A Case For Better Action Movies: Gareth Huw Evans’ HAVOC Is Modern Action At Its Best, And Likely Finest
HAVOC is now streaming on Netflix.
a case for better action movies
A Case For Better Action Movies: Timo Tjahjanto’s THE SHADOW STRAYS Casts A Bright Future For Its Director
I may be of the minority when I say I wish that Timo Tjahjanto‘s latest October Netflix launch, The Shadow Strays, instead released in December as did his previous streaming banger, The Big 4 in 2022. This way, at least The Shadow Strays would feel like a proper Christmas action thriller, and not for nothing either considering the film starts in a snow-driven Yakuza safehouse where a boss with a godcomplex awaits his otherwise imminent demise. The opening action scene alone may well be worth its own whole article, at that, while the film’s current run on Netflix as of last week is now the talk of any and all in the fandom, most notably fans of Tjahjanto who’ve followed the director’s Mo’ Brothers era with a stake in the horror genre that’s conjoined him with the dialogue of Asian film and action cinema fans in the years since Indonesian […]
A Case For Better Action Movies: For Chad Stahelski’s HIGHLANDER, Can There Be One More?…
It’s been a reboot in the making since 2008 with Highlander taking the step to its long and eternal journey through development hell. With this, fans of the fantasy sword franchise fave are reveling in the news affirming Lionsgate’s commitment to the upcoming film as this week’s AFM events approach, according to Deadline‘s Andreas Wiseman. The film joins Man Of Steel and “The Witcher” series star Henry Cavill following his addition to the project in 2021, with none other than stunt multihyphenate and proven John Wick saga director Chad Stahelski, who some fans might even say has risen the bar when it comes to action direction, having led the charge with four movies totaling just under nine hours, all chronicling one former assassin’s quest for vengeance and redemption in a world – all its own – of organized crime. The four-part action saga, packed with enough breakneck fight choreography, gun-fu, […]
A Case For Better Action Movies: Jesse V. Johnson’s ACCIDENT MAN Is The Quintessential Scott Adkins Action Movie
Martial arts fandom persists with the help of flourishing successes in film and TV. Direct-to-video releases, an underdog portion of the current market, sputters due no less to the profusion of torrents but nevertheless remains tenacious in its stability for fans and consumers. It’s an endurance that keeps burgeoning actors like UK martial artist and fan favorite, Scott Adkins, relevant long enough to see progress on more than one front in the last twenty years as he has been. Indeed, twenty years is a long time for anyone to put their physicality and well-being through the blender to maintain peak screenfighting athleticism, and all while forseeing prospects in a field where the likes of celebrated crossover stars such as Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, and the emerging crop of stunt and film talent from around the internet, have all brought to question the legitimacy of growing stunt professionals into principal […]
A Case For Better Action Movies: NEVER BACK DOWN: NO SURRENDER (2016)
I don’t generally review movies that have been out for very long – it saves me time in between all the other content I have to cover for this site and… well… sleeping, eating and all of my other daily functions and priorities. That said, I felt compelled to talk about actor Michael Jai White and his prospects as a director, which I think is as equally important as his film stardom among martial arts genre fans. As an actor he’s more versatile than some folks who watch his movies may care to know or realize – rudimentary in the fact that he generally cares about film, which I like. For this, it helps me appreciate what he’s brought in the last six years in exuding the subsequent direct-to-DVD distribution of the now culminating Never Back Down trilogy to its current existence with the most recent addition, Never Back Down: […]
A Case For Better Action Movies: CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON: SWORD OF DESTINY (2016)
As the 1990’s drew huge fervor in Western audiences for Hong Kong cinema with Jackie Chan and Jet Li crossovers, director Ang Lee helped pave the way for Asian cinema ina fashion hugely rewarding. The award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, released in 2000, achieves some of the highest marks in wuxia filmmaking with a story that brilliantly taps into its source material with a sense of substance and quality that bookmarks it as one of the most memorable movies in history. Surely, the film mingles differently among moviegoers as do all, but the majority on this one is quite certain with Lee’s signature vision setting a visible standard in artful storytelling and drama based on Chinese folklore. On that note and despite its successes as a standalone feature, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon remained as one of several stories recorded in the ancient work of author Wang Du Lu whose pentalogy […]
A Case For Better Action Movies: DEADPOOL (2016)
It’s been a while since I’ve written a film review attributed to my column, A Case For Better Action movies. That said, seeing as how Marvel property Deadpool is finally getting its just dues on the big screen, the case couldn’t be more relevant than it is now after twelve years of developing, pushing and pitching, scratching and clawing our way through PG-13 Hollywood red tape. Essentially, the film is a direct result of what happens when major studios get out of their own way; We’ve been living in an era where the supposed narrative is that toning down the violence in any major tentpole action film will still reap benefits through a PG-13 audience so parents wouldn’t necessarily have to help little kids petition to enjoy the same feats. That may have been true from time to time, but it’s not written in stone either seeing as how Deadpool […]
A CASE FOR BETTER ACTION MOVIES – Character Study: Wesley Snipes As BLADE
The following is a version of a segment to a compilation article to which I contributed with other writers over at The Action Elite prior to its publication on February 13, 2015. CLICK HERE to read the article in its entirety. In 1973, creators Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan gave life to a new breed of superhero in the form of a half-human, half vampire in a version that wouldn’t have likely serviced moviegoers 25 years later. By all means, it could probably work now much more than in 1998 when action cinema was taking on a new age, a new look and a new tone with a certain touch to music and costume design, and a cinematic flair that favored more toward contemporary storytelling as we entered the new millennium. But, as it stands, 1998 was the year we got our modernized approach in director Stephen Norrington’s Marvel Comics […]
A CASE FOR BETTER ACTION MOVIES – Character Study: Prisoner KSC2-303 From VERSUS
The following is a version of a segment to a compilation article to which I contributed with other writers over at The Action Elite prior to its publication on February 9, 2015. CLICK HERE to read the article in its entirety. My college experience wasn’t a lot of fun, though I did have some good memories. I was a member of a cult genre club that followed sci-fi, games and anime, and it was through my membership there about fifteen years ago that one of ours bought a VHS tape of a little-known Japanese flick called Versus, directed by Kitamura Ryuhei. I saw a snippet of it in passing but it never quite caught onto me until I came upon a point in my life where I needed an outlet to deal with personal hardship and heartbreak. So, cult Asian movies on DVD became my thing and so did my […]
A CASE FOR BETTER ACTION MOVIES – Character Study: Toby Wong From DRIVE
The following is a version of a segment to a compilation article to which I contributed with other writers over at The Action Elite prior to its publication on February 10, 2015. CLICK HERE to read the article in its entirety. While we await the verdict on the releases of several upcoming films featuring action star Mark Dacascos, perhaps one performance will continue to live-on in action movie history with a formula that undeniably serves fans of martial arts action cinema something worthy to hold onto. For this, we look to his memorable role in the 1995 action classic, Drive. From a revised script by Scott Phillips, the film takes off in San Francisco with our lead, Dacascos starring as Toby Wong, riding as a stowaway on a cargoship that arrives on the West Coast as per his escape from the Red Chinese and the notorious Leung Corporation who have […]
A CASE FOR BETTER ACTION MOVIES – Character Study: Liu Jian From KISS OF THE DRAGON
The following is a version of a segment to a compilation article to which I contributed with other writers over at The Action Elite prior to its publication on February 9, 2015. CLICK HERE to read the article in its entirety. For a lot of American moviegoers like myself, the 1998 blockbuster, Lethal Weapon 4 was our introduction to martial arts action superstar, Jet Li. His career would ultimately become a highlight for many a fan with DVD distributors releasing his films internationally online with HD renditions of classics from distributors like Dimension, Dragon Dynasty and Hong Kong Legends as Li’s crossover would soon catapult him in stardom through some of his most memorable performances, including none other than the 2001 Chris Nahon-directed action classic, Kiss Of The Dragon. The film sees Li in the role Liu, a Chinese intelligence agent assigned to France to assist Inspector Richard (Tcheky Karyo) […]
A Case For Better Action Movies: DIE FIGHTING (2014)
Die Fighting – Trailer from Z Team Films on Vimeo. SYNOPSIS: The Z-Team, four Shaolin-forged martial artists has just won the top award at a Film Festival. FABIEN, LOHAN, DIDIER, and JESS immediately set their sights for Hollywood, but from within the shadows emerges a new challenge: the four find themselves in front of the seemingly inescapable eye of a mysterious DIRECTOR who forces them to “act” in his own brutal reality film, with the lives of their loved ones at stake. Their every move watched through hidden cameras like mice in a maze, the Z-Team are forced to run a gamut through the seedy underbelly of LA – from robbing an armored truck, encountering a Drug Lord, breaking an entire dojo of BLACKBELTS, evading a SWAT team, surviving a blazing gunfight…and it’s all a part of the Director’s script. A dark filmmaker’s game culminating into a shocking ending which […]
TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION – A Case For Better Action Movies
SUMMARY: Following the events of Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (2011), a government black-ops campaign directed by the CIA (Kelsey Grammer) is implemented to hunt down and exterminate all remaining Transformers on Earth, including Autobots. Meanwhile, Cade Yaeger (Mark Wahlberg) a Texas inventor unknowingly makes a discovery that endangers him and his daughter (Nicola Peltz), and Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) re-emerges out of hiding and on the run with his newfound human allies and other surviving Autobots. Soon, they uncover a conspiracy that implicates an A.I. research facility bent on using alien robot technology for Earth’s own ill-gotten purposes; Galvatron (Frank Welker) is created, forcing Prime to question his sworn oath to protect Earth. With the odds stacked against them and time running out, will Yaeger, Prime and our heroes be able to unite against a common threat on both fronts? Or will the Autobots and mankind be doomed to extinction? […]
STREET FIGHTER: ASSASSIN'S FIST – A Case For Better Action Movies
I remember when 1993 or ’94 came when Jean-Claude Van Damme was entering the peak of his career with Capcom’s first live-action theatrical interpretation of the Street Fighter universe that saw military character Guile as the lead. To some, including myself, it was good for its time despite not even coming close to owning up to the source material, and mainly because it was a kids’ film, geared toward young teens who liked Van Damme movies and appealed to watching actors in Street Fighter costumes imitating characters from the game. Ultimately, Joey Ansah wasn’t one of those kids. And for good reason. Years passed and in 2009, we were eventually offered to see a female-led feature version of the classic fighting game franchise that would have led one to believe that a proper live-action rendition of the game would have done justice to the fans, especially those since 1994, despite […]