Merantau (2009)

Yuda (Iko Uwais) leaves his home in West Sumatra to undertake Merantau. A tradition in which a young person must gain life experience and success in order to become a contributing member of society. He arrives in Jakarta to find the place in which he is meant to stay has been torn down. Left homeless he apprehends a child, Adit, who attempts to steal his wallet. Inadvertently he witnesses the boy's sister Astri being abused by her boss Johni and intervenes, setting off a chain of events in which Yuda must fight for his life while protecting Astri and Adit.

Ever since Ong Bak was released to worldwide acclaim and gave the Thai film industry a serious boost, other countries have decided to try their hand at making their own martial arts films. All the way from Indonesia we have been given Merantau which features the fighting style Silat. A style which uses close strikes, joint manipulation, throws and bladed weaponry. Fans looking for something in the vein of films like Ong Bak will be more then satisfied with what Merantau has to offer.

First thing's first. The acting. Now while Tony Jaa has been praised for his talents as a screen fighter, he hasn't fared too well when it has come to acting. Luckily lead actor Iko Uwais is a much better actor then Jaa, he's not perfect but he at least looks like he's making a big effort in the numerous dialogue scenes he has. His personality is very much the righteous hero and he has decent chemistry with his co-stars who are all good if ultimately forgettable, for the most part. 

Usually in Asian films whenever there's a child actor they tend to be incredibly annoying however this film made the right decision when casting Yusuf Aulia as Adit. He doesn't go over the top with his delivery, he doesn't bounce around in that annoying way child actors do in these movies and puts in what is probably the best performance in the film. Which was incredibly refreshing since I would always find myself reaching for the mute button whenever a bad child actor would appear on screen in other movies.

However I think we should move onto the real meat of the film. The action. As mentioned before Silat is the primary style presented here. In particular a variant called Silat Harimau (Tiger Silat). Believed to be one of the oldest forms of Silat in existence, it is unique compared to other forms as the practitioners fight while crouching down. The reason for this, according to historians, was to avoid stumbling down when fighting in West Sumatra's wet paddy fields.

Director Gareth Evans puts the style to good use in the many fight scenes through out. There's an excellent confrontation on a bridge which sees Yuda use metal bars. Each hit looks incredibly painful and is a testament to both star Uwais and his fellow stuntmen.

One of the most admirable traits of Merantau is how each fight feels different. I absolutely love it when a fight film makes an effort like this. I find when films use the same type of fight throughout it can get incredibly boring but thankfully boring is not a word I would use to describe the action here. Another brilliant scene sees Yuda fight an advisary in an elevator and you can tell the director wanted to convey the feeling of being in a confined space which sees both actors using close-quarter techniques that really build the tension into a very bloody climax.

However, that's just the icing on the cake as the finale takes place in generic action setting #5: a shipping container yard. The one thing I liked most about the film was how each fight builds and builds and builds. As we go through the film we see Yuda becoming more aggressive in his fighting style and by the time we reach this point in the film Yuda is one bloke you would not want to piss off.

Here we see him take on the film's primary villains played by Mads Koudal and Laurent Buson. Both actors have extensive experience in the film industry and have made a number of films both short and feature length. As you may expect this is where the film really lets loose with the choreography and after watching it has quickly shot up on my list of top finale fight scenes ever. I would love to delve more into it but I don't wish to spoil anything.

These days it's getting harder and harder to find new ways to show martial arts fighting on screen. Fortunately Indonesia have made a good move by letting this film be sold worldwide and letting everyone interested get a look at one of the more obscure fighting styles in the martial arts world. I really can not recommend this enough as anyone who has enjoyed the work of Tony Jaa or Hong Kong movies of the 80's will not want to be left out on this one.

The Warrior's Way (2010)

In the late 19th Century an assassin Yang (Jang Dong Gun) is ordered to take the life of the last member of a rival clan. Only when Yang discovers that the last member is still a baby he flees to the American west with the child in hopes of creating a new life in the town of Lode. Only his new found life to disturbed when a disfigured criminal who calls himself The Colonel (Danny Huston) returns to terrorize the townsfolk. To make matters worse Yang's former clan appear in an attempt to rectify Yang's betrayal.

Having seen this film it has been quite a struggle to put into words just how exactly I feel about. However having thought about it for a couple of days now I feel confident enough to put my thoughts in the written word. Here we have a film which is attempting to meld spaghetti western films with Asian martial arts movies. Something we've already seen before in films such as Shanghai Noon and The Stranger And The Gun Fighter. Two films which knew when to play to it's strengths. Sadly that is not the case with The Warrior's Way. As someone who thoroughly enjoys both genre of film, the idea of putting the two together makes complete sense as they compliment each other very well. What the film fails to take into account is that in order to make it work you need a very strong cast, a decent enough story and a director who can bring it all together. 

You would be forgiven in thinking the film has those qualities when you watch the trailer or see the poster. However it is just such an underwhelming experience that I felt nothing but disappointment when the end credits began to roll. First of the all the cast just seem to have zero chemistry. Lead actor Jang Dong-Gun has and I'm not making this up, at least a dozen lines of dialogue throughout the whole movie. Instead choosing to communicate his feelings to the audience with confused looks and ever so subtle smirks which is a shame when you realise this is an actor who has appeared in such Korean cinematic classics Nowhere To Hide, Friend and Taegukgi.

Kate Bosworth plays the love interest Lynne and while I'll give the actress credit for trying her damnedest to look convincing during some action scenes and trying to salvage some kind of connection with her co-star. Sadly not even she can save what was already an underwhelming mess of a film.

Two actors which look like they seem to be enjoying themselves as Geoffrey Rush and Danny Huston. Rush plays the Ron, the town drunkard with a murky past. The character is completely stock but Rush at least looks like he cares about being in the movie as opposed to Bosworth who looks incredibly frustrated for the most part. Like most actors in Hollywood movies, Huston seems to be having a complete ball as The Colonel and had he been in it a little more may have been the only thing to single-handedly save the entire film. Sadly he isn't given enough screen time to do that. Also the film has one of the most surprising casting choices ever.

Ti Lung.

Yes, that one!

He appears in the film as the head of the Ninja clan which Yang had fled. Oh don't worry, the film makers weren't smart enough to give him lots of screen time and well written dialogue. No, they did what any disrespecting Hollywood film would do. Have him appear in short scenes that add sod all to the film's narrative and have a horribly choreographed sword fight with the hero. That's how Hollywood treats legends folks. Kicking him in the balls and having him dance to Justin Beiber while wearing a mankini would have been more dignified.

One can't help but think this film could have been saved if it had been given to a much better director. Sngmoo Lee shows that while he can create a mostly visually pleasing film he can not seem to get good performances from his lead actors or create a film with a tight, well-paced narrative. Speaking of the film's visuals. It seems that the entire thing was shot on a sound stage and uses CGI backgrounds akin to the live-action Sin City which does seem to work more in it's favor as it gives the film an appropriate comic book/anime vibe.

However polishing a turd will only get you so far and not even the martial arts action can help matters. This has to be one of the most lazily choreographed action scenes I've seen this year. Even abominations like Ten Dead Men and Tekken had the decency to have good action. Here we have dull sword play punctuated by slow editing, annoying slow motion and completely devoid of any tension or drama.

If you should ever see a film which sees a popular Asian actor star along side a Hollywood star all the while having a good old adventure fighting dastardly villains and creating a film which is silly overall but incredibly enjoyable then don't watch The Warrior's Way. Instead go watch The Stranger And The Gun Fighter.

Bunraku (2010)

Set in the aftermath of a global war which sees firearms having been outlawed, man with the mysterious name Drifter (Josh Harnett) arrives in town with a plan to take down the city's top boss Nicola The Woodcutter (Ron Perlman) during his quest he teams up with Japanese swordsman Yoshi (Gackt) a Bar Tender (Woody Harrelson) and the three decide to clean up once and for all.

I've had my eye on this movie for a very, very long time mostly because I liked the cast and also because what the movie promised visually intrigued me. The film takes things such as Japanese shadow theatre, German expressionism, Hollywood dance, Chanbara films, comic books, spaghetti westerns and even old school video games and throws it all together in one of the most unique cinematic experiences I've seen in a while.

The story itself is nothing write home about at all. Anybody reading this blog will have seen many movies with the same plot dozens of times and I've said before there's nothing wrong with that. If film makers can bring something original to it then the story hardly matters. Bunraku does that and does it quite well. Director Guy Moshe could have done an absolutely abysmal job of taking all the different visual elements and making a horrendously pretentious borefest but Moshe keeps things well in check and isn't afraid to try something new with what's presented on screen.

Sets are done in a manner which invokes classic German expressionism and classical theater, given the audience the impression they're watching a play as opposed to a feature film. Japanese characters subtitles are done with comic book captions and scene transitions are like your flicking through a pop-up book. Reading that you may be shaking your head and thinking "That sounds ridiculous!" and it is but works, it really does work.

What also makes the film work is the cast that really does seem to be having one heck of a time being in it. Josh Harnett, an actor whose work I greatly admire, revels as Drifter. He plays the character with all the swagger of Clint Eastwood in a Sergio Leone movie and this creates good chemistry with Japanese co-star Gackt who makes an extremely impressive English language debut. His character Yoshi leaps right out of a Kurosawa movie and it would be wonderful to see him get more roles like this even in his native Japan. Ron Perlman, Hollywood's most reliable villain actor delights as Nicola, injecting the character effortlessly with appropriate menace. However one character I wanted to address was that of the bizarre killer Number 2 played by scottish actor Kevin Mckidd.

Mckidd plays the character as if he were Fred Astaire. Only if he had used his talent for dancing to kill people instead of entertaining them. He struts his way through the fight scenes and really makes a unforgettable impression in an already memorable film.

That leads me to talk about the action scenes which are very good. Everybody gives it there all, even Hartnett who has never done action like this before swings his fists in a scene mimicking classic arcade video games. There's also a scene which introduces us to Mckidd's character utilizing sword and dance choreography in a really unique way.

And that's the key word here when talking about a film like Bunraku. Unique. When it comes to film I find it to be a word which gets used way too much and mostly applied to films which don't deserve it but this one does and despite the rather luke-warm reception it has received critically I would definitely urge you all to see it.   

Alien Vs Ninja (2010)

What's this? a new review by me? no, gentle readers you aren't having a brain aneurysm, I have indeed dusted my reviewing hat off (Yes, I own a reviewing hat, picture a dear stalker with viking horns) and I'm going to dive head first back into the fray and do I have a treat for you!

"I can scarcely believe it!"

Neither can I over-excited random fifties woman. Where to start? well, some time ago I stumbled across a trailer on Youtube. A trailer for a movie idea so awesome that it almost made my head explode just from the sheer crazy factor of it. It was a trailer for the movie ALIEN VS NINJA!

When I saw that, I went nuts. It was like a fevered cheese dream had been made real and put onto film. Of course, it was a while before the movie finally saw it's overseas release but the moment that baby hit store shelves, I grabbed my copy and ran home like a hyper-active fat kid chasing after a chocolate cake. Well, not so much ran but caught the bus but anyway, Moving onto the film itself.

Set in ancient Japan (Yet the Ninja have quite modern weapons and armor) the film opens with ninjas doing what ninjas do best, blowing stuff up then getting the hell out of dodge. A small group from the Iga clan are fleeing back to their home after the successful mission where they witness a meteor crashing to the ground. Since the ninja are simple folk they don't concern themselves with it and continue on home. However, the meteor contains a deadly alien creature that's hell bent on destroying everything in their path.

During their trip home we're introduced to the characters, which are pretty much every stock Japanese movie character you can think of. The hot head leader, the stoic best friend, the tom boy female and the annoying tubby one. If you're familiar with a lot of Japanese action movies then you've met these characters many times before. Yet it's all very trivial. After all, you don't watch a film called Alien Vs Ninja expecting to see a deep character study about a group of individuals who've dedicated themselves to what is essentially a nihilistic ideal. 

You watch it to see some good ol' fashioned ass kicking and this movie delivers that in spades. The next day our heroes are training when they stumble upon an injured young man. He tells them of a demon which has wiped out his entire village and upon further investigation of the boy's ramblings they are set upon by the alien. I won't go any further with the plot as that's pretty much the set up but from that point on this film goes from average Japanese action movie to a complete balls out, screw loose acid trip of an experience. Despite the film's obvious low budget, they did a whole lot given what they had. The practical effects are not perfect, the Alien resembles the ones from the well know Hollywood only it looks like it was done a third of the budget.

Still, it just adds to the whole over the top grindhouse vibe it gives off. Of course being an action movie it contains liberals helpings of ninja on extra-terrestrial fighting. The choreography while not all that stylised is fast, slick , practical and competently edited and it's definitely worth checking out. This is a film that has to be seen to be believed and if you've been sitting on the fence about this then jump off that fence, into your neighbor's pool then set fire to his lawn because you really need to give this one a try. 

So that's all I'm gonna say on this one folks. Feels good to be writing again and I hope you found the new style more easy on the eyes. Having read some of my past reviews I've decided to be a little more concise and breaks things up a bit with images and videos to make my posts a little easier to digest rather then posting walls of text. I'll probably write in more detail depending on the film but for now I'm just trying things out.

Stay tuned folks for more reviews (And I mean it this time!)

The rumours of my demise were greatly exaggerated....

Yes, hello. It's me. If you follow my blog you may have noticed I haven't posted anything since November of last year. While maintaining this blog and committing myself to other projects I experienced a creative burnout and I ended up looking at this site as more of a chore then a simple hobby I started to pass the time. However with several things no squared away I will be making a return to posting reviews on a regular basis as well. I would also like to announce I have made plans to start a second blog which will concentrate on cult Sci-Fi and horror. When that Blog débuts I will post about it. So, expect to see more and more reviews in the coming weeks. Thank you all for your patience and regular comments, it is much appreciated to this cynical and jaded action cinema fan.

King of the Kickboxers (1990)

So this here will be my final review in my month long retrospective of the cult favourite that is the No Retreat, No Surrender series. Last week I posted a somewhat underwhelming review of No Retreat, No Surrender 3. That's because with each movie they become harder to endure due to the diminishing quality of each entry. It is hard to get through a movie some times that has absolutely horrendous acting and even worse plot lines but I've endured this long simply to share my views on the martial arts action and that's what we're all here for right? okay, then!

This week I'm sharing my thoughts on the last of Loren Avedon's entries in the series with King of the Kickboxers and its like that old saying, you always save the best for last. Well, that certainly is the case we have here. The film opens in Thailand where we see a Thai boxing competition, although you wouldn't know it was supposed to be Thai boxing when the fighters are using Tae Kwon Do techniques but hey who can tell the difference right? except maybe Kung Fu Cinephiles like myself and many others who love the genre.

Anyway, one of the fighters is Sean Donahue played by martial artist Michael Depasquale Jr who wins the competition much to the delight of his hyperactive younger brother Jake. On the way back from the arena, I say Arena it was really just one of those sweaty Thai boxing gyms you always see in movies like this, they are attacked by knife wielding thugs. Sean leaps into action with all the precision and grace action director Tony Leung Siu-Hung can muster and before long the movie's main villain, Khan played by Billy Blanks, shows up.

Yes, that Billy Blanks, the creator of the Tai Bo workout technique. Of course this was before he had developed that and was trying to find his feet in the movie industry as an actor. As you'd expect Sean and Khan tangle but Sean is no match for the grimacing warrior and is killed after getting kicked several times in the throat. Jake tries to fight him but hilariously gets his ass whooped and is left traumatized and physically scarred. Cut to ten years later where Jake has transformed into Loren Avedon and is an undercover police officer for the NYPD. Here we see he's the typical renegade cop who does whatever it takes to get the job done and blows his cover during a drug bust. Next we are treated to a very snappy and well paced fight with fellow martial arts movie actor Jerry Trimble. It's always great to see a guy like Trimble in action, such a shame that people like Trimble and Avedon and a few others never get the credit they obviously deserve.

Understandably Jake's boss is pissed but rather then suspend him and recommend him for psychological evaluation like any normal police captain would do after hearing one of his officer's disobeyed orders and brutally assaulted the assailants, he does what movie police captains always do. Ignore the whole thing ever happened and recommend him to Interpol for an operation to take down a snuff film ring that recruits martial artists and murders them on film. At first Jake refuses, as the job involves going to Thailand and the memories of his brother's death are still painful but after viewing some of the tapes, Jake realises the one committing the murders is Khan. So, after letting out an anguished scream which looks like he'd caught his testicles in something, he flies to Thailand undercover.

Upon arrival Jake tries to get noticed by picking on a local Thai boxing school. He beats up a couple of their students only to have one of them retaliate later, telling him that he's not good enough to take Khan. The student then suggests he find a fighter but the name of Prang (Keith Cooke, the guy who shamefully played Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat Annihilation), the only man to almost beat Khan one on one and get some well needed training. At this point, the whole thing just became one huge rip off of the Van Damme movie Kickboxer. The only thing that really elevates this movie over that Van Damme one would be the action sequences. So, if you've seen Kickboxer then you can probably guess what the rest of the movie is going to be about.

Like the previous film, the action is choreographed by Tony Leung Siu-Hung, only instead of going for the hyper and gritty street fighting style, he's used a more exaggerated style that's very similar to Corey Yuen's work on the previous movies and suits the tone of the whole movie quite well. As I said Leung makes all the actors like fantastic when they start fighting. Avedon has never looked better, with each movie he got better and better as an action star and to this day Kickboxers has remained his magnum opus. To compliment Avedon, Blanks gets to show his stuff in the few fight scenes that he has. The finale set in a bamboo Thunderdome type arena shows two great fighters going against each other and just generally impressing the hell out this reviewer. It's funny, I've seen a couple other movies starring Blanks and Kickboxers is the only one were he's used effectively.

King of the Kickboxers, like the other entries in the series, is not a great movie when you talk about the plotting or the acting. What makes these movies stand out more then most are the fight scenes. Here you have guys like Corey Yuen and Tony Leung giving it their best and you would be hard pressed to find any other American martial arts movie of this period to top them all. If I had to choose one that was the overall best, then I definitely would have to go with number 3; Blood Brothers.

This is simply because I found the fighting to be better paced, tightly choreographed and excellently executed by the cast. So, there you have it, my retrospective is finally over. Now at this point, a few of you who might be reading this might be going "Aren't you missing something?" well, yeah, kind of.

You see, in 1991 a film made by the same crew was released called American Shaolin. Some view it as the fifth entry into the series and while I certainly wouldn't argue with that, I just simply don't have the stomach to watch Shaolin monks sing rock and roll and have the wherewithal to write a decent review about it. I may one day get round to it but for now my self inflicted torture that has been this retrospective will have to end so I can write about other movies, preferably Hong Kong action flicks which I'll be concentrating heavily on over the next few weeks. As well as working on new features for the blog itself, so rather then offer just review after review, I'll have other things on here that might interest my readers.

No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)

And the hits just keep on coming with part 3 of my retrospective of the cult movie franchise No Retreat, No Surrender. This week I'm reviewing part 3 subtitled Blood Brothers. Loren Avedon returns along side fellow martial artist Keith Vitali as two brothers Will(Avedon) and Casey(Vitali) who just can't seem to get along. Will spends his time teaching Karate and by teaching Karate I mean showing amazing displays of Tae Kwon Do and beating the living snot out of his students in an attempt to teach what it's like "on the streets" and Casey spends his time foiling bank robberies and sleeping with any leggy blonde unfortunate enough to fall into his line of sight. No, Casey isn't a superhero, he works for The Company, otherwise known as the CIA, I guess doing desk work gets dull after a while.

The reason these two don't get along is they represent two completely different ideologies of the human condition. Casey is the straight laced conservative fighting for truth, justice and the American way and strives hard to maintain social order in a world on the brink of war between the U.S. and Russia. Casey embodies the liberal spirit of modern society, who has cast off such stifling things as a boring office job and having a mortgage and expresses his freedom by training his body in the ancient form of martial combat. So when these two champions of opposing ideals meet they clash like thunder.

Actually, scratch everything I just wrote, I just added all that stuff and nonsense to make the film appear deep when actually it's less shallow then a half dried puddle. The reason these two whingey little sods don't get along is, well, I suppose it was just to make the movie and the characters more interesting when all it really does is make you want to reach into the screen, smack both of them round the lug hole and tell them to get over themselves. After meeting our fearless heroes we're treated to a scene in which they visit their father John (Joseph Campanella) to celebrate his birthday. Barely five minutes go by and the two brothers are at each other's throats like two hungry dogs fighting over a steak. At this point I didn't find these two characters at all likable. Avedon is certainly the better actor, while Vitali grits his teeth and his eyes bulge out like they're trying to escape his skull in an attempt to make it look like he's doing some serious acting. Yet all this conflict just didn't make them particularly endearing.

After the two storm off, John is left alone. Not long after that the bad guys or as I like to call them the Bad Hair Brigade, as they sport some of the most embarrassing hairstyles in the entire franchise, show up and rather then do the sensible thing and just shoot him in the back of the head, they decide to throw him round the house with some impressive stunt work. When Will and Casey find their deceased father, they decide to go their own way and get revenge on the people who saved John from the torture that is these two arguing.

Yes, I like to think his death is a mercy killing more then anything else. So, will the two of them get the bad guys and also make amends in time for the final reel? if you're really wondering that then I suggest you take your computer monitor (or laptop for those people on the go) and lightly tap the top of your skull no less then seven times, make it eight just to be safe.

NRNS 3 maintains the status quo of thin on plot and thick on action and boy it is thick on action. It's probably the most martial arts heavy of the series so far. After the second movie Corey Yuen moved on and the directing reigns were handed to Lucas Lowe but to maintain the snappy Hong Kong action style fight choreographer Tony Leung Siu-Hung was brought on board. Like it's previous entries the fighting is where the film shines the most. Leung fighting style is quite different to Corey Yuen's. While Yuen often has a fast paced but slightly exaggerated style to his scenes, Leung brings a much more dynamic and hard hitting street style that works in the actor's favours. Loren Avedon spent six hours a day for six months intensively preparing for the movie it really shows. His movements are less stiff and much more fluid and he has a heavier build that makes him look more of a dangerous adversary then he did in the previous movie.

He's paired well with co-star Keith Vitali who had appeared in classics like Revenge of the Ninja and Wheels on Meals by this time in his career, so he was already seasoned in the ways of movie making. Yet unlike Avedon he only spent a month preparing for the movie and ended up injuring his arm for his troubles, so for the whole movie Vitali has his hand in a cast but you barely notice it and it doesn't really effect his fighting. Anyone who may have seen Wheels on Meals may already know how good Vitali is and while NRNS3 doesn't quite show off his flair for screen fighting, it's definitely one of his better films that he made in his short screen career.

As for as the series goes NRNS3 has been the strongest entry thus far, the story is half-way decent but the acting stinks, I've said before Avedon is a decent actor but he over acts just a little bit sometimes and it gets a little grating. The action is by far the best I've seen and is further testament to the work of Tony Leung Siu-Hung, who is probably one of the more underrated action directors to work the action film genre.

So, that's all I've got to say on No Retreat, No Surrender 3, join me next week where I'll be reviewing the next instalment King of the Kickboxers.