Review: Shortfilm Thriller, NIGHT SHIFT, Welcomes A New Action Heroine By Dawn
Prima Lux Films inaugurates actress Adele Elasmar as a new action heroine for the festival and action genre crowd in the new short film thriller, NIGHT SHIFT!
Reviews
Review: ALONG WITH THE GODS: THE LAST 49 DAYS Maintains Epic Fantasy Deliberation With Unfolding Drama
Director Kim Yong-Hwa made a major hit for himself late last year adapting Korean fantasy webtoon, Along With The Gods: The Two Worlds. The film even took me by surprise thinking it would be one straightforward film at one point and not knowing right away there would be an almost immediate back-to-back sequel, and even learning recently that more developments for the big and small screen were in bound. Immersed in a Buddhist narrative, the first movie is one of nearly constant emotive stimulus, coupled with big scale battles with mystical weapons against varying creatures and entites, including a fast-growing demonic vengeful spirit proving pivotal in the movie’s progression. The drama is heavy-handed amidst a sprawling millieu spanning Earth and the Afterworld, and the action left an almost anime-inspired feel with our characters moving at lightning speed. All these and more now draw us into next chapter, Along With The […]
Review: BRONX SIU
TL:DR – A poor attempt at creating a police procedural drama with no redeeming qualities whatsoever both technical or creative. The Bronx. Perhaps the only borough in New York City to go relatively untouched in both TV and Films despite a wealth of talented individuals to emerge from its communities. Individuals like Al Pacino, George Romero, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Joel and Kerry Washington all hail from the Bronx. As a Bronx native and filmmaker, I’m always up for showcasing the interesting look and feel of my borough, so naturally I was intrigued and excited to preview episodes 2, 3 and 5 of the show BRONX SIU, a cop drama premiering on Amazon Prime on July 19th. Sadly, after watching all 3 of the provided episodes from the series, I can honestly say that any interest I had disappeared in the first 10 minutes. BRONX SIU (Special Investigation Unit) is cop […]
Review: Tsui Hark’s DETECTIVE DEE: THE FOUR HEAVENLY KINGS Conjures A Balance Of Dicey Fantasy Spectacle With Fine Storytelling And Action
Crafting big scale stories with equal balance between authentic and CG filming is never not risky. Long-standing film favorite Tsui Hark didn’t exactly impress as much as he might have wanted in partnership with Yuen Woo-Ping for Miracle Fighters reprisal, The Thousand Faces Of Dunjia, but the journey forward is always one that stands to gain with its share of improvements. Assuredly, some of them are made visible with grand appeal to fans of the Detective Dee franchise now looking forward to the next installment, Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings. The VFX-heavy affair seen here is much ado with the world our title hero lives in, played once again by Andy Lau’s prequel counterpart, returning actor Mark Chao since leading the 2013 prequel. Actress Carina Lau makes her regal re-entrance into the trilogy as Empress Wu opposite our title hero who is newly appointed as an investigator by Emperor […]
A Case For Better Action Movies: Benny Tjandra’s SYNDICATE SMASHER, And The Thinning Line Between Love And Hate
I love independent movies, as we all should. That said, I still stand by this notion even as not all independent films will love us back, and often times apart from the gems that can be found, you will especially find yourself discovering titles that are lesser to your liking. Some of those titles will often star actor Mel Novak – someone I’m often highly pushed to give attention to because he starred in Bruce Lee’s Game Of Death and as it just so happens, I run an action movie blog. Now, I have nothing personal against Novak in the least, nor the PR firm that promotes him, or the filmmakers with whom Novak recently collaborated for the new action thriller, Syndicate Smasher, which you can currently find on Amazon Prime at your own behest. On that note, it was four days ago that the film was given more press […]
Review: Dante Lam’s OPERATION RED SEA Never Runs Dry
Action auteur Dante Lam’s latest offering, Operation Red Sea, runs high on military might for its +2 hour runtime. Most of the film relies heavily on the orchestra of all things that go boom but lends the few obligatory small doses of poignance and drama to enduce empathy among its key characters for a film with such a large cast. Actor Zhang Yi plays Yang Rui who leads the Chinese Navy’s eight-member Jiaolong Assault Unit for the film’s narrative loosely based on the 2015 uprising in Yemen. Certain areas of the story are reworked with the crux of our story set in the nation of Yewaire and behind enemy lines where for Rui and his unit, a rescue mission now comes abruptly packaged with foiling an even deadlier terroristic threat. Lam’s script, written with Feng Ji, doesn’t try too much to be anything more than it is, as there are […]
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