The Return of Godzilla | aka Godzilla 1984 | Blu-ray (Kraken)
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray for Koji Hashimoto’s The Return of Godzilla (aka Godzilla 1984). The film was also released in the U.S. as Godzilla 1985, which was heavily edited and spliced with different footage for the American market. Please note that this release will be the original, uncut version of The Return of Godzilla.
Director: Lee Chul-Ha Cast: Gang Ye-Won, Lee Sang-Yoon, Choi Jin-Ho, Ji Dae-Han, Chun Min-Hee, Lee Hak-Joo, Choi Yoon-So, Jo Jae-Yun, Kim Jong-Soo, Jang Tae-Seong Running Time: 91 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Mainstream Korean horror has always been a tricky beast, dating back to when the new wave really put Korean cinema on the map in the early 2000’s, the one constant seemed to be over promise and under deliver. Posters set expectations for buckets of blood (Cello), or grizzly decapitations (The Cut), however the product that ended up onscreen rarely matched the expectations that the artwork provided. In 2016, nothing seems to have changed much since those days. Yes, admittedly the poster for Insane gives very little away, instead leaning on the appeal of popular TV drama actor Lee Sang-yoon, and patchy actress Kang Ye-won. However the spirit of over-selling is still there, as the production was promised to be an intense psychological journey into the horrors of a woman convinced she’s going insane.
For a while, director Lee Cheol-ha looks like he’s going to follow through on the promise. Insane opens with a terrific shot, very similar to an equally fantastic shot that opens The Shameless, which sees the camera slicing diagonally down through the skyscrapers of Seoul, before settling on Ye-won just as she’s grabbed and bundled into a van by what appear to be police officers. Soon she’s been forcibly restrained, has a preventative gag stuck in her mouth, and is forced to strip and shower. It turns out she’s been admitted as a patient in a mental hospital, although where and why she’s there are a mystery. It’s nasty stuff, and proceedings look set to follow a grimy and unpleasant path.
Then, just like that, the tone completely changes. We’re asked to forget about the rather traumatising opening, and are abruptly introduced to Sang-yoon’s character, the producer of an investigative crime show, who’s in the middle of being interviewed on a talk show. The segment is interrupted though when news of a scandal involving Sang-yoon’s show is delivered to the host, and as a result he’s left out in the wind. Skip forward a year later, and he’s given a chance at redemption by hosting a show about unexplained phenomena – ghosts, things that go bump in the night etc. Sang-yoon is understandably displeased at the proposition, however a partially burnt diary grabs his attention, which looks to have been written by a mental patient proclaiming to be locked up against her will.
It is of course Ye-won’s diary, and we learn that not only did the mental hospital burn down in a fire, but she’s also currently locked up and awaiting trial for the murder of her step-father. Naturally Sang-yoon makes it his mission to find out the truth, determined that breaking the story will make him a hot producer once more, and he won’t need to bother with the goofy supernatural show. Right here is the first major problem that Insane has, as it quickly changes its footing to become an investigative thriller about Sang-yoon uncovering the truth. We already know Ye-won is out of the hospital, so there’s not even an element of knowing she’s in danger, instead, it simply becomes a by-the-numbers thriller of a disgraced TV producer trying to get his ticket back to prime time. Who cares?
Director Lee Cheol-ha obviously wants us to, but one look at his filmography reveals he’s never spent long enough working within one genre to figure out how. After working as an assistant director on the 2000 classic Il Mare, he’s frequently skipped from melodrama (2006’s Love Me Not), found-footage horror (2010’s Deserted House), and documentary (2013’s Hello Orchestra), to now what he’d no doubt like us to believe is a psychological horror. In fairness, he occasionally throws in a scene to remind (probably himself as much as) the audience, that Insane is a horror flick. There’s a severed head in a box, a patients organs are attempted to be removed while they’re still alive, and there’s a hallucinatory dream sequence. However, it all feel like it’s there because it’s obligated to be, too obviously providing exclamation marks in an otherwise dull story.
So with expectations dashed that Insane is going to be any kind of descent into one woman’s madness, the success of the movie lies in its big reveal. Whose behind Ye-won’s forced stay in the mental hospital? What were their reasons for putting her there? Will Sang-yoon be able to return to hosting a prime time TV show? Sadly, the more details that are hinted at as to why Ye-won was incarcerated the way she was, the more ridiculous the movie becomes, begging the question of if it’s even worth reaching the end of. Revelations that are completely uninteresting, and devoid of any horror element whatsoever, are fed to the audience as if they’re signs of a fantastically smart script.
To be honest, if Insane was a 60 minute TV drama special, it would probably get a serviceable pass. However a movie should look and feel like a movie, and Cheol-ha’s style of direction simply doesn’t. The script certainly does its part to work against him as well, as while it focuses on some aspects very closely, others it simple drops and never returns to. In one of the most misconstrued scenes I’ve seen in a long time, Sang-yoon and his ghost show crew (partially dressed as ghosts and witches) visit the mental hospital site to gather some footage. While there, a survivor from the fire is found, badly burnt and running around them like some kind of ghostly apparition, even though the scene is clearly well lit. It’s like Cheol-ha had completely missed the point of the scene in the script, which is much more likely that it should have been shot dark, and then they sense that they’re not alone.
The victim turns out to be one of the nurses who used to work in the hospital, the one of course who took pity on Ye-won and wanted to help her escape. During the course of the movie though, when Sang-yoon comes to visit him in the current hospital, the nurses advises he just disappeared. What happened to him? Actually you’ll never get to know, as it seems this plot point was forgotten about in the final version, and where exactly he disappeared to (and again, why?), is never touched upon. Factors like this are simply down to poor filmmaking, nothing more.
It’s a shame, as the more we learn about the nurse through flashbacks, the more he becomes one of the very few characters that it’s possible to care about even just a little. The lack of likeable characters is another one of Insane’s biggest issues – Sang-yoon just wants to get back on prime time TV, and his character isn’t developed any further than that, nor do his motivations change at any point. While it’s not entirely his fault, he clocks in a performance that’s as befittingly one note as the script he’s memorized. Likewise for Ye-won, she simply doesn’t register as a victim that we want to root for, despite the nastiness of the initial scenes, which is perhaps the biggest indicator of Cheol-ha’s lack of understanding of cinematic language. I mean after everything we saw Ye-won go through, we should care, but for whatever reason it is, we don’t.
The worst example of bad filmmaking comes in the final scene. Well, the scene that takes place after what we’re led to believe is the final scene. Cheol-ha delivers a last minute twist, which I’m sure was supposed to make viewers realise they need to see the movie again to fully understand what’s been going on. However the twist is so incredulously stupid, that I couldn’t even bring myself to laugh at it, instead letting out a completely involuntary groan of discontent. If you’re going to end your movie with a twist, you at least owe it to the audience, as an absolute bare minimum, to ensure that it makes sense. As it is, not only does the twist have more holes than an old pair of socks, but it also removes it even further away from horror territory than it already was. In this regard, Insane is exactly what it says on the box, and as such, it would be best if it’s locked up far out of sight from public viewing.
Director: John Stockwell Cast: Alain Moussi, Georges St-Pierre, T.J. Storm, Matthew Ziff, Sam Medina, Dave Bautista, Sue-Lynn Ansari, Darren Shahlavi, Gina Carano, Hawn Tran, Sara Malakul Lane, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Tanzpol Chuksrida Running Time: 90 min.
By Zach Nix
Kickboxer: Vengeance is a remake/reboot of the original and classic Jean-Claude Van Damme martial arts film, Kickboxer, which was released in 1989. While there were a string of Van Damme-less Kickboxer sequels released in the 90s starring Sasha Mitchell and Marc Dacascos, Kickboxer: Vengeance is the latest entry within the franchise after a solid twenty-year dry spell. Director John Stockwell (In the Blood) and screenwriters Dimitri Logothetis and Jim McGrath aim to not only pay tribute to the original, but also to start up a new series of sequels, to which there is already one, entitled Kickboxer: Retaliation, in production as I write this review. In a world filled with big budget remakes of hugely iconic intellectual properties, it’s nice to have a reboot of a smaller action and martial arts film, as cult classics tend to get swept under the rug in favor of larger reboots.
While some may argue as to whether Kickboxer: Vengeance is a remake, reboot, or reimagining of the original film, I would argue that it is a reboot-quel, as it feels like a sequel in nature due to Van Damme’s inclusion but also as a reboot to a long defunct franchise by passing the torch from one generation of stars and fans to the next. Similar reboot-quels as of recent include Terminator: Genisys, Mad Max: Fury Road, Creed, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, all films that aimed to revitalize franchises who had not seen an installment in several years through the incorporation of previous cast, crew, and canon. As for Kickboxer: Vengeance, I am glad to report that the reboot-quel not only successfully pays tribute to the original, but also one-ups it as a much superior film whilst paving the road for more sequels to come.
The plot, as fans of the classic will immediately recognize, is as follows. Kurt Sloane (Alain Moussi) is the manager of his karate champion brother, Eric Sloane (Darren Shahlavi). When Eric is offered a large amount of money by a fight organizer, Marcia (Gina Carano), to take part in an underground fight in Thailand against Muay Thai champion Tong Po (David Bautista), he accepts, although his brother stresses him not too. Unfortunately, Eric dies in the fight, leaving Kurt enraged against Tong Po and in mourning. After a failed attempt to murder Tong Po, Kurt seeks out Eric’s trainer, Master Durand (Jean-Claude Van Damme), to teach him Muay Thai in order to defeat Tong Po in a one-on-one fight.
Fans can relax knowing that Kickboxer: Vengeance doesn’t shamelessly rehash the original film’s plot points beat for beat, as it mostly uses the frame work of the original to tell the same story, whilst also throwing in new sub-plots, situations, and action scenes that never occurred within the original. The film shakes things up by dropping you into the middle of the conflict, as it than flashes back three months earlier to set up the exposition that fans will recognize, although this time Kurt’s brother is murdered, not simply paralyzed. Thankfully, the film shakes up the monotony of the training sequences by throwing in new action scenes and situations in the middle of the picture that never occurred in the original and providing a sub-plot concerning corrupt cops and their involvement with the illegal underground fights that was nowhere within the original as well. Overall, Kickboxer: Vengeance outdoes the original by packing slightly more meat into its narrative and for shaking up the formula a bit, whilst also providing far superior fights and numerous action stars and sports fighters to boot.
Kickboxer: Vengeance features a very impressive cast of recognizable and experienced sports fighters that turns the film into a celebration of all things mixed martial arts, sort of the same way that Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables paid tribute to the by gone era of the eighties action picture with its cast. Alain Moussi fills in Van Damme’s shoes as the franchise’s newest Kurt Sloane. While he is hardly a dramatically compelling actor, Moussi proves himself a solid physical performer, taking part within many fights that demonstrate his physical commitment to the production. Bautista also does solid work as the franchise’s newest Tong Po, using his imposing physical stature to great affect. Other small supporting roles within the film include Gina Carano as a villainous fight organizer, George St. Pierre as a desperate fighter whose allegiances seem shaky, and Darren Shahlavi as Kurt’s brother in his final screen performance. It’s extremely sad to watch Tong Po kill Shahlavi’s character early on in the film, as the scene carries more emotional weight to it considering that Shahlavi died in 2015 and that his death in the film is so particularly brutal. Shahlavi’s part may be small, but it is also quite affective, and a nice send off to one of martial arts’ late greats, may he rest in peace.
While martial arts fans would have turned out for Kickboxer: Vengeance regardless of who was in it, Van Damme’s inclusion is a huge coup. Kickboxer: Vengeance could be considered Van Damme’s Creed, as he, much like Stallone, goes full circle from the apprentice of the original film to the master in the reboot, more than twenty years later. He’s not going to be snagging an Oscar nomination like Stallone did, but Van Damme truly does give one of his career best performances here. He blends both sternness and maturity with his trademark goofiness, offering up a wink and a smile here and there, almost as a nod to his fans for always sticking by him all of these years. This is the perfect kind of role for Van Damme to play in his latter years, as it acknowledges his youthful past, gives him a few chances to show off his still impressive moves, and allows him to demonstrate his maturity in a role as wise master. The other great thing about Van Damme in this film is that he is in the entire movie, not simply a scene or two like some of the other stars in the film. He has a ton of screen time, participates in several fights, and is always involved with the story at hand. Unlike John Hyams’ Dragon Eyes, which featured Van Damme in a limited but affective mentor role, Kickboxer: Vengeance places Van Damme front and center to Moussi’s lead.
Unfortunately, there is one notable flaw about Van Damme’s part in the film. While he appears to be a good sport throughout, performing what appears to be all of his own moves on screen, there are a few very notable instances within the film where his voice is dubbed by someone other than himself. I immediately picked up on it early on, and had flashbacks to some of Steven Seagal’s worst post-dubbing moments in many of his own direct to video films. While it only appears here and there, and is honestly quite hard to pick up on unless you have an ear for this kind of stuff, it is extremely noticeable during the final fight when nearly every word that comes out of Van Damme’s mouth, especially ones depicted on screen, are not his own. It’s a shame that this otherwise technically proficient film features such obvious post-dubbing that plagues the worst of direct to video cinema. It’s a minor flaw in the grand scheme of things, and the only element of the film that outright hurts its theatrical quality, but it’s a shame that it appears within one of Van Damme’s best performances.
Besides its stellar cast, Kickboxer: Vengeance boasts an abundance of martial arts fights within its swift ninety minute run time. Moussi participates in almost every fight of the film, and has a one on one match with just about every one in the cast. Even Van Damme participates in several of the film’s fights, including a surprise throw down between him and St. Pierre. While not a direct tournament fighter film, although it does share similarities with the sub-genre, Kickboxer: Vengeance avoids the trapping of redundant one on one matches by throwing in several action scenes where Moussi specifically has to go up against multiple opponents amidst different settings, whether it be on the streets of Thailand or in the halls of a prison. While most martial arts fans would have been fine with numerous one on one matches, I for one appreciated Stockwell’s decision to craft several different kind of action scenes throughout, thereby making each one unique and different from the last.
Although some martial fans will always see the original Kickboxer as an undisputed classic that cannot be topped, I for one am here to argue and proclaim that Kickboxer: Vengeance is not only a great update and reboot of the original, but a far superior film. Before all of you Van Damme and martial arts fans come after me, let me explain my case. In all honesty, I always felt that the original Kickboxer was a flawed and slightly boring martial arts picture that only got by based upon the nostalgia its fans had attached to it, no offense to fans of said picture. That being said, Kickboxer: Vengeance not only gives you the familiar story of the original, but also offers up a greater variety of action scenes, a far more involving training process, an immensely stellar cast, as well as sub-plots that add more meat to the narrative. What I am getting at here, is that Kickboxer: Vengeance has the advantage over the original simply because it offers up more entertainment bang for your buck. There are also some very fun nods to the original that fans will get a real kick out of. I dare not spoil them for those who have not seen the film yet, but they elevate the picture that much higher for its respect of the original.
All insults of the original aside, the reboot is not entirely perfect either. As I stated before, the most glaring error of the picture is Van Damme’s obvious voice dubbing, which pulls the viewer directly out of the picture. It’s a shame that the worst error of Seagal’s direct to video cinema not only found its way into a Van Damme picture, whom is typically never dubbed over by someone else, but also within one of the better American martial arts pictures of recent years. Another error of the picture is that it moves at too swift a pace at times, gliding quickly over rather important scenes that need more time in order to drive their effect home, most notably Eric Sloane’s death. It also doesn’t help that the classic Kickboxer story is not the world’s most dramatically compelling tale, as it is mostly an excuse to craft a vehicle for martial artists to show off their moves. However, the pros of this reboot outweigh its cons by a long shot. It’s not often that martial arts fans get a reboot, let alone a film, of this stature with such a notable budget and ensemble cast. The fights are uniformly excellent too, from both their hard-hitting choreography to their smooth cinematography. And Van Damme’s involvement in the film makes it a must see event, brining his career full circle from the young ambitious wannabe star to full-fledged action veteran. There’s no doubt about it, Kickboxer: Vengeance is not only a solid martial arts picture, but also superior to the original Kickboxer in every way.
The world of mixed martial arts has undergone somewhat of a boom period over the last two decades as the rise in popularity of organisations such as UFC have moved the sport into the mainstream. The debate about who is the greatest MMA fighter of all-time continues to rage on so here is our look at the most legendary ones to have graced the sport over the years.
Anderson “The Spider” Silva is widely regarded as the greatest MMA fighter of all-time
Anderson “The Spider” Silva
We start this list with undoubtedly the greatest MMA fighter of all time in Anderson Silva. The Brazilian fighter went on an incredible winning streak during his prime of 19-0 in which time he defeated some of the sport’s biggest names including Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort, and Dan Henderson. The fact this era of dominance came when there were no other competitions outside of the UFC that were taking competitors away meant Silva was the best at a time when UFC was at its most competitive. He holds the record for the longest title streak in UFC history at 2,457 days. Many wonder how good Silva could have continued to be if he had not horrifically broken his leg against Chris Weidman.
Matt Hughes
It has been a glittering career for US fighter Hughes who is a two-time UFC Welterweight Champion, UFC Hall of Famer, and NJCAA Hall of Famer. During his title streak, Hughes was considered to be the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the world. He has defeated a number of legendary fighters such as Georges St Pierre, Royce Gracie, and BJ Penn. Such is the reputation of Hughes within the sport that St Pierre even admitted after his defeat that he was awestruck by Hughes before, during, and after their bout.
Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko
If you want to consider some of the best MMA fighters in their prime then you need to look no further than Russian Fedor Emelianenko who went undefeated between 6th April, 2001 and 7th November, 2009. He beat some of the best fighters to have graced the sport such as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice) and Mirko Filipovic. He has won multiple titles with different organisations including PRIDE Fighting Championships, FIAS World Combat Sambo Championship, and Russian Judo Federation National Championship.
Georges “Rush” St. Pierre
The Canadian mixed martial artist became one of the first big marketable names in UFC and can take a lot of credit for helping the organisation’s popularity sky rocket during the 2000s. George St. Pierres’ only two defeats during his first 11 years of fighting came against two big-name fighters in the shape of Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. He is a three-time former welterweight champion in the UFC and he holds the record for the second longest combined title streak in UFC history that lasted 2,204 days. The many victories of Georges “Rush” St. Pierre helped the sport to become a popular market across sports betting which was always seen as an unrealistic prospect for MMA. Mobile sports betting has been on the rise ever since then along with mobile casino games in general and MMA is becoming increasingly popular for sports bettors.
Randy “The Natural” Couture
Do not let Randy Couture’s less-brutal-than-normal nickname of “The Natural” fool you. This man was one of the most feared fighters in MMA during his peak. The US fighter is a former heavyweight champion in a career that spanned from 1997 to 2011. He was a late starter in MMA terms, he only turned professional at 33 years of age, and many feel he could have gone on to become one of the greatest if he had started his career earlier.
Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva
Wanderlei Silva is credited with having one of the most prolific prime streaks during the history of MMA. Between 12th August, 2000 and 1st July, 2006, Silva won 18 fights without defeat to put his name amongst the greats of the sport. He has defeated great fighters including Dan Henderson and Quinton Jackson. The Brazilian-American fighter has shown his talents in UFC and PRIDE winning plaudits in both organisations. He also boasts the longest winning streak in PRIDE history.
Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira
Brazilian fighter Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira became renowned for his expertise of the Brazilian Ju-Jitsu discipline during his career. He experienced an 8-year prime streak between 2000 and 2008 when he posted wins against fighters such as Mark Coleman, Fabricio Werdum, and Josh Barnett. Despite only being touted as one of the best fighters in the UFC for a short time he is still regarded as one of the best technical fighters to appear in the organisation.
Jon “Bones” Jones is an icon for the new era of UFC
Jon “Bones” Jones
Not many fighters make this list when they are still active but 29-year-old Jon Jones is one of the few. The current interim light heavyweight champion in UFC has carved quite a reputation for himself already. In an age when the charisma of the likes of McGregor and Brock Lesnar have dominated the media the more low-key approach of Jones continues to impress the purists. He has repeatedly been listed as the best pound-for-pound fighter around right now and notching up 21 victories between 12th April, 2008 and 6th January, 2015 shows how successful he has been. He has a VIP list of defeated opponents including Alexander Gustafsson, Daniel Cormier, and Lyoto Machida and he is only just getting started.
Bas “El Guapo” Rutten
We need to rewind the clock back a bit further to see the prime of Dutch fighter Bas Rutten. The man from Tilburg ended his prestigious career on a high with an undefeated streak of 22 fights consisting of 21 wins and 1 draw. Rutten was like a fine wine and only seemed to get better with age. The UFC Hall of Fame inductee popularised the use of the liver shot in MMA and he has gone on to become one of the most highly-regarded coaches in MMA.
Chuck “The Ice Man” Liddell
In the days before Conor McGregor, the one man who was the most commercially viable fighter for MMA was US-based Chuck Liddell. The fact he has appeared in a number of movies and television shows over the years such as Entourage, Drillbit Taylor, and Kick-Ass 2 emphasize this. However, he was also a brilliant fighter in his own right. He was involved in some epic fights with opponents such as Wanderlei Silva, Randy Couture, and Tito Ortiz. He will forever be remembered as one of the hardest-hitting fighters of all-time.
An adaptation of Richard H. Dillon’s 2012 novel, Hatchet Men: The Story of the Tong Wars, is in the works. Will Yun Lee (Four Assassins, Wolverine) will headline the film, which will be based on screenplay by Michael Thomas (Backbeat) and Morgan Duncan (Parfum Fatale).
According to Deadline, Hatchet Men will follow the conflicts between rival gangs in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1890s. The story will center on Little Pete (Lee), the prominent leader of the Som Yop Tong gang, who built a criminal empire.
In addition to hatchet-wielding gangsters, we can also expect some martial arts action: “Finding a world where you can bring the kinetic energy of The Raid and the texture of Boardwalk Empire is an exciting project to be a part of,” Lee told Deadline.
Lee is also working on Ron Yuan’s Unspoken: Diary of an Assassin, an action/thriller that also stars Zoë Bell (Death Proof) and Brian Tee (No Tears for the Dead).
We’ll keep you updated on this project as we learn more. Until then, here’s a look at what Lee is capable of in 2012’s Four Assassins:
John McTiernan – the legendary filmmaker behind Die Hard, Predator, The Hunt for Red October and Die Hard with A Vengeance – is ready for action. WWII action, that is.
According to CFI, McTiernan has signed to direct an untitled WWII film about the aftermath of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942, which was the first air strike to hit the Japanese Home Islands. Its name was derived from Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces, who led the raid.
Hollywood and Hong Kong’s André Morgan (Tower of Death) – who is mostly known for his association with Golden Harvest studios – is on board as producer. There are currently no other details regarding additional cast or crew.
Ever since McTiernan’s 2014 prison release, he’s been connected to some “come back” projects that ultimately fell through. The first was a mercenary thriller called Red Squad. The second was Warbirds, a Top Gun-like action flick that would have starred John Travolta.
Here’s hoping this upcoming WWII film will see the light of day and serve as a proper comeback for one of Hollywood’s best filmmakers. Shooting is expected to start next year in China. Stay tuned.
“The Lost Bladesman” and “Reign of Assassins” Contest
Cityonfire.com and Anchor Bay Entertainment are giving away 3 sets of DVDs containing both Donnie Yen’s The Lost Bladesman and Michelle Yeoh’s Reign of Assassins to three lucky Cityonfire visitors. To enter, simply add a comment to this post and describe, in your own words, the video below.
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AKA: Creature
Director: Pedring Lopez
Cast: Cesar Montano, Maria Ozawa, Meg Imperial, Yam Concepcion, Cholo Barretto, Dido de la Paz, Kiko Matos, Aubrey Miles, Alexandre Charlet, Sonny Sison
Running Time: 90 min.
By Paul Bramhall
After a long absence out of the spotlight, Filipino cinema has been making a quiet but assured comeback in recent years. Movies like Erik Matti’s On the Job, Sean Ellis’s Metro Manila, and Khavn de la Cruz’s Ruined Heart have all travelled beyond local shores and garnered international acclaim on the festival circuit. While all of these productions have used the backdrop of Manila’s underworld to create depressingly dark and gritty portrayals of the less fortunate in Philippines society, upcoming director Pedring Lopez took a decidedly different approach for his sophomore feature, Nilalang.
Eschewing the realistic settings of his counterparts, Lopez draws his influences more from the many action/horror hybrids that were coming out of Hong Kong in the 1980’s. The plot is simple – in ancient Japan there is a book, called the Book of Ishi (think of it as this movies version of the Book of the Dead from The Evil Dead movies), which contains the names and spirits of all known demons. One particular demon, Zahagur, has a penchant for cutting off the faces of any females that share the bloodline of those who oppose it. Skip forward to 2015 Manila, Zahagur is back to his old tricks, and it’s up to cops Cesar Montano and Meg Imperial, to put an end to the demons reign of terror.
While both Montano and Imperial are well known as local Filipino actors, the surprise casting in Nilalang comes in the shape of former Japanese AV actress Maria Ozawa, here headlining her first full length feature. Ozawa, who has a Japanese mother and French Canadian father, is one of the most recognizable AV actresses in Asia thanks to her exotic looks, and has recently been looking to branch out into movie roles. While she’s featured in a couple of Indonesian movies previously (one of which notably drew the ire of the Islamic Defenders Front, a radicalised group notorious for violence), Nilalang can be considered her first mainstream production in which she has a substantial role.
Nilalang opens strongly, featuring an animated introduction, before segueing into a scene set in ancient Japan, as two Ronin walk through a field of bloody massacred bodies. They confront the demon in human form, who calmly sits next to a freshly sliced off face hanging neatly next to him, before squaring off in a duel of swords. It’s a nicely choreographed exchange to kick off the movie, which is given an extra layer of tension, as the other Ronin attempts to recite a page from the Book of Ishi to subdue the demon. The whole scene plays out like a mesh up between the Shaw Brothers movie Human Lanterns, meets Ryuhei Kitamura’s Aragami, and succeeds at grabbing the audience’s attention from the word go.
Once the opening credits come to a close the narrative skips to a second flashback scene, but this time only 2 years prior to present day, as we witness Montano and his team track down and kill a Japanese serial killer to an abandoned warehouse. The killer has a taste for murdering his victims using elements of bondage and S&M, so when a spate of similar killings start occurring in present day Manila, both Montano’s team and the local media begin to question if something supernatural is behind them. There’s some strange choices of logic used in Nilalang, as when the killer is tracked down, his eyes are completely white, and he has that deep growling voice that only possessed people in movies have. However as the plot moves along, it becomes apparent that Montano and his team apparently didn’t consider either of these traits as unusual, which is the equivalent of Father Merrin walking in on Regan and concluding that she’s a perfectly normal teenager.
Montano himself plays the ultimate cop, the kind that sleeps with a bottle of whisky and a gun next to his bed. Montano’s ex wants to get back with him, Ozawa asks him to sleep over in the first scene they meet, and his partner fantasizes about him while taking a nap (even just after his ex, who she recommended he should get back with, is horribly murdered!). Frankly, everyone in the movie seems to want to sleep with him, with his colleagues openly declaring that they wish they could be as good with the ladies as he is. In short, Montano may be the main character of the movie, but you’ll spend a large part of it hoping for the demon to cut his face off.
Thankfully his poker faced machoism is off-played by Ozawa’s weird and wonderful performance. While she doesn’t get the same amount of screen-time as Montano, whenever she is onscreen there’s something about her acting which pulls you in. She’s not a good actress as such, and her quirky delivery is paired with some entertainingly over the top scenes. One such example has her indulge in some Chow Yun Fat style double handgun action, as she shoots a bar to pieces, before cutely declaring that she’s ready to go and face the demon. The intense unloading of bullets has no context to it whatsoever, and adds a kind of pulpy charm to proceedings. Another scene has her armed with a samurai sword, in which she has to enter the Yakuza Temple (who said Yakuza’s need to be subtle?), to face off against a fully armoured samurai (played by the movies action choreographer, Sonny Sison), in order to gain access to the Book of Ishi. Not many movies can claim to have a Japanese AV star facing off against a samurai, but Nilalang delivers the goods with aplomb.
Indeed the whole look of Nilalang comes across as very stylised and glossy, rarely showing any signs of its limited budget. As director Lopez is also a keen fan of Anime, there are a few instances which have an animated scene inserted, usually to show a moment of extreme violence. While we’ve seen this type of animated technique used before, most recently in the likes of Prachya Pinkaew’s Tom Yum Goong and Chocolate, here the use of Japanese style animation fits in perfectly with the tone of the production itself.
The English title for Nilalang is The Entity, and it effectively captures the essence of the demon. Much like 1998’s Denzel Washington starring Fallen (or perhaps more appropriately, 1993’s Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday), the demon can move from one host to the next, ensuring no one is safe from its grasp. Throughout the runtime our trio of main characters end up being confronted by possessed versions of an overweight housemaid, a grave digger, a team of cops, and ultimately each other. While most of the action is given to Ozawa (who doesn’t want to see a katana wielding femme fatale facing off against a flesh hungry demon?), it’s apparent that screen fighting is a talent that she’s still very much developing, and as such there are moments of clunkiness whenever she’s called to action.
However arguably Sison does a commendable job with the resources that he had available, and it’s been a long time since we’ve had a movie that gives us MMA demons (the last I can think of would be 2009’s Hellbinders). With the flair for visuals that Lopez clearly has an eye for, and the action choreography of Sison, Nilalang shows plenty of potential for the future of Filipino action cinema. The pair are already reuniting for another collaboration, the Mark Dacascos starring Breach, so it’s safe to say things are only likely to get bigger and better. For now though, while Nilalang is certainly far from perfect, it does feature just enough face slicing to be considered a worthwhile way to spend an evening with the lights off.
Note: The version I saw is the international Director’s Cut, and can be considered the complete version of the movie. The version that screened locally in the Philippines has close to 10 minutes’ worth of cuts for violence, and the version that screened at the Metro Manila Film Festival in 2015 was missing the animated sequences, as they hadn’t been completed yet.
Rurouni Kenshin Part III: The Legend Ends | Blu-ray & DVD (Funimation)
RELEASE DATE: January 3, 2017
Funimation presents the Blu-ray & DVD for Rurouni Kenshin Part III: The Legend Ends (aka Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends), a 2014 live-action film directed by Keishi Otomo and based on the manga series Rurouni Kenshin.
The story follows two prior films, Rurouni Kenshin (2012) and Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014). To stop Makoto Shishio who aims to conquer Japan, Kenshin arrives in Kyoto and tries to face off against Shishio’s troops. However, his enemy has begun its course to start invading Tokyo with the steel-reinforced battleship. | Part I and Part II are also available.
“Halloween III: Season of the Witch” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace Cast: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy, Michael Currie, Ralph Strait, Jadeen Barbor, Brad Schacter Running Time: 98 min.
By Kelly Warner
“Happy, Happy Halloween! Silver Shamrock!”
The original vision of the Halloween series was not always going to be about Michael Myers, his issues with his sister, and his need to kill babysitters every October. But when 1978’s Halloween was a smash success, director John Carpenter was tasked with writing the script for the tie-in sequel. The sequel needed a twist and so Carpenter decided to make Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) Michael’s sister. Though Carpenter thought it was bullshit, it nonetheless stuck, and helped cement the backbone of the Halloween series for fans. Instead of Michael vs. Laurie, Carpenter’s original vision for the Halloween brand would be to tell a different, unrelated scary story every Halloween. When Halloween III: Season of the Witch finally acted on that premise, those involved with the production were divided. Carpenter, producer Debra Hill, and writer-director Tommy Lee Wallace were all-in. Executive producer Irwin Yablans and people at Universal had some doubts. Yablans says the decision not to use Michael Myers for the film was “stupid.” And financially speaking, he was right. The film was not the success that the previous movies had been at the box office, and fans generally despised the movie as the black sheep of the series. But now, thirty years later, people are giving the movie another shot. For though it looks odd on the shelf in between Halloween II and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, the third film in the Halloween franchise is nonetheless a great horror film with a few interesting tricks ‘n treats for fans of the genre.
In addition to not featuring Michael Myers, series star Jamie Lee Curtis only plays a disembodied voice this time around and Donald Pleasence’s Dr. Loomis couldn’t be bothered to show up to rant about evil. Instead, Tom Atkins (The Fog) plays Dan Challis, a doctor who finds himself in the middle of a strange conspiracy when a crazy man shows up in his hospital clutching a Halloween mask and screaming about people out to kill him. After they get the man to settle down, a straight-faced goon appears in the man’s room, crushes his skull with his bare hands, and then burns himself alive in the parking lot. The incident leads Dr. Challis to ask questions that land him in a heap of trouble, as he traces the Halloween mask to Silver Shamrock, a toy company that’s spending a bundle this Halloween season on advertising for their must-have Halloween masks.
When Dr. Challis makes his way to Silver Shamrock, he finds a company town where everyone raves about the brilliant Mr. Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy, Robocop), the mysterious man who runs the toy company. There are surveillance cameras all over town, and a computer voice constantly reminds all that they must obey the curfews or face punishment. Challis digs deeper, uncovering corporate evils and supernatural evils alike.
The film owes more to Invasion of the Body Snatchers than slasher movies. You can easily imagine Tom Atkins’ Dr. Challis and Donald Sutherland’s Matthew Bennell going through the same internal conflicts as they detect bizarre changes in the world around them. There’s even a ‘pod people’ element to the film. The film also bears similarities to The Stuff and Soylent Green, sci-fi/horror films about corporate evils that willingly corrupt society for financial gain.
But it’s not at all like Carpenter’s Halloween, so fans weren’t happy. If Halloween III went by a different name and had no connection to the series, I imagine it would’ve been better received at the time. And I personally think that if Halloween III: Season of the Witch had been the first sequel, not only would Season of the Witch have been a success, it would’ve helped launch the anthology horror series as Carpenter and co. originally intended (but Halloween II with Michael stalking Laurie in a hospital is the best Myers-related sequel in the series, so…).
Written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace (who, along with Nick Castle, had some part in playing Myers in the ’78 original), Halloween III is dark, high-concept horror at its finest. With threats both personal and apocalyptic in nature, the film feels ahead of its time. It even finds a way to play with the ancient purpose of Halloween in Celtic mythology. There’s a surprising amount of depth here for a movie about suspicious Halloween masks. And regular Carpenter cinematographer Dean Cundey gives it a creepy, cool visual quality.
Tom Atkins does a good job as the unlikely hero. Stacey Nelkin (Bullets Over Broadway) plays his gorgeous, and considerably younger, love interest. Her character reads a little flat to me, shifting from grief to flirtation in no time, but the actress performs admirably. Dan O’Herlihy is fantastic as Mr. Cochran, a man who’s all smiles and charm. O’Herlihy manages to display something sinister behind the smile with just the slightest twitch at the corners of his mouth. It’s one of the great underrated performances in horror cinema.
I can understand why fans were not kind to the film at the time. Most young viewers who discover the series on DVD are well aware of the film’s status as the standalone entry in the series when they go into it and, as a result, have a much better reaction to the film. Some movies are like that; it takes time or a new video format to reintroduce the movie to new fans who may appreciate it more. I’m one of those fans. When I was first introduced to the series, Halloween III was one of the last Halloween films I bothered to watch, because I knew about its negative reputation. Now, as a new owner of the Scream! Factory Blu-ray set of the series, Halloween III is the first disc I popped into my Blu-ray player.
If you dismissed the film before, I suggest you give it another look. It’s time to give the film its due. Because while it doesn’t exactly fit in with the rest of the bunch, Halloween III is without a doubt one of the best films in the nearly four decade old series.
After decades of muscle-bound mayhem, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Maggie) still continues to pump out the goods in a consistent manner. In addition to a couple of upcoming films – Aftermath, an airline disaster flick based on a true story, as well as Why We’re Killing Gunther, an action-comedy where Arnie plays the title character – the legendary star just wrapped up scenes with Jackie Chan for Viy 2: A Journey to China, a Sino-Russian co-production that he (and Jackie) are making a cameo appearance in. But wait, there’s more…
According to CFI, the ex-governor of California recently announced that he will star in The Guest of Sanxingdui, a USD 200 million period project that’s being described as a “Chinese historical epic.” The title refers to the ancient ruins in China’s southwest Sichuan province where the film will be partially shot.
Production for Guest of Sanxingdui is set to begin in March 2017 for an expected 2019 release. Further details on The Guest of Sanxingdui are scarce (there are rumors suggesting that Jackie Chan may star as well), but as soon we learn more, we’ll fill you in.
Hopefully The Guest of Sanxingdui will put Schwarzenegger in the mood to finally proceed with the long-awaited, 3rd Conan movie, which is currently stuck in development. Stay tuned!
It’s long been my opinion that every great filmmaker should try their hand at horror at least once over the course of their career. Horror directors sometimes repeat some of the same themes, the same scares, the same monsters, and it takes an outsider to bring something fresh to the genre every once in a while. Examples: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, Richard Donner’s The Omen, Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs, and so on and so forth. Taking a break from his politically charged sagas that addressed some of Japan’s sins, director Masaki Kobayashi decided to adapt a collection of ghost stories for the anthology film Kwaidan, and in the process ended up making one of the most artistic and beautiful films of all time.
Adapted from stories written by Greek expat Lafcadio Hearn, Kwaidan is four different, totally unconnected ghost stories set in Japan’s past. Though none of them are scary in the typical sense, they’re all spooky stories about the spirit world coming into contact with the world of man. “Kwaidan” means “ghost story,” and not necessarily “horror story.” I think this might make it a difficult film to pin down for some Western viewers who may feel that it is not frightening or violent enough for the horror shelf.
The first story, The Black Hair, stars Rentaro Mikuni (The Burmese Harp) as a samurai who can no longer stand his fall into poverty, and abandons his loving wife (Michiyo Aratama) in favor of a life of status and wealth. Once he secures a life of nobility, the samurai finds himself thinking constantly of the wife he left behind. He is haunted by her. And when he finally works up the nerve to visit her, he finds things forever changed. The Black Hair has various similarities to a subplot in Kenji Mizoguchi’s masterpiece Ugetsu, which was also a supernatural tale about the penalties for the ambitions of heartless men. The Black Hair is not my favorite of the Kwaidan anthology – the best are the two stories in the middle – but it does a good job of setting the tone about what to expect for the rest of the film.
The second story, and the most visually vibrant, is The Woman of the Snow. Tatsuya Nakadai (Ran) is a woodcutter caught in a blizzard. He and his master hole up in a hut for the night, where they are visited by a snow spirit played by Keiko Kishi (The Yakuza). The woman kills the woodcutter’s master with her cold breath, and is about to freeze the young man, too, when she begins to pity him. She makes him a deal: she will let him live as long as he never speaks a word of their encounter. The Woman of the Snow is the emotional heart of the movie (and interestingly the one section totally cut from the film for its showing at Cannes). Though the visuals are bitter cold, the story is sad and human.
The third and longest story, Hoichi the Earless, could’ve easily been a standalone release. Katsuo Nakamura (20th Century Boys) is the blind monk Hoichi, who lives at a temple that was built to appease the long-dead samurai who perished in a naval battle offshore. Being blind, Hoichi is unaware that the man who comes to visit him in the night is a samurai ghost, and that he’s been playing his biwa to an audience of the dead. When the temple’s priest (Takashi Shimura) learns of this, he does what he can to save Hoichi. This is my favorite of the four shorts in the anthology and is (coincidentally?) the most traditional in a cinematic sense. It’s a ghost story through-and-through, but one that’s told in a way completely unlike those you’ll see on American screens.
The final and shortest story is also the lightest. In a Cup of Tea is the story of a samurai who sees a ghost’s reflection in his cup of tea. The more he tries to understand, the more madness beckons to him. It’s a fine coda to the anthology, and also pays tribute to the storytellers who kept ghost stories alive all these years.
Kwaidan makes no attempt at realism. It’s ultra-cinematic, super artsy, with set walls painted as the sky within reach, and sets that never try to hide their artificiality. I thought it an interesting approach to making the film. The sets are beautiful, sometimes frightening, and go a long way to describe why I appreciate the movie so. Colors are vibrant, even in the chilly white Woman of the Snow section of the film, and the movie looks wonderful on the 2016 Criterion Blu-ray.
In addition to the amazing visual aspects of the film, Kwaidan features unorthodox sound design and an experimental score by Toru Takemitsu. Many scenes are almost muted, with no sound to the win, or bustle in the streets, or clash of swords. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, there will be cracks of wood or ice. The effect is eerie and wholly original.
Kwaidan may not appeal to horror hounds who demand a fast-pace, gore, or bunches of scares, but as an arthouse anthology it’s tough to beat. Beautiful to look at and with lots to think about, I consider Kwaidan one of the best examples of classic Japanese cinema, and highly recommend it to those in the mood for something stylish and creepy. Though not belonging to Masaki Kobayashi’s typical genre, Kwaidan deserves to be mentioned in conversation with the director’s best, right alongside The Human Condition, Harakiri, and Samurai Rebellion.
(The new Criterion DVD & Blu-ray includes the director’s 183 minute director’s cut for the first time in the US. The previous Criterion DVD featured a cut of the film that ran 20 minutes shorter. Most of the changes are small and are unlikely to be noticed by those who’ve only seen the film once or twice, but considering the improved picture quality and the nice assortment of extras (Stephen Prince commentary is the highlight of the special features) it’s easy for me to recommend the upgrade for fans of the film.)
Director: John Little
Writer: John Little
Cast: John Little, Malisa Longo, Jon T. Benn, Anders Nelsson, Riccardo Billi, Chaplin Chang
Running Time: 100 minutes
By Jeff Bona
Back in 2013, I reviewed a documentary titled In Pursuit of the Dragon, by noted Bruce Lee historian, John Little (A Warrior’s Journey). Unlike the most of the endless, oversaturated list of Bruce Lee documentaries – many of which featured the same tired footage, usual interview clips and other useless “talking heads” – I found Little’s In Pursuit of the Dragon to be refreshing because of its one-of-a-kind premise, which focused on the actual filming locations of Bruce Lee’s four completed films. To quote my review: Using footage from the actual movies to coincide with the ‘what the locations look like today’ is simply magical. Basically, I loved every minute of it.
When it was announced that MVD Visual was releasing Tracking the Dragon, another Bruce Lee-related project by John Little, I jumped at the opportunity to obtain an advanced copy. But when I finally got my hands on the DVD, I found its official description curiously familiar:
“Bruce Lee expert John Little tracks down the actual locations of some of Bruce Lee’s most iconic action scenes. Many of these sites remain largely unchanged nearly half a century later. At monasteries, ice factories, and on urban streets, Little explores the real life settings of Lee’s legendary career.”
After reading the above, I thought to myself: “This must be a repacked, retitled, double-dipped version of In Pursuit of the Dragonthat’s being marketed as a “new” film to suck every last drop of profit from a product that’s over 3 years old.” And boy was I right…
Tracking the Dragon IS a repacked, retitled and double-dipped version of In Pursuit of the Dragon. However, I can honestly say that it has been repacked, retitled and double-dipped in the most positive way possible.
Here’s a list of the key differences between In Pursuit of the Dragonand Tracking the Dragon. Keep in mind that I didn’t watch them both simultaneously, but I did skim through In Pursuit of the Dragonmoments after watching Tracking the Dragon, so think of the following as the most noticeable distinctions between the two:
Tracking the Dragon has optimized audio and visual. Video footage has been remastered and now appears to have more of an High Definition look (even for DVD it pops on a 1080p TV). In comparison, In Pursuit of the Dragonlooks fuzzy with lower audio quality.
Tracking the Dragon is 10 minutes longer than In Pursuit of the Dragon. That’s not say it’s only 10 minutes longer. In other words, Tracking the Dragon is edited in a tighter, smarter fashion; with more overlaps and picture-in-picture effects, which essentially means more content per frame.
Post-production work on Tracking the Dragon is a lot more professional-looking. Then and now-location footage gels together more cohesively. If In Pursuit of the Dragon appears to have taken 3 weeks to edit together, Tracking the Dragon most likely took 3 months.
Tracking the Dragon features new/alternative shots, resulting in a different experience. It’s also injected with extra clips and photos, which give it much more depth than In Pursuit of the Dragon.
New segments: Unlike In Pursuit of the Dragon, Tracking the Dragon doesn’t end with Enter the Dragon. Instead, we’re treated with extra footage of Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong house, Betty Ting Pei’s apartment (where Bruce passed away) and locations such as rooftops where a teenage Bruce used to street fight, Bruce’s famous parking lot photo shoot, and much more (won’t spoil it for you).
The bottom line: A better title for Tracking the Dragon would be In Pursuit of the Dragon 2.0. Sure, I can understand if some people will dismiss it as a double-dipper, but it all depends on how much you value newly added footage, as well as upgrades all across the board.
Considering Little and his team traveled all around the world to capture all this footage, a new and improved, longer, remastered version of an already-awesome project is worth $20 bucks to me.
Besides, it’s probably time for you to re-watch In Pursuit of the Dragon anyways – and if you do, you’ll want to watch it in the form of Tracking the Dragon to get the most out of your re-watching pleasure. If you haven’t seen either, then picking up Tracking the Dragon is a no-brainer.
AKA: Jack Reacher 2 Director: Edward Zwick Cast: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Aldis Hodge, Danika Yarosh, Patrick Heusinger, Holt McCallany, Austin Hebert, Robert Catrini, Robert Knepper, Talbott Lin Running Time: 118 min.
By Paul Bramhall
The announcement that Tom Cruise was going to be playing Jack Reacher, the character of author Lee Child’s ongoing series of novels about an ex-military drifter that has an uncanny ability for finding trouble, was greeted (as expected) with almost universal disdain from fan of the books. However the 2012 thriller, simply titled Jack Reacher, helmed by frequent Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, was both a commercial and a critical success. Cruise brought the needed physicality to the role with gusto, portraying Reacher as a more grounded version of his Ethan Hunt character from the Mission: Impossible series – a comparison which was especially apt with the release of the bombastic Ghost Protocol just a year prior.
The success of Jack Reacher inevitably saw a sequel on the cards, and with twenty published novels to choose from, the second instalment of Jack Reacher on the big screen comes in the form of 2016’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, an adaption of the eighteenth book in the series. Much like the original came a year after Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, so Never Go Back comes a year after Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Both the original Jack Reacher and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation were helmed by Christopher McQuarrie, which sees this instalment being handed over to Edward Zwick, the director behind the likes of Blood Diamond and Legends of the Fall. Cruise and Zwick have worked together before, on 2003’s The Last Samurai, so the sequel can be considered as a reunion of sorts for the director and actor.
Cruise has become one of the few actors in Hollywood who has the ability to make straight faced action pictures, ones that don’t rely on either irony or CGI, nor suffer from a modest budget or straight-to-DVD release. In many ways he’s one of the last legitimate bankable stars, in an era were Hollywood has become almost solely reliant on reboots, remakes, and superhero movies. When people talk about Jason Bourne, they don’t say they want to go and see the latest Matt Damon movie, and similarly for James Bond, no one would say they want to go and see the latest Daniel Craig movie. But Cruise it’s the opposite, people don’t say they want to go and see the latest Ethan Hunt or Jack Reacher flick, they say let’s go and check out the latest Tom Cruise film. He’s a guy who consistently delivers the goods, with Never Go Back being only the second time he’s returned to play a character for a sequel, outside of the Mission: Impossible series.
Never Go Back continues the gritty down to earth feel that the original instalment established, with proceedings opening on a pair of cops arriving on the scene of a diner parking lot, were four men lay sprawled on the floor, each looking considerably battered and bruised. A witness points to a single customer sitting at the bar inside, his back to them calmly drinking a cup of coffee, and goes onto explain that it was the customer who singled handedly put the beat down on all four of them. The customer is of course Cruise, establishing himself as a man not to be messed with within the first 60 seconds, and he hasn’t even lifted a finger. The scene sets the tone both for the character and the rest of the run time, portraying Reacher as someone who treads just the right side of the line between confidence and arrogance, and isn’t afraid of getting his knuckles dirty.
Fans of the book may not have been happy with the casting of Cruise, but there’s no doubt that he owns the role, and looks to be using both his Mission: Impossible productions and the Jack Reacher series as vehicles to show off his action chops. At 54, he appears more determined than ever to throw as much physical action onscreen as possible, with people getting punched in the face through windscreens, arms (and various other limbs) being broken, and bodies being thrown into a variety of breakable surroundings. While Never Go Back, much like Jack Reacher, doesn’t rely on huge set pieces or death defying stunts, instead it succeeds by having its altercations take place in more real world trappings. Fights take place in dark abandoned warehouses, and in one particular scene, which shows a clear nod to the showdown between Iko Uwais and Cecep Arif Rahman in The Raid 2, in a restaurant kitchen (which includes a hammer wielding Cobie Smulders!).
For Never Go Back the inclusion of actresses Cobie Smulders and Danika Yarosh provide Cruise with a sort of adopted nuclear family. Smulders plays a former military colleague of Cruise, who’s been falsely imprisoned for espionage, while Yarosh finds herself in the cross hairs of those looking to take out both Cruise and Smulders, thanks to the possibility of her being his daughter. Cruise of course takes it on himself to break Smulders out of prison, convinced of her innocence, and the three end up on the run from a group of shadowy military contractors, who may be behind the murders of two soldiers in Afghanistan who were under Smulders command. It’s a straightforward plot, which doesn’t spend any time getting bogged down in sub-plots or romance, instead choosing to have one, two, or all three of them have to run as if their life depended on it at regular intervals.
In many ways it’s the simplicity of Never Go Back which makes it so appealing. It’s a trio of good guys (well, one guy and two women) trying to uncover the truth behind an injustice, while being relentlessly pursued by those who want to kill them. In an era which has Hollywood defining its action by how many CGI buildings it can destroy, it’s refreshing to watch a movie that gets the adrenaline pumping through intense foot chases, fist fights, explosions (real ones!), and painful looking falls. I’d take the action in Never Go Back any day of the week over watching a bunch of pixels be decimated onscreen. Of course, no hero is worth their salt without a worthy villain to go up against, and the villain here comes in the form of Patrick Heusinger, playing an ex-military man who’s now become an assassin for hire, and comes with a skillset that matches those of Cruise.
Heusinger is almost Terminator-like in his pursuit of Cruise, spurred on by being determined to prove that he’s the better of the two at combat. The pair get into two suitably violent confrontations during the runtime, the first being the previously mentioned kitchen brawl, and the last belonging to the finale. While it’s only speculation, I’m sure stunt coordinator Robert Alonzo, who was also the fight coordinator for the original Jack Reacher and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, must be a fan of Asian action cinema. I say this not only based on the kitchen fight which has echoes of The Raid 2, but in the finale there’s a part in which both Cruise and Heusinger throw each other off the top of a building while grappling, before dusting themselves off and continuing to fight on the ground. It’s a scene that’s reminiscent of a similar fall that happens between Donnie Yen and Colin Chou in the finale of Flash Point, and delivers just as much impact.
While it can easily be argued that Never Go Back would be a pretty run-of-the-mill thriller without the presence of Cruise, and many critics have, the same comparison could be made by saying Police Story would be a pretty average cops and robbers movie without Jackie Chan. The fact is that it’s Cruise that makes the movie what is it, and that is a lean, mean, action thriller. There’s little doubt that based on the success of the sequel, we can probably expect to see more of Jack Reacher over the coming years, and as long as Cruise is still up to delivering the type of physical performance that he’s clocked in here, then that’s definitely a good thing. My only wish would be that before everyone gets too old, we get a movie that gives us Jack Reacher, John Wick, and Arthur Bishop, all sharing the screen together. We can dream right?
On January 3, 2017, Lionsgate is releasing the DVD for Song Xi-Yin’s Amnesia (its full marketing title is Jackie Chan Presents Amnesia, since Chan serves as producer). It’s also known as Who Am I: 2015, which is a more fitting title, considering it’s a loose remake of Chan’s 1998 classic, Who Am I?
Finding himself at a murder scene, bike courier Li Ziwei tries to escape, but the culprits force him off a bridge. The amnesia from his head injuries means he can’t recognize the faces of his enemies, who have framed him for the crime. Now, carrying the parcel that’s his only clue, and with the help of sassy hitchhiker Tong Xin, Li Ziwei must outrun killers and cops while racing to clear his name of the mysterious murder.
The original Who Am I?, which was directed by Benny Chan (Shaolin), had Chan playing a secret agent who loses his memory after falling from a crashing helicopter. He is then chased by a number of other agency operatives, but he has no idea why.
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