Theme: Gangsters

Only The Strong (1993) – Mark Dacascos

Only The Strong, starring Mark Dacascos, is a bit of a cult classic. Aside from massively promoting Capoeira in America and the rest of the English speaking world at a time when it was relatively unheard of, this movie also launched one of the most popular songs to be associated with Capoeira: Paranauê – named after the oldest city in Paraná state, in Brazil, known for its port.

While most of the technical and cultural aspects of the Capoeira depicted in this movie are accurate, it still tends to push a more aggressive and performance-oriented version of Capoeira rather than the more deeply beautiful, balanced and responsive Fine Art side of it which is what really makes it special and differentiates it from mere cardio kickboxing mixed with breakdancing and gymnastics. It even gets a bit silly with unrealism, doing things like jumping spinning kicks around machetes. Still, even Bruce Lee had a more showy version of his martial art for the big screen, and Dacascos is clearly still a talented actor, athlete and martial artist even though his more acrobatic moves appear to be done by stuntmen – his character still does plenty of nice moves at appropriate times throughout this movie even with the bias towards showy stuff that isn’t always efficient or finessed.

The school students that Mark’s character teaches are mostly a good 10 years older than they should be too. That’s not a good look so far as convincing acting goes. Maybe they had casting issues?

As bad as the acting is though, this movie still captures certain emotions quite well. It takes the classic case of lost-cause delinquents at school being turned around into model human beings, and turns it into a really captivating experience for the most part.

The main antagonist, the chief drug dealer in town, played by Paco Christian Prieto, is pretty good. You may recognise him as Van Damme’s tall pool-fight opponent in Lionheart (1990). The old school teacher, played by Geoffrey Lewis, is also pretty good here. You may recognise him as playing Van Damme’s adopted father in Double Impact (1991). Most of the acting in this movie is weak, mainly due to poor casting, but these guys and of course Mark Dacascos are alright.

This movie is hardly as jam-packed in script as the average Indiana Jones or James Bond movie for example, but it contains enough action and uplifting vibes to warrant a rating just as good, forgiving its weak plot and bad acting throughout. I give it a solid OK – no more, no less. The music is generally good throughout – you could almost call it a musical, but in a martial arts and college kids genre.

Gangsters

Marked For Death (1990) – Steven Seagal

This is the third movie in Steven Seagal’s career, and is a bit more miserable than his last one. Compared to Hard To Kill, this movie is less cool, less smooth, less exciting, more messy, more depressing, more into the old-school TV drama and horror genres and less of an enjoyable action hero movie.

Steven Seagal does a fair job as John Hatcher – the star of this movie. It’s just the plot and genre are not to my cup of tea. While some scenes are still decent, and the plot still has some qualities to it; because it’s a messy and and unpleasant to watch I’m going to call it a bit of a stinker compared to the baseline set by the better composed first couple of movies in his career. It’s clear there was some budget and resource put into this movie, but I like what I like and I don’t like what I don’t like, and for my taste this movie is about as bad as his poorest modern movies, and that’s saying something because some of them are unwatchable and I’m Steven Seagal fan saying it. I bet he struggles to watch his own worst movies back himself! Marked For Death (1990) is not unwatchable but it belongs in a category called (barely) watchable and I’m certainly in no hurry to rewatch it in the next few years (if ever) so long as I remember how weak it was. I’d rather rewatch The Glimmer Man twice in one night than rewatch Marked For Death twice in one year. But hey, if you like a bit of drama and horror, you might enjoy this one. Seagal is still here doing his thing, occasionally, and some scenes are decent.

While this movie was released in 1990 in USA (the same year as Hard To Kill – just a few months later), Marked For Death wasn’t released until 1991 in the UK for some reason.

Martial arts wise, Seagal is his usual self, with plenty of assertive Aikido on display. For example he does a nice pivoting block into Shiho-Nage, against a wide swinging hook with a knife, at nearly an hour into this movie, in the jewellery store scene. There’s lots of arm breaks here too.

Seagal’s partner-in-crimefighting in this movie, called Max, is played by Keith David, who gives a very basic NPC-style performance. I feel like he was only brought in, on Seagal’s side, to counter possible narratives of racism, since Seagal is primarily beating up a crew of Rastafarian Jamaican drugdealers in this movie, led by a character called Screwface, played by Basil Wallace in a way that I can only describe as weird while over-playing to and mixing-up stereotypes. Rastas are among the most peaceful and positive-spirited people in the world, in real life, in my experience.

Gangsters Kung Fu Prison

Romeo Must Die (2000) – Jet Li

This is one of Jet Li’s best movies in terms of having good supporting actors, great backing music and a seemingly decent production budget.

Although the plot is a bit thin, it’s ok – the action is frequent and the vibe is cool – intermittently exciting with good humour. A few slower scenes and the final fight scene drags on a bit, but otherwise it’s pretty fluid entertainment value.

Jet Li plays a Chinese kung fu expert called Han, who breaks out of jail upon hearing his brother is dead, to attend the funeral and find his killer.

It should be no surprise that the music is good, seeing how this movie has stars like DMX who plays a club owner called Silk, and Aaliyah who plays the lead female role called Trish. Both do a pretty good job in their respective roles here, and both of their music is played throughout, at very relevant times. Whoever selected the tunes and mixed them into the movie the way they did deserves some kind of award for it, especially the “Got Him” transition into the motorbike scene (can’t find the name of that tune anywhere) where Hilary Yip plays the Chinese woman who Jet Li’s character Han doesn’t want to hit.

Other decent performances include Russell Wong who plays the Chinese boss’s right hand man; Delroy Lindo who plays Isaak, Trish’s father, the head of the black people’s gang; Isaiah Washington who plays Mac, Isaak’s right hand man; and Anthony Anderson who nearly steals the show with his charismatic comedic touch as a low-level shot-caller working for Mac to help protect Trish.