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Review: THE TUNNEL (2016) Digs Into A Place In Humanity Where The Sun Rarely Shines

Kim Sung-Hoon surprised me last year when I finally got around to watching his most recent crime thriller, A Hard Day. It was a perfect introduction into his work for me and so that didn’t leave much to be concerned with in lieu of his latest movie, The Tunnel, which, according to Variety‘s most recent report, is still topping the Korean box office as of its second week. Author Sae Jo-Won’s 2013 novel serves as the inspiration for Kim’s own script which stands as way more than a mere underdog tale of one man’s survival against the elements. Most prolifically, it dares to cast an obligatory spotlight on some of the worst scenarios that could occur in any situation that stands similar in nature as lives hang in the balance. One such life is that of Lee Jung-Soo, portrayed by actor Ha Jung-Woo, a car salesman on his way home […]

Watch The First Official Trailer For Rising Tiger Films Premiere Feature, BLACK SCAR BLUES

Lee B. Golden III

Marking a major milestone achievement for Leesburg-based independent film group, Rising Tiger Films, Leroy Nguyen’s directorial feature debut, Black Scar Blues, has certainly undergone a teething evolution to get to where it is now. Thus, we are now brought the first official trailer for the new movie which fuses both raw, gritty drama with thrilling martial arts action as per the company’s m.o. for more than a decade. SYNOPSIS: A young hard-fisted hoodlum returns to the town he escaped from in order to try to right the wrongs he’s committed. What ensues is a devastating spiral of violence and betrayal that will consume everyone that he has ever cared about, and those very few who have ever cared about him. Circus Road Films finally picked up the movie last week ahead of a hopeful release date to be announced soon. Also starring is Rising Tiger Films fellow, actor Edmond Shum […]

GUARDIANS Unleash Their Power In The Second Trailer For Andreasyan's New Movie

Lee B. Golden III

If you’re new to the ambitious spectacle that lies ahead for Sarik Andreasyan’s latest feat, Guardians, you have time! The film rolls out in Russia on February 23, 2017 and is already the subject of a potential franchise should the prospects meet the result, and for all things considered in today’s film climate, there’s no reason for it not to. The narrative is devoutly geared toward superhero movie-going audiences and has a terrific look about itself, featuring a raft of characters anchoring the superpowered anarchy that permeates this film – four uniquely gifted individuals combining their powers to face off with an enormous evil in the form of an army of soldiers and heavily-gunned robots, and a superpowered madman? Shoo… this one’s got the goods, and the second official trailer now circulating online this week shows that off accordingly. SYNOPSIS: Set during the Cold War, a secret organization named “Patriot” […]

THE DEPARTED Heads To Amazon For Series Development

Lee B. Golden III

Amazon is adding more reasons for consumers to get in on its content. Sources have confirmed the active developement of a new television series reimagining Martin Scorsese’s 2006 hit film, The Departed, Amazon Studios, Vertigo Entertainment, Initial Entertainment Group and Plan B Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. TV. Executive producer Jason Richman (Detroit 1-8-7) is providing the script that will see the Chicago-set story of two cops on the opposite sides of the law, unknowingly tasked to infiltrate each other in the wake of an investigation into a Latino gang. The show takes its notes from Scorsese’s own testosterone-driven Irish mob narrative which, in turn, is also in handed down from Alan Mak’s iconic 2002 Hong Kong crime pic, Infernal Affairs. Both films went onto become respective commercial and critically acclaimed hits while winning several accolades with the latter ultimately advancing into a trilogy through 2003. Also executive producing […]

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Stuart Willis Sci-Fi, RESTORATION, Takes To SKY And Virgin Australia

Lee B. Golden III

Following its NINE Network premiere earlier this month, director Stuart Willis’s sci-fi debut, Restoration is officially presented in a new deal for its continued rollout. An official teaser can be viewed by clicking here, but read on with further details in the announcement beneath as well as a batch of stills courtesy of Midnight Snack Productions. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AUSTRALIAN SCI-FI THRILLER RESTORATION SEALS NZ TV DEAL WITH SKY Virgin Australia picks up film for September release on domestic and international flights SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 23 August 2016 Midnight Snack Productions has closed a deal with New Zealand subscription TV provider SKY for its acclaimed science fiction thriller RESTORATION, with the broadcast-hour length film to premiere on SKY’s specialist sci-fi, fantasy, horror and cult channel The ZONE later this year. “ZONE viewers love nothing more than a great story to sink their teeth into,” said Lisa Clements, SKY’s Head of Acquisitions, […]

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TIFF 2016: Bernthal Boards Dagg's Hitman Thriller, SWEET VIRGINIA This Weekend

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been a good year for Snitch and AMC’s The Walking Dead co-star, actor Jon Bernthal, after having turned out an unbeatable performance in Netflix’s treatment of Marvel character, Punisher for Netflix series, Daredevil. It’s one of the best things you’ll see and, indeed, more will undoubtedly come for that character while Bernthal awaits other appearances in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver next year and the October 14 release of mathematical crime thriller, The Accountant starring Ben Affleck. In the meantime, the 41st Toronto International Film Festival is just a little over two weeks away from kicking off, and with executive producer and sales agent XYZ Films readying its package, news from Deadline has confirmed the latest on the upcoming production, Sweet Virginia. Cameras start rolling this Saturday with a Black List script by Ben and Paul China, featuring Bernthal in the role of a motel owner with a dark past, […]

THE HIT LIST – August 22, 2016

Lee B. Golden III

This week’s installment of the Hit List will definitely be a little light on content. My guess is everyone’s been busy working, which is good for me seeing as if not, I wouldn’t be able to share as much as I often do. As always, we get things started with a fresh new playlist full of stunt and training reels from today’s talented professionals. Stuntman and Shaolin martial artist Tien Hoang is letting it rip with a terrific weapons demo reel directed by Colin Emerson (Sapphire, Dead End). Rounding it out are stuntwomen Gabriela Rodriguez, Hannah Scott and Lacey Robinson, along with Niko Dalman, LeRoyal Tutt, Megan Hui, Clancy Peterson, Malik Bouabid, Bristol Movement Collection‘s own freerunning and tumbling talent Jonathan Last and French cascadeurs Kevin and Heinrich Laurent. Gaging some promotional materials for a bit, there are three new items on the table and the first comes courtesy of […]

Catch The Eerie New Trailer For Liu Ye Crime Flick, COCK AND BULL

Lee B. Golden III

Judging by the first trailer for Cao Baoping’s latest flick, Cock And Bull, you wouldn’t be at fault for pegging it as something darkly comedic at the very least with actor Liu Ye leading the cast. This week, second trailer is now making the rounds and with a strikingly different new tone ahead of its September 14 release, hinting at a much more lustful, eerie tale of intrigue and it appeals to the curiosity some. Here, Ye (co-star of upcoming war epic, The Bombing and Oxide Pang Chun’s My War) leads the cast for the story that pits a small town mechanic and a thief against the odds for a mission to help clear the former’s name in the wake of a motorcyclist’s murder. As for how all the romantic intrigue and dramatic height play into the narrative, your guess is as good as mine but feel free to sample […]

Pang's MY WAR Wages On With A New Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Currently readying a life away from film in order to tend to the demands of fatherhood, filmmaker Oxide Pang Chun is going out with a tentative bang with the new film, My War. The film marks Pang’s debut into the war genre following a career trajectory largely stemming from horror and suspense films whilst dabbling into other concepts that gladly brought us films like The Storm Warriors in 2006 the award-winning pre-remake 1999 Pang Bros thriller, Bangkok Dangerous and its remake starring Nicolas Cage. Leading the way is actor Liu Ye on the front lines for a compelling story that pays homage to the stories of romance and drama encompassing the lives of Chinese soldiers of the Korean War during the 1950s. Rise Of The Legend actress Wang Luodan takes the lead next to Liu along with actress Ye Qing and actors Tony Wang and Tong Dawei for the film’s […]

Sakaguchi's Bloodlust Takes Over New Photos From Shimomura's RE:BORN

Lee B. Golden III

Actor Sakaguchi Tak’s exit from (or re-entry into) film has been a hard one to pin-point. Though the actor himself has previously pointed out finishing his cult celebrity status with his latest starring role in Re:Born, some are discussing it as his “return”. It’s not exactly something I would argue against either. I’ve been a fan of Sakaguchi since college when he was just a budding young badass in a pair of early performances, including Yamaguchi Yudai’s Battlefield Baseball and Kitamura Ryuhei’s Versus. Needless to say though and as far as I’m concerned, Sakaguchi’s career trajectory remains uncertain, especially in the wake of his latest action-packed effort, Re:Born which just hit screens at Bucheon and is now readying a star-studded event screening on September 18 in Japan. Sakaguchi reunites with longtime friend, stuntman and prolific stunt coordinator Shimomura Yuji in this, their second pairing since Shimomura’s 2006 directorial debut, Death […]

Watch The Teaser For EXILE Gangster Saga Sequel, HiGH&LOW: The Red Rain

Lee B. Golden III

This October, the saga continues the epic action-packed spectacle of EXILE TRIBE’s two season HiGH&LOW: The Story Of S.W.O.R.D. series and the feature film in July. A teaser has already begun circulating for a while now with Deadball and Chinyuki helmer Yamaguchi Yudai in the director’s chair for HiGH&LOW: The Red Rain, and it doesn’t dole out much, but it measures all the same in intensity and excitement as the franchise has done so far. SYNOPSIS: The Amamiya Brothers, Masaki (EXILE Takahiro) and Hiroto (J-Soul Brothers’s Hiroomi Tosaka), keep looking for their older brother Takeru (Takumi Saito) who disappeared one year ago. The three Amamiya brothers lost their parents when they were young. Since then, they relied only on each other. On the anniversary of their parents’ death, Masaki and Hiroto expect Takeru to appear. Instead, they meet a person who has a clue on Takeru’s whereabouts. Why did Takeru […]

Halle Berry Puts The Pedal To The Metal In The New Trailer For KIDNAP

Lee B. Golden III

Atress Halle Berry’s return to the big screen is literally packed with some exciting “hail mary” moments. That’s sort of the impression we’re left with regarding some of the thrilling moments of stuntwork on the set of Kidnap from Luis Prieto which is finally releasing on December 2 from Relativity Media following its delay from earlier this year. Berry, who also produces, leads the cast with a script by Knate Gwaltney which centers on a mother’s relentless high-speed pursuit of a mysterious car with her son inside. USA Today discusses all this and more, and much to the credit of the stunt professionals with Berry in the driver’s seat. “There’s a lot of Halle driving here, but that really crazy driving, we left to the professionals,” says producer di Bonaventura over at USA Today. “She can kick serious butt out of the car.” Other moments talked about include Berry’s “firey” […]

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REVIEW: ‘Kickboxer’ Returns With A ‘VENGEANCE’

REVIEW: 'Kickboxer' Returns With A 'VENGEANCE'

Remakes are a dime a dozen in 2016. Oftentimes, a studio will grave-rob a long dorment franchise and forcibly modernize it so that they can sell the name recognition while also trying to appeal to modern audiences. Oftentimes, this means reducing the goofy/dated charm of the original and injecting an unhealthy dose of gritty realism to make it feel more “modern”; results may vary. Somehow, John Stockwell’s Kickboxer: Vengeance dodges this pitfall and spin kicks it in its cynical face. It somehow manages to be the 2016 equivalent of the 1991 original. Its level of grittiness is comparable to Kickboxer’s early-90s “grittiness” while maintaining the lighter tone that helped make the original so entertaining. The film opens in unfamiliar territory, with Kurt Sloan (Alain Moussi) seeking to learn Muay Thai from the dangerously stoic Tong Po (Dave Bautista). It hits the ground running when Sloan is forced to fight for his […]

Matsuda Is The Law In Kumakiri's DIAS POLICE: DIRTY YELLOW BOYS. Watch The Trailer!

Lee B. Golden III

With manga continuing to be an ever fruitful source for film progression in Japan, Toei’s latest pivot now arrives with My Man helmer Kumakiri Kazuyoshi’s Dias Police: Dirty Yellow Boys. The film is set for a September 3 release in Japan with actor Matsuda Shota starring as a one-man police force in service of well over 100,000 illegal immigrants dwelling in Japan with their own way of life. Kumakiri wrote the script with screenwriter Moriya Fumio based on 2006 Weekly Morning seinen publication prior to its TBS-MBS series earlier this year. Other plot details are unknown but several teasers and an official trailer have been making the rounds to help throw hints around, otherwise boasting a workable, energetic manga adaptation amply loaded with action and comedy. Fans familar with the show or the manga may feel free to debate, but check it out below and judge for yourself.

Reflections on STAR TREK

REVIEW: 'Kickboxer' Returns With A 'VENGEANCE'

It was 50 years ago around this time in 1966 that Star Trek appeared on our television screens for the very first time. That’s amazing to think about, isn’t it? Especially if you’ve been there since the beginning. We can still get some of our best tastes of what the early years were like in books like A Star Trek Catalog by Gerry Turnbull, or The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman, or Inside Star Trek: The Real Story by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. What’s even more amazing than that is that the Star Trek franchise is still around, even though many of today’s fans had not yet been born when The Original Series (TOS) was first on the air. I’ve only been a Trekkie for 31 out of those 50 years myself, and if you’re like me, you grew up completely with reruns—until the arrivals of […]

THE MAP AGAINST THE WORLD Dares To Open Joseon's Doors In The U.S. Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Slimido and Fists Of Legend helmer Kang Woo-suk is pivoting to a first in his 20-film career thusfar. His newest and debut history drama, The Map Against The World, follows in the footsteps of a legendary cartographer who braved the elements to provide a map to the people of late Joseon, taking notes from Park Shin-bum’s 2009 Munhakdongne novel, “Gosanja”. Thus, we are now granted a story a la Kang with screenwriter Choi Jung-Me adapting the book, and with a South Korean release stamped for September 7, CJ Entertainment is proudly presenting the new adventure drama on September 9 in select U.S. cities. In the meantime, the distributor now brings us a new trailer to highlight the sprawling tale of one man’s perilous journey of redemption and awakening. SYNOPSIS: Kim Jeong-Ho’s (Cha Seung-Won) father died due to an erroneous map. Because of this, Kim Jeong-Ho has a strong desire to […]

MECHANIC: RESURRECTION Takes A Leap Of Faith With A New Clip And Red-Band Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Director Dennis Gansel’s Mechanic: Resurrection is less than a week away and it’s high time the promotional campaign picked up the pace some. The film is set to release in theaters on August 26 and stars Jason Statham in the returning role of the world’s best assassin following the 2011 remake of the 1972 action classic. SYNOPSIS Arthur Bishop [Jason Statham] returns as the Mechanic in the sequel to the 2011 action thriller. When the deceitful actions of a cunning but beautiful woman [Jessica Alba] force him to return to the life he left behind, Bishop’s life is once again in danger as he has to complete an impossible list of assassinations of the most dangerous men in the world. Lionsgate has a new clip from the movie now up and and running along with firey new red-band trailer exclusively from action star Jason Statham’s Facebook page which you can […]

DAYLIGHT'S END Awakens The Zombie Apocalypse With A New Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been quite a journey for director William Kaufman’s latest heralded cult hit, Daylight’s End. Carried by the support of amply positive reviews following the film’s well-earned festival acclaim, Vertical Entertainment has since announced its North American distribution in select theaters on August 26 in association with Dallas-based virtual reality studio Groove Jones for a more immersive viewing experience. Obviousy, that would be something to look forward to and it’s a perfect horror movie feat to present to fans as we approach the Fall season. That will be about a week from now though and so at best we can present ourselves with a brand new trailer that makes it all official. Actor Johnny Strong leads the cast from a script by Chad Law, and with Lance Henriksen, Louis Mandylor, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Chris Kerson, Chelsea Edmundson, and Krzysztof Soszynski also starring. Daylight’s End, a post-apocalyptic zombie thriller, is set years […]

THE DRAGON’S ALLY: An Interview With Alexandre Bailly

Lee B. Golden III

Well, this was a pretty wicked trip back in time. It was certainly a regular pit stop for my nightly enjoyment of independent action group, Z-Team in my regular bingeing of action shorts everynight as the online action community continued to bloom, and indeed, The Z-Team were pretty big for me, right next to Zero Gravity and The Stunt People. I was always fascinated by their quality of work in terms of action and storytelling, and I was certainly happy to see the likes of French actor and martial artist Alexandre Bailly among them. His participation in the 2007/2008 shortfilm, Brothers Forever, helped continue to signal a calling for the mainstream to pay attention and watch, much like other teams at the time – something that inspired me to start a freehostia.com account to get my own news site going and help discuss martial arts and action movies on a […]

GODZILLA Will Debut Its First Animated Movie In 2017

Lee B. Golden III

Much is still ado with Toho’s famed classic monster property, Godzilla. The studio has since taken well off since releasing Shin Godzilla late last month in Japan cinemas from helmers Higuchi Shinji and Anno Hideaki, and rose as both a critical and commercial hit in its first two weeks. This week, word now comes courtesy of a new teaser site announcing Toho’s latest move to anime for a new Godzilla movie from Polygon Pictures to be released in 2017. Sitting at the helm are Shizuno Kobun who directed two Fist Of The North Star animated films and a row of Detective Conan titles, and Ajin series helmer Hiroyuki Seshita who also led way for Knights of Sidonia. Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero scribe Urobuchi Gen is penning the script. Marking the company’s first-ever animated feature-length film since the franchise’s cinematic inception in 1954, the film is just one in several Godzilla […]