Johnny Tri Nguyen (Cradle 2 the Grave) and Veronica Ngo (House in the Alley) – the two leading stars from The Rebel and Clash – have reunited for Blade & Soul, a short film promoting the video game of the same name.
To Western audiences, Nguyen and Ngo are known for their breakout performances in The Rebel and Clash. The former film was a major hit in its native country, both financially and critically; the latter, though not as successful, was a passable follow-up and is regarded as a notable title among martial arts fans.
Since Vietnam’s controversial decision to ban Nguyen’s 2013 martial arts thriller Chinatown(the film has yet to be released anywhere), Nguyen has been starring in less violent, more light hearted projects, including supporting roles in Indian films. He’s also the host/spokesperson for a Vietnam-based MMA show.
Ngo – in addition to starring in Dustin Nguyen’s Once Upon a Time in Vietnam, as well as maintaining her singing and modeling career – has directed two films (The Lost Dragon and Tam Cam: The Untold Story) and was featured in Yuen Woo-ping’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destinywith Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen. She’ll continue her exposure to Western audiences when she appears in the highly anticipated Star Wars: The Last Jedi, as well as David Ayer’s upcoming thriller, Bright, with Will Smith.
As always, we’ll keep you you updated on their projects as we hear more. For now, check out the promotional short film for Blade & Soul below:
The DVD for Death Fighter is finally available from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment! Previously known as White Tiger, this all-star martial arts actioner stars Matt Mullins (Mortal Kombat: Legacy), Cynthia Rothrock (Yes, Madam), Don “The Dragon” Wilson (Martial Arts Kid) and the late Joe Lewis (Force: Five).
When an American cop (Mullins) witnesses his mentor’s (Lewis) murder in a trade deal gone wrong, he finds himself on the wrong side of the law in Thailand. But despite the bounty on his deal and pressure to leave the country, he teams up with an ex-military mercenary (Wilson) out to settle a score of this own to bring the killers to justice. Their quest for vengeance brings them face-to-face with a band of notorious criminals (Rothrock) who vow to take them down if the jungle’s natural elements don’t kill them first.
Filmed over 3 years ago, Death Fighter is directed by Toby Russell (Death by Misadventure), a name closely associated with low budget martial arts and Hong Kong film – at least to die hard enthusiasts. The film also features fight choreography by Kazu Patrick Tang (Rocky Handsome, BKO: Bangkok Knockout). With this said, fans should expect off the wall, Hong Kong-style action.
Check out an exclusive clipsfrom the movie, featuring Mullins and Wilson:
Kino Lorber is teaming up with UK distributor Eureka Entertainment to release a 4K digitally restored, 3-hour director’s cut of King Hu’s 1979 classic film Legend of the Mountain.
The plan is for both companies to screen the classic at festivals/limited engagements, followed by a Blu-ray & DVD release in 2018.
Director: Kurando Mitsutake Writer: Kurando Mitsutake Cast: Asami, Kairi Narita, Noriaki Kamata, Matthew Floyd Miller, Dean Simone, Tatsuya Nakadai Running Time: 86 min.
By Z Ravas
It’d be easy for detractors to label 2014’s Gun Woman another case of low-budget sleaze – after all, Japanese AV turned action star Asami spends most of the film’s climax stark naked and drenched in blood – but director Kurando Mitsutake is far too savvy a filmmaker for that. Since 2009’s Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf, the writer/director/occasional-actor has managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible: he’s kept Japanese action cinema alive through a series of micro-budgeted movies that hold appeal for both grindhouse aficionados and martial arts buffs alike.
While the more recent Karate Killmight be said to be Mitsutake’s strongest effort to date, and makes one salivate at the possibility of the filmmaker being granted an even bigger budget to realize his outsized ambitions, there’s no denying that Gun Woman is the movie that put Mitsutake on most genre fans’ radar. For that reason, and others, it’s worth taking a look back at Gun Woman, which is conveniently streaming on Netflix.
At first brush, Gun Woman’s plot may sound overly familiar: after a brilliant Doctor’s (played by Into the Sun’s Kairi Narita) wife is murdered before his eyes by the insane son of a Japanese business magnate (in a positively unhinged performance from Noriaki Kamata), he swears revenge. Crippled himself in the attack, the Doctor has no choice but to look for aid in realizing his ambitions, and thus kidnaps a homeless, drug-addicted young woman (Asami, who broke into the mainstream with several Sushi Typhoon efforts) to train as the perfect assassin. If you think the writers of La Femme Nikita might be looking to sue after hearing that synopsis, rest assured that Mitsutake lampshades the fact early on by having a side character remark, “What is this, some kind of Japanese manga or Luc Besson film?” It’s a tacit admission from the filmmakers that they know their material owes a creative debt to the great action movies that have come before, and also tells the viewer to lighten up and enjoy the ride.
And what a ride it is. Most of the movie comprises of Asami’s lengthy training sequences, which involves a good deal of psychological torture since the Doctor transforms Asami into a killing machine against her will. The dynamic between these two characters is quite interesting, if not disturbing: the Doctor may have saved Asami’s life by forcing her to kick her drug habit, but by fashioning her into the instrument of his own revenge, he continues to put her in harm’s way again and again. For her part, Asami begins to develop a bit of Stockholm Syndrome – it’s fairly fascinating stuff as, even if it’s not exactly Oscar-worthy material, the characters are far more ambitious than your standard micro-budget B-Movie.
Bear in mind, this all plays out against the backdrop of a demented villain who wouldn’t be out of place in a Toxic Avenger movie or one of Takashi Miike’s most off-the-wall pictures like Fudoh: The New Generation. Many viewers will no doubt balk or be offended by Gun Woman’s cadre of necrophiliac baddies (yes, you read that right), but – in contrast with other films of similar ilk such as Hobo With a Shotgun – I never felt like Kurando Mutsutake was wallowing in and celebrating the depravity of his rogues gallery. Rather, the script goes to great lengths to make you despise its cast of demented degenerates, such that you can’t wait to see Asami take them out. Mission accomplished.
Once Asami becomes, well, the Gun Woman (bear in mind this is a taut and fast-moving flick at 86 minutes so it doesn’t take long), and is unleashed on Noriaki Kamata and his bodyguards, the bullets fly and the bodies drop. While the climax is certainly smaller scale than the extended finale of Karate Kill, it’s no less impressive to watch Asami go up against goons who tower over her diminutive size, especially when she’s so, well, vulnerable. The movie goes to great lengths to justify why Asami has to enter the bad guy’s complex wearing only her birthday suit. Of course, the reasoning is rather ridiculous but – what can you do? Its a creative decision that certainly got people talking and, surprisingly, Mitsutake and his team do such a good job choreographing the ending sequence that, after awhile, you just kind of forget that Asami is fighting evil with nary a stitch to wear.
Okay, so Gun Woman isn’t exactly high art. It’s still a dynamite example of what can be accomplished by a team who is passionate about independent filmmaking and high-octane action. Asami delivers a performance that radiates both vulnerability and steely-eyed determination at once, and she acquits herself extremely well during the fight sequences for someone who has no formal martial arts training. I have no doubt team behind Gun Woman will continue to craft bigger and better films, but this is the effort that put them on the map – and rightly so. If low-budget exploitation cinema gets your blood running hot, you have a new friend in Kurando Mitsutake.
If Peace Breaker is anything like the original, here’s what you can expect: In a 24 hour period, a detective (originally played by Lee Sun-Hyun) receives a divorce notice from his wife; next, his mother passes away; he then becomes the focus of a police investigation; to make matters worse, on the way to his mother’s funeral, he commits a fatal hit and run…
Peace Breaker gets a domestic release on August 18, 2017. Watch the film’s Newest Trailer below:
“Confidential Assignment” Korean Theatrical Poster
Director: Kim Sung-Hoon Writer: Yoon Hyun-Ho Cast: Hyun-Bin, Yu Hae-Jin, Kim Ju-Hyeok, Jang Young-Nam, Yoona, Park Min-Ha, Lee Hae-Young Running Time: 125 min.
By Paul Bramhall
It’s been interesting to watch the portrayal of North Korean characters develop since the beginning of the Korean wave in the late 90’s. Back then, while still commercially appealing in their nature, movies like Shiri and J.S.A. portrayed the South’s north of the border counterparts as characters with their own internal conflicts and personalities. Since then, mainstream Korean cinema has largely resorted to using North Korea as an origin for agents with their own hidden agendas, usually played by good looking young actors, crossing into the South to perform undercover missions. This particular trend peaked in 2013, which gave us the bombardment of Commitment, The Suspect, and Secretly, Greatly.
Out of all the mainstream movies to use the undercover North Korean agent trope though, for me the one that did it best was 2010’s Secret Reunion. Essentially a buddy movie in the guise of a North vs South tale, director Jang Hoon cast Song Kang-ho as a detective, that gets fired after a mission to catch a North Korean spy goes horribly wrong. During the same mission, another North Korean agent escapes, played by Kang Dong-won, but ultimately finds himself stranded in the South. They both briefly glimpse each other, and when their paths cross by chance six years later, neither believes the other recognizes them. Circumstances ultimately lead them to form a private detective agency together, with both of their intentions to steal information from the other. The end result was a surprisingly effective action comedy, and in more ways than one, 2016’s Confidential Assignment uses an identical template in the hope of recreating the same winning formula.
Thankfully director Kim Seong-hoon tweaks the plot of Secret Reunion enough to make Confidential Assignment an entertaining piece of action comedy in its own right. Yoo Hae-jin, who after years of playing supporting roles is finally enjoying his second co-starring role in as many years (the first being Luck.Key), plays a clumsy middle aged detective, that finds himself ordered to unofficially pair with a North Korean detective. His counterpart is played by Hyun Bin, who before becoming a popular romantic lead in both TV dramas and movies, was the co-star in 2004’s taekwondo movie Spin Kick. Hyun’s character is part of a North Korean delegation attending a North & South government meeting, however secretly both are after a North Korean agent who’s gone rogue, and is hiding out in Seoul. The crux is that neither are completely honest with each other, with both having their own ulterior motives for getting to the rogue agent before the other.
There should be no mistake that Confidential Assignment is as commercial a movie as they come, clearly created to appeal to as broader audience as possible with its mix of hard hitting action for the guys, Hyun Bin to attract the female demographic, and comedy that’s suitable for the whole family. As a result, it’s difficult to argue that it feels like anything other than a by-the-numbers thriller that we’ve seen plenty of times before. The production is Seong-hoon’s sophomore effort, having previously directed the 2012 musical drama My Little Hero, and may not be the obvious choice to helm an action comedy, but the direction is confident, and the pace remains brisk throughout. Indeed it’s the pacing of Confidential Assignment which is one of its biggest strengths, as despite the potential for melodrama never being far away, thankfully Seong-hoon resists the decision to ever delve into it.
Instead, the focus is kept squarely on both the action and the comedy. Much like Kang Dong-won ends up moving in with Song Kang-ho in Secret Reunion, the same plot device is used here, as Hae-jin ends up inviting Hyun to stay with his family in their homely Seoul apartment. There was no doubt that Hyun would have little more to do in Confidential Assignment than look handsome and deliver the action, but he has a likable presence, and is never overwhelmed by the more experienced Hae-jin. A comedic highlight comes when Hae-jin fits him with a GPS ankle bracelet, usually reserved for sex criminals, explaining that it’s what all South Korean detectives wear in order to discreetly identify each other. However when Hyun spends some time alone at a viewpoint overlooking the city, he’s approached by another man also wearing one, who proceeds to excitedly ask him what he’s into, leading to a hilariously played out misunderstanding.
His action scenes, of which there are many, also provide a convincing sense of physicality and excitement. From a thrilling foot chase through the streets of Seoul, that ends with him clinging onto a moving car, to a one against many fist fight, which sees a unique use of a toilet roll. He also gets a one-on-one throwdown against a towering Kong Jung-hwan, which under the guidance of martial arts team members Choi Tae-hwan and Kim Tae-hwan, deliver a satisfyingly visceral level of punishment. Hae-jin understandably takes a back seat when it comes to the action, however one particular scene is noteworthy thanks to its hilarious nature, when he also finds himself up against a group of attackers, and frantically attempts to figure out how Hyun had used the toilet roll from an earlier fight.
Confidential Assignment’s other big plus is the chemistry between Hae-jin and Hyeon. The pair form a convincing onscreen bond, from their initial hostility towards each other, to the gradual trust that, while never becoming completely unconditional, develops enough for them to gain a mutual respect of one another. We may have seen Hae-jin’s struggling family man detective a hundred times before, and Hyun’s wardrobe is clearly fashioned from the Won Bin Man from Nowhere look (at one point Hae-jin’s wife asks him if he only brought the one black suit with him), but their portrayal of their characters is still convincing.
Special mention should also go to Kim Joo-hyeok, who plays the rogue agent that everyone is after, and acts as the villain of the piece who we should all be rooting against. His character is perhaps the most interesting, as his decision to go rogue was largely based on seeing through the North’s cult of personality based regime, and realising that he could make it rich in the South. While his motivations are not necessarily the reason for him being the villain (anyone who realises that the North’s regime is an illusion should surely be considered a character worthy of our sympathies), his villainy comes in the form of the ruthless way he chooses to make his escape to the South. While these complexities aren’t explored in any particular depth, and nor should they be in a piece of popcorn entertainment such as this, it does give an interesting slant to proceedings.
This also leads into the other interesting element that Confidential Assignment presents the audience with. Unlike so many other similar productions, were the character from the North usually chooses to stay in the South, here it’s never questioned that Hyun will go back home after the mission is complete. In that regard, he completes his mission to find the rogue agent, and stays true to the regime, returning back to Pyongyang once it’s complete. While in the movie itself the fact is not presented as a big deal, I don’t think I can recall another production in which a similar scenario is presented, and the North doesn’t become the over-arching super villain at some point. Even Secret Reunion decides to go down this route by the end, with Dong-won’s North Korean agent successfully defecting to the South. If anything, Confidential Assignment is the complete opposite, ending with a scene of Hae-jin and Hyun together in Pyongyang.
While it’s easy to pin the success of Confidential Assignment on the chemistry between Hae-jin and Hyun, that wouldn’t be entirely fair. At the end of the day, Seong-hoon has looked to craft an entertaining action comedy, and to that end the final product delivers both funny comedy and exciting action, which is exactly what it was aspiring to do. While it’s certainly never going to be considered a classic, as a brisk piece of popcorn entertainment, you can certainly do a lot worse.
There can never be enough Asian gangster flicks, and Gao Xixi’s The Game Changer (read our review), an upcoming period actioner, is no exception. On October 3, 2017, Well Go USA is releasing the film on Blu-ray & DVD.
The Game Changer is about gang wars in Shanghai in the 1930’s. The movie is an adaptation of Shanghai Bund, a TVB series that has been compared to The Godfather.
Director: Herman Yau Cast: Andy Lau, Jiang Wu, Song Jia, Philip Keung, Ron Ng, Wang Ziyi, Felix Wong, Shek Sau, Liu Kai-chi, Cheung Chun-kit, Louis Cheung, Babyjohn Choi, Felix Lok Running Time: 118 min.
By Martin Sandison
Superstar actor/singer Andy Lau (The Great Wall, God of Gamblers) has had one of the most enduring careers of any Hong Kong celebrity, and he keeps going strong. Despite the setback of his injury while filming a commercial earlier this year (he fell off a horse), Lau is almost fully recovered and will continue to make movies soon. His latest film, Shock Wave, is a high budget, Hong Kong/Mainland co-production that boasts a good performance from Lau and some bombastic action set pieces.
Lau stars as Cheung Choi San, a member of the Bomb Disposal Unit in Hong Kong. Seven Years previous, Cheung had solved a case involving a criminal called Blast (Jiang Wen, A Touch of Sin), as he had gone undercover with his gang. However, Blast managed to escape and swore revenge. As Cheung climbs the ladder in the unit, Blast begins his retribution by holding hostages and planting bombs in the super-busy Cross Harbour Tunnel.
Having the biggest budget he has worked with (allegedly $23 million US), director Herman Yau (The Sleep Curse, Untold Story) really lets rip with the set pieces in Shock Wave. In fact, a set was built to approximate the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, which the film utilizes to great effect during the last 20 minutes. There are tense moments, superbly creative action and solid acting in this section of the film, although there is a tendency to fall into the trap of overwrought melodrama. Yau utilises all of the tricks and camera innovation he can, with visually pleasing results. There is even some extreme violence thrown in, such as an arm being ripped off by a speeding car, which will please fans of Yau. One tracking shot, which moves through an entire tunnel during a gunfight, had me in raptures.
Lau, as usual, is more than convincing in his role as a moralistic cop. Wen is inventively savage and charismatic as the villain, and steals every scene he is in, especially towards the end of the film. Felix Wong does a good job as Superintendent Chow, Lau’s superior (he is perhaps best known as playing Fishmonger Tsan in the classic Drunken Master 2, where he goes toe to toe with Jackie in a memorable fight). The Westerners in the film suffer from the usual problems, e.g terrible voice acting and stilted performances. Unfortunately, the romantic subplot involving Song Jia (Red Cliff, The Bodyguard) is outrageously cheesy and doesn’t do the film any favours.
A problem with Shock Wave is one we’ve all heard before: it panders to Mainland China. The message of the film being “Chinese cops are great! Don’t challenge them or you’re f*cked!” Saying that, there are some moments in the film wherein the patriotic stuff does work, whether you like it or not. They’re too spoilerific to mention here.
Ultimately, Shock Wave misses out on being a classic, but it’s certainly not a failure. It looks like this is the kind of movie we’ll see come out of Hong Kong and the Mainland more often – and that’s certainly not (really) a bad thing.
Director: Sion Sono Cast: Reina Triendl, Mariko Shinoda, Erina Mano, Yuki Sakurai, Maryjun Takahashi, Sayaka Isoyama, Aki Hiraoka, Ami Tomite, Mika Akizuki, Makoto Kikuchi Running Time: 85 min.
By Z Ravas
In 2015, Takashi Miike, a filmmaker known for his ceaseless work ethic, eased his output to a relaxed – by his standards – two movies a year. For his part, Love Exposureand Cold Fishdirector Sion Sono seemed determined to pick up the slack. That same year, Sion saw his name attached to no less than six – count ’em, six! – features. While some critics have accused the Japanese auteur, known for his commitment to extreme cinema, of spreading himself a little too thin, I imagine that most die-hard Sono fans will find plenty to enjoy with 2015’s Tag.
Likely owing to its slick, commercial visuals and winsome cast of Japanese schoolgirls, Tag is one of the few recent Sion Sono movies to achieve wide distribution in North America; in fact, you can even queue it up on Netflix. The plot, based on a novel by Yusuke Yamada, is about a Japanese teenager named Mitsuko who finds herself trapped in the day from hell, almost like Bill Murray in a plaid skirt (how’s that for a visual?). On a school field trip, she is forced to watch as a mysteriously violent wind slices her schoolmates in half – and that’s before the ten minute mark! Things only grow stranger from there as a desperate and on-the-run Mitsuko joins up with a group of young strangers who insist she’s been their beloved classmate all along. Soon enough, Mitsuko finds herself in a fight for her life against powerful, reality-hopping forces… and fight she will.
To say much more beyond that would spoil the fun, though rest assured plenty of bullets are fired and bodies split in half before the credits roll. The plot, as wild and careening as it is, seems to take liberal influence from mind-bending storylines like The Matrixand Total Recall, as well as the generous schoolgirl body count of Battle Royale. But there’s also a surprisingly tender romance/friendship at play between Mitsuko and her newfound classmate Aki, the kind that wouldn’t be out of place in a well-done indie drama, and the dream-like atmosphere of the entire production is aided greatly by Sion Sono’s liberal use of the 11-minute instrumental post-rock song “Pure as Snow (Trails of the Winter Storm)” by Japanese band MONO.
If Tag has a weakness, it’s in its stop-and-start pacing. The movie doesn’t seem to have much of a story to tell once Mitsuko figures out what’s behind her sudden Alice in Wonderland-like existence, as though the tale is all wind-up and no pitch. As such, there are times when it feels like Sion Sono is spinning his wheels in order to ensure the film’s runtime hits the measly 85 minute mark – perhaps most noticeable during the myriad of sequences in which Mitsuko fearfully runs away from the wind as though she’s starring in a Japanese schoolgirl remake of The Happening.
Despite some admitted lulls, Tag’s highs are just about as deliriously high as anything in Sion Sono’s oeuvre. Fans of the filmmaker should know what they’re in for – and know that they’re in for a good, wild time. He’s one of the few living directors who could dream up a scene in which a pig-headed man jump-kicks a marathon-runner, and have it entirely make sense in the context of the plot. Tag appears to want to say something about the nature in which women, particularly young women, are exploited by the Japanese entertainment industry for the pleasure of a male populace… but mostly it’s another launchpad for Sono’s delirious imagination, and in that regard it does not disappoint.
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray set for MGM’s Chuck Norris: Total Attack Pack. This 4-disc collection includes some of the best titles from Norris’ filmography:
Lone Wolf McQuade (1983), starring David Carradine and Barbara Carrera; Missing in Action (1984), starring James Hong; Code of Silence (1985), starring Henry Silva; and The Delta Force (1986), starring Lee Marvin and Robert Forster.
Director: Peter Malota Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Autumn Reeser, Peter Stormare, María Conchita Alonso, Daniel Bernhardt, Kris Van Damme, Mila Kaladjurdjevic, Peter Organ Running Time: 96 min.
By Kelly Warner
Stunt performers and fight coordinators are awesome individuals that go largely underappreciated by far too many film fans. I tend to think that may not be the case at City on Fire, but the point remains. These men and women know their stuff and they make our movies better with their often unsung contributions. However, when asked to step into the role of actor, writer, or director, sometimes these stunt specialists aren’t always up to task. Kill ’em All is the directorial debut of stuntman and fight choreographer Peter Malota. Malota is not well known to me, but he’s been involved with multiple Jean-Claude Van Damme movies over the years both behind the camera and in front of it, with collaborations such as The Quest, Nowhere to Run, and Double Impact. Those films, which featured JCVD in his prime, showcased good (sometimes great) action and stunt work, so I have no reason to doubt Malota’s abilities in his original field. But a good storyteller he is not.
Kill ’em All is a confusing, poorly paced action movie based around the mystery of a hospital bloodbath and the nurse who survived it. Nurse Suzanne (Autumn Reeser, The Arrangement) is called in for questioning by the FBI. Agent Holman (Peter Stormare, Fargo) doubts her story – for some reason? – and Suzanne decides to start from the beginning, retelling how her skeleton crew hospital took in multiple victims from an apparent assassination attempt all at once. One of them is Philip (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who is sporting a concussion and bleeding from a bad cut on his arm. Suzanne is tending to her patients when a Russian with a gun (Daniel Bernhardt) walks in, shoots the ceiling, and demands to know, “Where is he?!” No one knows who the hell he’s talking about. Nor should they. Dude just shows up with a gun, asks a vague question, and kills people who can’t give him a satisfactory answer. Thing is, I didn’t know who he meant either. I assumed he was talking about JCVD, because well, when a bad guy asks “Where is he?” in a JCVD movie, it’s natural to assume he’s talking about our favorite Muscles from Brussels. But nope. The angry Russian goes over to a dead guy on a gurney, pulls back the sheet, and reveals his recently slain brother. Ahhh. Okay then. Next thing you know, Van Damme draws his gun (because apparently patients who are the survivors of assassination attempts are not disarmed when put under medical care) and he goes out into the hall to deal with the angry Russian. These characters with only the vaguest of motivations shoot at each other in the hospital lobby and Suzanne sticks close to Van Damme because at least he’s not shooting at the ceiling and asking stupid questions. But wait, hold up. Peter Stormare’s FBI guy doesn’t believe this crap so we gotta jump back to the FBI interrogation room. Suzanne says that’s how it happened, the FBI asks why they should believe her, and the audience screams GET ON WITH IT ALREADY. But before we can jump back to the hospital, let’s now explore the backstories of the assassins who are here to kill Philip via a series of flashbacks, with each flashback given its own exact date that seems important at first but I guess not…?
It’s a mess. There is such a thing as trying to do too much. At the core of the story is an assault on a hospital where JCVD must fight off assassins, each of them known for their particular method of murder, while he works his way to the fifth floor where an injured diplomat sleeps in a hospital bed. If the movie wanted to be all about that, we might’ve had something here. But instead, the movie goes every which way. The constant jumping back to the FBI room can be tolerated, if only because Peter Stormare is easily the most entertaining thing in the movie. But the flashbacks are a tiresome bore. One goes as far back as 1981 to show JCVD’s Philip as a child (the kid is all of 12 years old. Which begs the question: is JCVD supposed to be 48 years old in this movie?). There are a few unexpected twists at the end—some of them truly bonkers—and I’d almost give it credit for deciding to go in that direction, if not for the fact that one such twist is so obviously lifted from a far superior film.
As Philip, Jean-Claude Van Damme is… elsewhere. He looks incredibly tired. An argument could be made that he’s too old for this sort of role but I’m not ready to go there because it’s clear that the movie would’ve sucked just as much with someone like Scott Adkins in the lead. Van Damme’s character barely speaks, but when he does speak the script gives him some real doozies. There’s this quiet moment during the hospital mayhem where Philip and Suzanne sit down in a break room to talk. He says to her, “You seem like the type of girl I would like to walk with you in the woods and listen to the birds. Plus, you’re intelligent.” And yes, in addition to being an outrageously bad line, it’s also (one must assume) a flubbed delivery. But who wants to read a line like that twice, right?
The lame dialogue extends to other sections of the film, too. Suzanne, a survivor of bloody mayhem, recounts her story like a drunk novelist crafting a poor first draft (hey, I’ve been there, too). A character that you’d think would be shaken by what she’d endured instead slips into flowery prose like she’s attempting to impress. When Stormare’s FBI agent yells at her to get to the point, I acknowledge that he’s a jerk, but damn if I’m not on his side anyway because this dialogue was meant for the garbage can.
Peter Stormare is the best part of the movie, though that’s admittedly not saying a whole lot. I think he must’ve just come off the set of John Wick Chapter 2– it’s the same beard, same slicked back hair, it might even be the same suit. I don’t for one second buy him as an FBI Agent but he’s fun. And though he doesn’t get much to say, Daniel Bernhardt makes for an intimidating villain. It’s like a more dramatically invested take on his bodyguard character from John Wick, a heavy who disappeared into the background too much in that film but makes for a standout in Kill’ em All.
The action is average. The film’s wretched editing ruins the thrills. JCVD’s son Kris Van Damme shows off some nice kicks. I don’t believe he says a word in the film but he’s impressive in his fight with his father. Autumn Reeser’s Suzanne has a fight with a femme fatale assassin (model Mila Kaladjurdjevic) but the action is far too brief to hold a lasting memory. The best is saved for last when Van Damme and Bernhardt face off. Not sure if fans will consider it worth the wait but it is a fine fight and both performers pull off a few good moves.
The film is obviously working on a small budget. I don’t hold that against it, but nor do I think that’s reason enough to forgive its many shortcomings. It’s an above average cast for a direct-to-DVD feature but they’re largely wasted on a horrible script and awful pacing. Waste of a cool title.
If The Legend of Famen Temple is anything like the novel, here what’ you can expect: The story takes place in the Famen Temple in the Tang Dynasty. The stupa, where Buddha’s relic is enshrined suddenly catches fire and flying Apsaras appears on top of it. A teenager named Duan Chengshi and his cousin witnesses all the oddities. Later, Duan’s cousin loses memory, followed by sudden death of people who talk about it. Duan also loses his notes. And someone keeps watch on Duan and even attacks him. After investigation, Duan lays emphasis on a priestess of Zoroastrianism. Then, things get more complicated (via Amazon).
According to AFS, The Legend of Famen Temple begins shooting in November. For now, we leave you with the Trailer for Time and Tide (because we miss Tsui’s modern-setting films):
Director: David Leitch Writer: Kurt Johnstad Cast: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones, Bill Skarsgård, Daniel Bernhardt, Sam Hargrave, James Faulkner, Roland Møller, Lili Gesler Running Time: 115 min.
By Kelly Warner
With a bit of fancy editing and a dash of special effects, movies can make just about anyone into an action hero these days. But every once in a while, a star and a director decide they want to do more than trick you; they want to convince you. All the right things gotta come together for this to happen. The right star, who must be motivated to push themselves physically. And the right director, who knows how to use what their star can do without appearing to hide what they can’t. That duo—plus a hundred other necessary elements—is a rare thing in Hollywood, where things are made fast and with as little risk as possible. But Charlize Theron is a rare type of actress. And her heroine in Atomic Blonde is precisely the sort of role that best shows off her many talents.
Training under director David Leitch’s 87eleven ‘action design’ studio, Theron took the bruises and spent the necessary time to make the punches look real before filming commenced. When she fights off a group of guys with little more than a yellow hose, I was in tune with the action, even audibly expressing my shock when certain spectacular moves were performed. It’s one of the most convincing transformations from attractive Hollywood star to absolute badass I’ve seen.
In Atomic Blonde, Theron plays Lorraine Broughton, an MI6 spy who’s seen some of the worst of the Cold War. She’s a tough, no-nonsense operative who’s just as willing to use sex appeal as she is a clenched fist of keys to best her opponents. We first see her naked in a tub of ice, covered in bruises. She then reports to her superiors, the British spy played by Toby Jones (Captain America) and the CIA man played by John Goodman (Kong: Skull Island), who grill her on her recent operation in East Berlin leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Another MI6 agent (a man Lorraine is reluctant to admit she was close to) was killed while trying to escape Berlin with microfilm. Lorraine’s mission was to retrieve the microfilm, all the while keeping an eye out for the notorious but faceless traitor known as Satchel.
Lorraine was made as soon as she stepped off the plane. The KGB know her name, they know her contacts, and they knew she was coming. She fights them off—using her high heel shoes—and is picked up by a fellow British spy, David Percival (James McAvoy, X-Men: First Class). From here, she gets the lay of the land and meets with various contacts including the intel salesman (Til Schweiger, Inglourious Basterds), the innocent French woman (Sofia Boutella, Kingsman), the Soviet turncoat (Eddie Marsan, Ray Donovan), and the document forger (Bill Skarsgård, It).
And from there it just sort of… meanders for a bit. There’s not much of a sense of hurry in Lorraine’s mission. The villains are the Russians and they’re everywhere, but they’re a vague threat that exists somewhere in the shadows and only appear when an action sequence is needed. The specter of the traitor known as Satchel isn’t introduced until about Act 2, which seems a little late. As an action movie, Atomic Blonde can be pretty spectacular, but it wants to be a Cold War thriller, too, and that’s where it doesn’t always deliver.
But if you’re coming for action, you should leave the theatre pretty happy. There’s a continuous shot action sequence set primarily in a stairway that rivals the likes of Oldboy and Children of Men. I say ‘continuous shot’ and not ‘single shot’ because I’m sure there are some cuts in there, but they’re all well disguised. It’s an amazing sequence. Another awesome scene has Charlize Theron’s blonde Brit face off against Daniel Bernhardt’s blonde Russian in a movie theatre while Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker plays in the background. Very cool.
The film has a very particular look and feel, some of which feels directly influenced by director David Leitch’s co-director gig, John Wick. Backgrounds covered in spray paint, stars lit by neon, and all set to the tune of 80’s rock, it’s a most peculiar Cold War actioner. But it works. Leitch proves that Wick co-director and fellow former stuntman Chad Stahelski isn’t the only one who can succeed when going it alone. The film suffers pacing issues and the story lacks originality, but Leitch’s visual style and hard-hitting action are reasons to be excited for his future films to come.
No matter how good anyone else is, they are afterthoughts by comparison to Charlize Theron. This is a great character, wonderfully played by an actress willing to go the edge for her art. It’s almost a shame that Theron and Lorraine didn’t find each other years ago, because I can imagine endless sequels with her character. What I also liked is that she was not some invincible heroine. In one extended fight, Lorraine walks off looking to be in worse shape than the men she defeated. Her special skill is that she just doesn’t quit.
It’s just too bad that the film’s story didn’t wow me the same way that its main character did. Atomic Blonde is the battle of some first-rate John Wick-inspired action trapped in a second-rate John le Carré-inspired spy thriller. It’s a mildly disappointing film because when it’s working, it’s really working. Just the same, it’s definitely worth seeing, for Theron if nothing else. I hope to see more of the character in sequels. Hopefully with a more interesting story next time. Atomic Blonde has big franchise material.
Expendables 3’s box office belly flop a few years ago – possibly due to the film’s early online leakage or its undesired PG-13 rating – left the franchise in limbo. And Sylvester Stallone’s recent disagreement with series producer Avi Lerner, may have left the series dead, but we’ll get back into that later.
After the fan backlash of Expendables 3’s PG-13 rating, Stallone stated that he would make the next installation R-Rated: “If I do another one it’s going to be a lot bloodier… hardcore R.” He added: “I believe it was a horrible miscalculation on everyone’s part in trying to reach a wider audience, but in doing such, diminish the violence that the audience expects. I’m quite certain it won’t happen again.”
The fact that the recent release of Marvel’s Deadpool became the third R-Rated movie to cross $300 million domestically (The Passion of the Christ and American Sniper are #1 and #2, respectively), toning down violent films to a PG-13 to reach a wider audience became a thing of the past. Then came the recent release of 2017’s Logan, another hugely successful Marvel flick that followed Deadpool’s R-Rating trend. So, an R-Rated Expendables 4 would no longer be “quite certain,” it would have been a done deal.
To producers, this wasn’t some urgent research paper on what’s morally right or wrong, it was all about making money while still keeping the integrity of the filmmakers’ vision intact. Like Stallone said, making Part 3 PG-13 to sell more tickets was a miscalculation. After all, the Expendables franchise started out as R-Rated. It made money. Lots of it. So to have Expendables 3 come out with with its PG-13 rating was a punch in the face for those who loved the series – I mean, you’ve got the biggest R-rated action stars in the world (okay, they’re has-beens, but they’re still action legends… Rambo, Desperado, Terminator, Lethal Weapon, you get the point…) in one film, and they want their target audience to be people who weren’t even born when most of the cast was at their prime? Sometimes greed teaches you a lesson.
So development on Expendables 4 begins, but wait (!) *insert record scratch sound effect*…
In March 2017, Stallone announces he’s leaving the Expendables series. Turns out, he and Nu Image/Millennium chief Avi Lerner could not find common ground on a new director, on the script and on certain qualitative elements of the film.
So what the heck happened? Did Lerner want John Moore (A Good Day to Die Hard) to direct, leaving Stallone running for his life? Were the studios still pushing for a PG-13 rating? Doubtful, just ask Deadpool. Or maybe Stallone’s new found acclaim with Creed turned him off from the goofy franchise? Possibly, but doesn’tEscape Plan 2 rule that out?
There’s some speculation that Stallone was simply “getting too old for this sh*t.” I personally don’t buy it. If you look at his upcoming projects, he’s got a lot of stuff lined up that’s not exactly voice over work for Pixar: Escape Plan 2: Hades, Escape Plan 3 and Ex-Baghdad (with Jackie Chan). Besides, the more action stars you have in one movie like the Expendables, the less physical work you’d have to do. Not saying it’s easy, but he’s not carrying the film by himself like he did in Rambo or Rocky.
Here’s the bottom line: Everyone changes their mind. In the 80s and 90s, how many times did Stallone say “this is the last Rambo, Rocky, etc.” Since then, he’s made another Rambo, and more Rocky films (yes, we’re including Creed – once you put on that lame black hat and leather jacket, you’ve made another Rocky movie).
If you’re a die hard Expendables fanatic, don’t lose hope. But then again, at 71 years old, time isn’t standing still for Stallone (although he’s in better shape than most twenty somethings). There’s also the chance the Expendables might continue without Stallone, but what fun is there in that? Heck, I don’t even like the Expendables franchise and I don’t want to see that happen.
You know what? Screw Expendables. Give me another one of these babies and I’ll be happy…
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