

After failing to protect a witness and his family from retribution by ruthless Triad leader Wong Po (Hung,) Inspector Chan (Yam) discovers that he has cancer. Vowing to take down Po no matter what, and seemingly now with nothing to lose, Chan gets a team of like minded officers and begins to resort to illegal means. Hoping to keep things orderly, Chan is assigned a new boss, Inspector Ma (Yen) who has a serious reputation and is more than capable in a fist fight. It’s difficult to believe that SPL was released 15 years ago at the time of this review. I remember the anticipation I had when the first trailer was released and the prospect of a Sammo vs. Donnie matchup with Yen choreographing. What I wasn’t prepared for was the grey shades of right and wrong morality tale and revenge story that carry the film tonally to the […]

THE FANATIC Review: A Twisted, Nihilistic Profile Of Fringe Fandom And Fantasia

Lee B. Golden III

If there was ever a film that dove deep into the nebulous trenches of uberfandom, Fred Durst’s third feature film, The Fanatic, certainly achieves its goal. From the outset, the film challenges viewers on what it means to gauge the subject matter, through the perspective of the often overlooked, downtrodden and mentally ill, principally in the city of Los Angeles, or as Leah (Ana Golja) calls it, “the city of bullshitters” where “everything breaks down eventually”. It’s Leah’s voice narration that introduces the role of Moose (John Travolta), an unyielding, socially-awkward street performer who lives alone, rides a moped, and is the latest target for bullying by pickpocketing street performer Todd (Jacob Grodnik). For his hobby of collecting autographs and rare memorabilia, Moose routinely relies on favors from Leah, a paparazzi photographer who does her best to help keep Moose on the straight and narrow whilst helping nuture his fandom, […]

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RED SWORD (2012) Review: The Red Hood Tale That They’ve Never Told You

Mike Garcia

A long time ago, there was a tribe of werewolves that had no women. Throughout history, these desperate werewolves have attacked and raped human females as a way to continue their species, but werewolves have a terrible legend that every hundred years, on a night of the red moon, a girl will be born, destined to destroy the werewolf tribe. The red hood tale that you would never tell to your children, passed through the filter of the political incorrectness of Japanese V-cinema, in a twisted tale directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu, that turns the lovely and innocent Red Hood into an avenger, slasher of rapist werewolves, that carries a katana instead of a basket. An explosive bizarre twisted cocktail of action, horror and erotism, in which Asami portrays the character as an angel of death and justice, that fights her way through, under the excellent action direction of Shigeki Hayase […]

VILLAIN Review: A Redemptive Anti-Heroic Character Study Of Evil Men

Lee B. Golden III

It’s not everyday a man wakes up having to live his life looking over his shoulder. For ex-convict Eddie Franks (Craig Fairbass), it’s been a daily practice since childhood. Such is the grim setup as actor-cum-filmmaker Phillip Barantini’s new film, Villain, comes host to a dark, gritty gangster tale with fair loads of violence and gore, underscored by more than its urban crime bearings. To know a film like Villain is to understand the human psyche and what fuel’s a person’s addictive nature. Some are keen on food, sex, drugs and alcohol, etc. Others are in it for the thrill of a thing. The excitement. The danger. Sometimes, one or more of these become a package deal of sorts, and this was especially the case for Eddie having just done a ten year stretch and reunited with brother Sean (George Russo). Eddie’s a lot wiser with age though, and he’s […]

A CLEAR SHOT Review: Ripped From The Headlines, Mario Van Peebles Battles Politics Amid Crisis

Lee B. Golden III

Director Nick Leisure’s small-scale hostage thriller, A Clear Shot, takes off with a crime just moments away, as four armed Vietnamese boys arrive to a packed electronics store with the intent insofar of taking hostages and imposing their will. Over time, their seeming façade is slowly stripped away as the police look into the suspects, and with Sacramento Police Departments’ top hostage negotiator negotiator Rick Gomez (Mario Van Peebles) front and center. Drawing on its historic prevalence dating back to a real-life 1991 incident in Sacremento, California, A Clear Shot, goes out of its way in flashbacks to flesh out a more humane underpining centered on the Nguyen brothers – Loi (Hao Do), Long (Tony Dew) and Pham (Kevin Bach), and fourth member, Cuong (Dang Tran). The family melodrama here is met halfway with an arc that follows Gomez as he struggles to mitigate the uneasy politics of both the […]

FIST OF LEGEND (2019) Review: The Making Of A Hero

Mike Garcia

Prequel to the Chen Zhen played by Jet Li, in the essential 1994 classic that shares the same title in English with this production, that tells the story about the early adventures of Chen Zhen in Japan, during his days as student in the university of Tokyo, giving us an insight look of the beginning of his love relationship with the Japanese girl who gave him so many headaches in Jet Li’s “Fist of Legend” and making him, once again, the banner of the rights of the Chinese people against the evil Japanese empire, whom are again the villains in a plot loaded with that stale nationalism that looks so good in this type of movies and that positions the audience next to the hero. The little expressive, but brilliant martial artist, Tiger Xu, is in charge on this occasion of embodying the character, relying his performance on his terrific […]

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DEBT COLLECTORS Review: Adkins And Mandylor Pay Their Dues With Smartly-Crafted Action And Drama

Lee B. Golden III

The chances of a continuation after Jesse Johnson’s 2018 film, The Debt Collector, seemed pretty slim given the ending. For Johnson and co-writer Stu Small, it was clearly more then enough to provide the framework for this year’s Debt Collectors, capitalizing off of a suggestive conclusion that paves the way for a second chapter. Our story begins seven months after the events of the first film, and indeed, times have definitely changed for our budding duo Sue (Louis Mandylor) and French (Scott Adkins) in the months that followed their bloody conflict with gangster Barbosa, having since gone seperate ways and getting their wounds patched. Sue’s entrance in a low-level bar cues a surprise reunion for French, whose day job as a bouncer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Indeed though, French has grown more adept to the hustle and tussle of dealing beatings on a regular basis with unruly […]

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MADE IN CHINATOWN Review: Indie Mob Comedy High Jinks Bolster Ample Martial Arts Fan Service

Lee B. Golden III

Author Mark V. Wiley’s script serves as the basis for Made In Chinatown, signaling the feature directing debut of Sammo Hung protègè Robert Samuels, next to co-director, Hollywood stunt veteran and actor James Lew in his return to the seat since 2006’s 18 Fingers Of Death!. A light hearted and lean low budget production, Made In Chinatown dives right into its narrative, told in flashback fashion with a bruised Vinny Chow (Jay Kwon) donning a black eye, and desperate for answers from two homeless wise men named Wisdom (Shing Ka) and Knowledge (Geoff Lee). Cut to the seedy criminal underworld that is New York City’s illegal condiments trade, where bitter rivalries between bosses Al Capella (Tony Darrow), Amadore Condimento (Vincent Pastore) and Hung Phat (Lo Meng) threaten to collapse the already unsteady peace meant to keep the city’s police commisioner, Sean O’Greedy (Raymond J. Barry) in power. Seperate from their […]

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NEZHA CONQUERS THE DRAGON KING Review: Changing Destiny Fantasy Fable

Mike Garcia

Nezha kills a dragon to save a young lady, provoking the rage of the snake spirit, who vows to kill Nezha and avenge the dragon, setting the world on fire, forcing Nezha to make a big sacrifice in order to save the innocent ones, letting in the hands of the girl he saved from the dragon, the key to save the world, for which she would have to pay an ultimate price. A different and more mature approach of the story, that shows Nezha as a teenager instead of a child, like in previous versions. A fantasy martial arts tale, full of action and romance, in which our hero must deal with the responsibility of having been choosen to learn the path of immortality in a world of mortals. A story that explores the limits of love, and how far, people who has fall into that treacherous trap, are willing […]

BLOOD QUANTUM Review: Escapist Zombie Thrills Bring A Message With The Madness

Lee B. Golden III

Tons of credit goes to any filmmaker who can take a genre and build off of it to create something like director Jeff Barnaby’s new horror thriller, Blood Quantum. The storytelling process usually teeters on the more formulaic end of these types of films, and that goes to the director’s ability to tell a story; the sweeping epic saga in all the shows and spin-offs that culminate AMC’s The Walking Dead universe, and even films like I Am Legend, World War Z or Train To Busan all have their frills and plusses on certain ends. Blood Quantum certainly has its message all the same, and with an enriching subject matter that coalesces multiple aspects of the ensuing drama within Barnaby’s distinctive and often thrilling and fun horror millieu. An ancient proverb precedes the opening credits with an eerie glimpse into the year 1981 at the Red Crow reservation. It doesn’t […]