The first few minutes are boring. The next few minutes are depressing – even hard to watch. By the 15th minute, we meet the family that includes the boy who will become the co-star of the show, but it’s still quite miserable and hard to watch thus far.
The interesting stuff begins around half an hour in, when the boy whose life he saved, who lost his mother in a firefight at the border, seems to have been pursued by the cartel members from the border, and Liam Neeson‘s character changes his mind and decides to rescue the boy even though it would be easy to dismiss the situation and say he’s probably safe in the hands of the border force.
It gets a bit more interesting near the end of the first hour, as the police pull him over on the highway and it turns out the copper was paid off by the cartel. But Neeson susses it and escapes, and now he knows how real the situation is, and decides to take the fight to them.
That’s pretty much the movie in a nutshell – there’s a few action scenes but aside from that it’s generally quite slow, boring and a bit depressing.
As such, I rate it So-So, and that’s probably being kind. A couple levels down from Bang Average. One level better than Watchable, although I could also justify rating it just Watchable. The rare good bits, combined with the slightly compelling story and the respectable acting & cinematography save it from the dustbin even though it’s got a terribly simple script and is quite boring and depressing for the most part, especially if you’ve seen it before and recall some of the storyline.
This movie starts out slow and boring, but not impossible to watch since it’s clearly just warming up to something via a tedious, inefficient backstory. 10 minutes in, things clearly indeed appear to be warming up, as Liam Neeson‘s character Tom rings the police to confess to being a famous uncaught bank robber.
Half an hour in is when the action really kicks in though, as the FBI agents sent to investigate his confession find the money, then attempt to kill Neeson, then get surprised by their own boss and kill him while Neeson gets away in a bullet-showered car chase.
By 45 minutes in, Tom decides to attempt to clear his name before handing himself in, and by 60 minutes in, his girlfriend Annie (played by Kate Walsh) has been almost killed, and he goes on the attack against the two rogue agents.
The rogue agents themselves are played by Jai Courtney (from Divergent) and Anthony Ramos (from Transformers: Rise of the Beasts). Ramos’s character here has a conscience but is constantly led astray but his more psychopathic friend played Courtney, who by 70 minutes in (with 30 minutes to go) is pretty much a lone ranger, having alienated his partner in crime, his new boss, and of course Tom & Annie.
The old boss of the two rogue agents, who they soon killed, was played by Robert Patrick (the liquid metal antagonist called T-1000, from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991). The new boss of these two agents, who gets tipped off by Tom, is played by Jeffrey Donovan with vibes like a cross between Clint Eastward, Jesse Enkamp and Magnus Carlsen.
A slightly clever ending somewhat saves this movie, solidifying its rating as better than merely Watchable. Indeed, I rate it So-So.
This movie starts out slow, cold and depressing, and never very much escapes from this vibe. It sees a beta male character played by Liam Neeson, called Nels Coxman, gradually turning into a semi alpha male character, not dissimilar from Liam Neeson’s action movie from the year prior (The Commuter, 2018).
Cold Pursuit sets a slow pace, but thanks to decent screenplay, it kind of manages to hold attention still. It’s not the most entertaining movie Liam Neeson’s been involved in – not even close – but it’s probably not his worst work either.
In the first 22 minutes, Nels’ son has died, ruled an overdose, and Nels is on the verge of suicide himself now, until he discoveres his son was really murdered, so he goes after and kills someone involved while attempting to track down the root of the drug empire that’s to blame.
The main antagonist, Trevor ‘Viking’ Calcote, played by Tom Bateman, looks like a son of Quentin Tarantino, and quite appropriately, he plays a vice-pushing ringleader who is also particularly well informed about certain other habits deceiving the masses.
Also with the suspected Tarantino link, it should come as no surprise that this movie shows a lot of blood & gore – depicting violence in some very slow, very ugly scenes – seriously polluting the minds of the audience.
By 40 minutes in, Neeson’s character Nels has killed multiple people in separate scenes by punching them to near death before shooting them to finish them off, then dumped their bodies at a deserted snowy waterfall.
It gets a little more lighthearted and yet intriguing towards the end of the first hour, when Nels hires a hitman to take out Viking – the cartel boss behind his son’s murder – then the hitman double crosses Nels, doing a deal with Viking, then the hitman gets hit, and Viking goes after who he thinks hired him.
Pace is still slow due to low-tempo screenplay and solumn sound effects etc, but there’s a bit less grit and a bit more intrigue now.
Watch out for explicit man-on-man kissing at the start of the second hour – it’s not for everyone!
This movie had a bit more solid action towards the end, but never very much escapes the slow, gritty, irreverent atmosphere that it established early on. Bateman’s acting is strong and Neeson’s is decent too, but given the constant cold moody genre, I can’t rate it any better than So-So.
If you think Taken 2 was being unorthodox by having Liam Neeson‘s hotshot character Bryan Mills among those kidnapped, you’ll probably think Taken 3’s a bit out there too, since it sees his wife killed in the first 20 minutes and Bryan becomes the prime suspect but doesn’t stick around to get arrested even in his own country, in his own house – instead he decides to go on the run and get to the bottom of things in his own way.
This movie benefits massively from the presence of Forest Whitaker who plays the lead investigator on the case of Bryan’s ex wife’s murder – you may recogise him as an FBI agent from Bloodsport several decades ago. He’s a pretty good actor, on a similar level to Neeson I’d say, even if nowhere near as rich or famous, he has just as much screen charisma.
Inline with what we’ve come to expect from the first two Taken movies, this one continues the theme of realistic insights into tactics that such a person as Neeson’s character Bryan would be likely to use, including some things more cliché and other things that we’d be less likely to consider. Such as inconspicuous code words over telephone calls (cliché but tactically powerful), and escaping from a foot chase by going through unexpected underground tunnel systems that have inconspicuous entrance masking objects (kind of like hiding in plain sight, thus still a bit cliché, while equally powerful). Also escaping from handcuffs using a concealed pick – something like what I thought we would see in the last movie to be honest, and then he pulled out a mini mobile phone instead! He also does a bit of waterboarding – a torture & interrogation technique made popular by American military in Gitmo etc.
As with the last movie, the hand-to-hand combat scenes here are very choppy between different camera angles – a classic method of masking an actor’s lack of real combative acumen, and in this case, his total lack of physical coordination altogether.
This movie also has a vibe of mystery that wasn’t present in the first two Taken movies, such that it’s not until half an hour before the end that we ever find out who killed Bryan’s ex wife – or so we think – and it’s not until the last quarter an hour that someone (his daughter) actually gets “Taken” this time round.
Even though this movie deviates from the standard Taken concept, and takes a while to warm up, and is a bit miserable early on; in the end I have to rate it higher than Taken 2, and roughly on a par with the original thanks to its strong ending. The highest point was near the end, when Bryan was speeding in a Porsche, chasing after the plane that his ex wife’s murderer turned daughter’s kidnapper was trying to escape in. But it wasn’t just an isolated high, it was part of a larger ending that’s generally quite strong thanks to the converging contributions of multiple decent actors and the richness & pace of the script – something gravely lacking earlier on.
I was disappointed (but not surprised) by the closing scene though. When, after learning that his daughter is pregnant, Bryan says something along the lines of “whatever you decide, I’ll support you” as if there’s a decision to be made (to kill or not to kill, is what I assume it means). But they cleverly brushed that one under the carpet quickly, by talking about the potential name of the baby, as if that’s what Bryan were referring to all along.
This movie takes half an hour to get warmed up, after a bit too long with the non-action backstory drama. But once it gets going about half an hour in, it turns roughly into what we know and expect from the first Taken movie. But even with all that backstory building, it’s really much ado about nothing early on, because this movie’s backstory is still quite reliant on knowing how the first movie went down.
Seeing Liam Neeson run around town, away from those who intend to kidnap him and his family members, really highlights the kind of fragile, awkward movement that only the trained eye could clock onto in the first movie. The fight scenes are also a bit weaker this time round, with a lot of camera angle flashing – a serious lack of rolling footage that lasts more than a fraction of a second – this is a classic budget coverup tactic for actors who can’t really fight, but the last movie didn’t have so much of this going on – not because Neeson could fight any better, but because it must have had a better screen combat team, including choreographers assisting him and stunt doubles standing in for him etc. I guess they’ve cut the budget in that department for Taken 2.
On the plus side, there’s realistic tactics displayed again by Neeson’s character Bryan Mills here, including things we didn’t see in the last movie. Such as memorising a journey taken when kidnapped, by counting seconds while listening out for sounds and driving style changes all along the way, even while blindfolded, in order to re-trace the same route later on; and using items concealed in clothing, to facilitate escape (in this case, a mini cellphone). Then measuring distance while on the phone by counting seconds between an explosion on each end.
On the plus side also, Maggie Grace‘s acting has improved slighty since the last movie. Not massively so, but it’s a little bit better than it was before. Just a little bit.
Around an hour in, things really warm up, as Bryan instructs his daughter Kim on how to help him and her mother to escape. There’s a good 10 minutes of fast action from here – mainly a high speed car chase where Kim is in the driving seat. This, combined with her helping him to escape earlier on, makes this movie very much about the daughter playing the action hero while the father himself is a somewhat immasculated man – a theme we saw from the very beginning while he’s meekly trying to win over his ex wife, who he treats like royalty, even though she’s been with another man for some time. All this girl power and immasculation stuff probably ticks a few boxes for the producers, but makes for a much weaker action movie – it’s much less enjoyable – it’s much weaker in its highs, and it’s much stronger in its lulls – it’s got less pleasantry, and more unpleasantry, which is no mean feat considering the nature of the last movie. It’s not until the last 20 minutes (15 if you take out the closing credits) when Bryan really does his thing and tries to rescue his ex wife.
All in all, it’s not massively different from the first Taken movie, and it has some slightly fresh ideas of its own, but it’s clearly a weaker movie over all, while still being mildly entertaining enough and on-genre enough to earn a Below Average rating I’d say. And that may even be a bit generous considering all the hard-to-watch monotonous and unpleasant chunks that I found myself fast-forwarding through in the knowledge that I was missing absolutely nothing from the goodness of the movie and even saving myself the pain of the screeching background noise that I can only assume is a desperate attempt to add flesh on the bones of the movie and build some kind of suspense & momentum when in fact it really serves only to irritate, not dissimilar to annoying noisy adverts jumping out and disturbing your mood while trying to enjoy a decent YouTube video for example (I’m sure that’s done as a psychological warfare tactic, and not really for the ad revenue).
Bryan’s ex wife in this movie and the last, called Lenore Mills, is played adequately by Famke Janssen who you may recognise as Jean Grey aka Phoenix from the X-Men movie series prior to Sophie Turner taking over that role for X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).
The main baddie in this movie – the father of the main baddie in the previous movie – is played by Rade Šerbedžija (from Tekken 2). He’s not a bad actor but he seems to have a habit of appearing in slightly flopped sequels with similar names. Watch out for him if you want to make a movie called anything like Token 2 or Toucan 2!
This movie begins looking like a poor level of production, as it starts to build the backstory of the dystopian world where the lead character, Jin Kazama – played adequately by Jon Foo (with vibes of Justin Chatwin from Dragonball Evolution the year before, or Michael J Fox from Back To The Future) – is constantly evading law enforcement just to put good food on the table.
When Jin’s mother dies, about 20 minutes in, and he enters the Iron Fist tournament in the Tekken estate that rules America in this dystopian world, the movie starts to come alive. In his trial to become the people’s champ, he fights Marshall Law (played by MMA champion turned moviestar Cung Le). In this bout we see many classic movies from the Tekken video game series, both on Jin Kazama’s side and on Martial Law’s side.
Naturally, people who used to play the Tekken game are going to be more into this movie than those who didn’t, and I used to be pretty good at Tekken 3 back in the day, but I quit playing PlayStation games when I became an adult! As a teenager and a master of fighting in Tekken I used to think how my life would be so much better if all the time spent mastering Tekken were spent mastering martial arts moves in real life instead. I did eventually get very good at martial arts in real life and I don’t have any regrets about quitting the PlayStation in my late teens – if anything, I should have quit computer games altogether including PC games which I wasted a lot of time on in my 20s & 30s. These days, in an effort to make better use of my time, I limit my gaming to a little bit of simple, timeless, non-addictive games like Chess (especially the Crazyhouse variant), and even Chess can be a waste of time according to arguably the most talented player of all time, Paul Morphy, who quit the game at an early age after famously saying something like “the ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman; the ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life”.
Anyway, back to the Tekken movie. The fight scene energy is generally pretty good on top of being quite true to the characters’ signature moves in the game.
I haven’t generally been a fan of Luke Goss in the lead role of action movies – he just don’t seem convincing enough – but his role here as Jin’s old-school street-smart manager suits him very well.
If not for its extremely simplistic plot, and its generally mediocre level of actors, this movie could have easily been several levels better, but as it stands, it rate it Bang Average, and that’s even a bit generous considering its poor rewatchability until you’ve almost completely forgotten how it goes.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa does a decent job as Heihachi Mishima, leader of the Tekken empire until his son steals the throne, and his son Kazuya Mishima is played quite well by Ian Anthony Dale.
The lead female, Christie Monteiro, with whom Jin gets quite close, is played by the pretty but butch Kelly Overton who based on her physique, appearance, dress style and demeanor, I’d have guessed had a background in pro (pretend) wrestling. She’s not a bad actress and in terms of star power she’s probably a good match for Jon Foo, if not a little overpowering.
Sequel
If you enjoyed this movie, don’t miss its only sequel, Tekken II: Kazuya’s Revenge (2014) which is a different kind of action movie altogether, but still quite enjoyable if you’ve not seen it before or don’t remember how it goes.
This movie gets off to a dark, gritty start that’s quite hard to watch; but this may be a necessary evil to build up towards what happens later in the movie. It’s definitely focused more on the gritty side, than the coolness, compared to the original, but it makes use of modern sound and visual effects for a deeper impact than the original movie from 1995 which was very cool but lacked seriousness, depth & grounding. This movie has a generally higher quality of production than the original, even if a less cool plot, and it has a higher quality of acting generally, even if the characters are less funky. Overall there’s a much more serious tone this time round, but that doesn’t mean it lacks cool effects, it’s just very careful and conservative with their use, and makes a real statement any time the special effects come out.
Throughout the first half hour this movie’s plot develops nicely – it gets increasingly intriguing and you end up kind of hooked. By 25 minutes in, things have become quite clear – we can see who the star of the show is, and some of the other main characters, and what general direction the movie is taking.
45 mins in, things get a bit dark & depressing again. The dark patches continue to be mixed in with uplifting elements for a good half an hour until everyone fights and the lead character’s powers come out for the first time, which is closely followed by the same thing happening to his comrade Jax, then things start to get quite exciting again. The lead character in this movie is not Liu kang this time, although he is a major supporting character here. The lead character this time round is Cole Young (played quite well by Lewis Tan) – a descendant of Scorpion whose entire bloodline was thought to be killed by Sub-Zero but one baby remained, looked after by Raiden, then Scorpion came back from the dead to help his descendant defeat Sub-Zero in the 90th minute, helping to create an epic final battle.
The cast is comprised of a mix between strong, weak and mediocre actors. Strong actors here, aside from Lewis Tan in the lead role, include Joe Taslim playing Sub-Zero very well, and Hiroyuki Sanada playing Scorpion quite well too. Josh Lawson also does a decent job as Kano, and Mehcad Brooks is not bad in the role of Jax.
Raiden (leader of the good guys), Shang Tsung (leader of the bad guys), Liu Kang (good guy) and Sonya Blade (good girl) are all key characters here too, but their respective actors didn’t impress me. Random stuntmen could have probably done their jobs just as good if not better.
Considering its strengths and highs, I’m going to rate this movie generously, scoring it Pretty Good, which puts it a couple of levels above the original – a serious accomplishment. Now imagine if the four key characters listed above had much stronger actors playing those roles – I’d have to rate it even better, and it would be pretty close to the level of the best action movies ever made.
Based on the very popular video game called Mortal Kombat, which at the time was in hot competition with Street Fighter, this incredibly cheesy movie is a classic combination of slightly cheap and very catchy. It’s no blockbuster and has no A-lister stars in lead roles (although the beautiful Talisa Soto (from Licence To Kill) plays a minor role here, as Princess Kitana) but it does have some very suitable cult icons in major roles such as Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa who plays the main antagonist (a sorcerer called Shang Tsung), and Christopher Lambert as Lord Raiden who is a mostly back-seat leader of the protagonists with outstanding magical powers but limited scope for using them (also spelt Rayden to avoid copyright issues with a 1990 arcade game called Raiden by Tecmo).
This movie is slightly one dimensional, as any movie would be on a less than blockbuster budget, and since it’s made in the 90s its CGI effects look cheap by today’s standards (don’t miss the remake from 2021); but this movie still does a pretty good job at sustaining attention by following a fantastical storyline, being consistently action packed, and having frequent bits of good humour in the intermittent quieter moments.
If you’re old enough to be a fan of the old Mortal Kombat video games, you’ll be extra fond of this movie series in a way that more recent generations just won’t understand.
Considering its unique balance of strengths and weaknesses I could make a case for rating this movie anywhere between Bang Average and Pretty Good, but we’ll go for Above Average in this instance, where it sits right at home with a lot of similarly super cool and very busy but somewhat shallow movies.
Everything lacking in this movie, such as modern effects and a bit more grounding, is kind of present in the 2021 remake, however, that movie lacks much of the cheesy iconography and coolness of this one. If we could somehow combine the best of both of them, we could easily end up with one of the best action movies ever made.
Bear in mind also, the role of Johnny Cage in the video game was originally intended for Jean-Claude Van Damme, but he ended up going elsewhere and eventually did a deal with the main rival video game Street Fighter and appeared in the film adaptation of that game alongside Kylie Minogue (who many years later he admitted to having an affair with during the making of that movie). Their chemistry was great and the movie was fun and the Street Fighter video game was kind of the more dominant one, but when it came to the movies, the Mortal Kombat movies were by far the best, so maybe Van Damme picked the wrong side! Anyway, Johnny Cage in this movie was played by someone seemingly random (Linden Ashby) with a bit of kickboxing type experience but nowhere near Van Damme’s physical talent or charismatic star power. He’s still good fun, but he’s no Van Damme.
Talisa Soto kind of stole the show here with her beauty even from her minor role and without a strong dance partner, while aside from that, Lambert & Tagawa stole the show with their incredibly cheesy charisma. Lambert especially is probably what’s most memorable about this movie. The special effects behind the likes of Raiden, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile & Goro are pretty good too, for a mid 90s movie. Their outfits are pretty good too. And the theme tune music is outstanding, when it appears, but it doesn’t appear often enough or varied enough for my liking – it’s an outstanding concept that deserves to be expanded on and utilised more in this movie, but this is only something proven by its long-running cult following over spanning many decades – it was probably not something so easily provable and commercially justifiable at the time of making this movie.
Other cast members include Robin Shou who played Liu Kang – probably the main protagonist here; Trevor Goddard who plays Kano, one of the antagonists, responsible for luring Sonya onto the boat and into the tournament; and then there’s Bridgette Wilson who plays Sonya Blade, a special forces operator who unwittingly ends up on the team of protagonists defending the realm of Earth.
Sequel
While Mortal Kombat (1995) was a generally respectable movie with a touch of B-movie cheese; its immediate sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) looks more like a straight B-movie. Continuing from the story at the end of the original, at first it’s nice to see the beautiful Talisa Soto returning in a more significant role here, but she’s kind of landed in the sh*t with this one. It’s a shame to see her lower herself to being present in this level of production – the cinematography is thoroughly unclassy and the script leaves much to be desired this time round. Literally none of the other actors returned except Robin Shou as a mediocre Liu Kang. I guess Lambert and Tagawa were either not interested or couldn’t be afforded, and that should tell us all we need to know about the quality of Annihilation. Considering how Lambert kept making the Highlander movies until they became unwatchably bad, it should come as no surprise that this movie is really quite unbearable at times since he’s been replaced by James Remar, who is not really a bad actor per se, but doesn’t have Lambert’s funky touch. I couldn’t help but fast forward through the very monotonous parts of this movie, of which there were many, thus I have to rate this one Barely Watchable, which is a massive step down from the original which I rated Above Average due to its impressive coolness on top of its respectable production level.
If you really want to enjoy another good Mortal Kombat movie, don’t miss the modern remake from 2021 which is no worse than the 1995 original. Don’t even bother with Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) if you ask me, just give it a miss.
I have to say, this is a very weird movie. On the one hand it’s an eccentric satire of a kung fu come samurai flick, full of bastardised Laozi quotes, stinks of B movie vibes, and has the atmospherics of a kids’ cartoon; while on the other hand, it’s got stars like Russell Crowe, Dave Bautista and Lucy Liu, not to mention Cung Le, Rick Yune, Jamie Chung, Byron Mann, and RZA who also directed this movie and co-written it with the help of Eli Roth – a horror movie director who no doubt was somewhat responsible for the eccentric blood splattering that contributed to the weirdness of this movie.
For all these reasons, I can’t rate it any higher than Bang Average – I doubt anything in this weird genre can – but it’s also not any worse than average. Indeed, it’s probably as good as a movie can get in this weird slightly-eccentric slightly-satirical slightly B-movie type of oriental martial arts flick genre. It does a fair job of sustaining attention throughout, considering its shortcomings. I just want to know how the producers managed to convince the high level cast members – especially Russell Crowe – to get involved in such a B-movie level of production. In fairness, once they knew Crowe agreed, the rest were probably easy to convince, but how did they convince Crowe to stoop to these levels? He could have probably hired a better production team with his own money and not noticed anything missing from his fortune, so why waste his time on this tripe? I have no idea.
Sequel
It should come as no surprise that Crowe did not return for the sequel in 2015, which went direct to video. But they did manage to get Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa involved, and Rick Yune came back, plus of course RZA, although he didn’t direct the sequel – that job went to Roel Reiné this time – but RZA did co-write it again, with the help of John Jarrell this time round.
The quality of The Man With The Iron Fists 2 (2015) is a couple of levels down from that of the original. It has practically no special effects – just a bit of slow motion at times, and it has very little cast power too. It has a few mildly watchable parts but they’re too few & far between, and mostly too late in the movie – I had to skip through the vast majority of this movie while looking for anything watchable so I have to say the movie overall is generally unwatchable by my standards. For more than the first half of the movie, it’s pretty much solid boring drama. The last half hour or so is barely watchable, but on a better level than the prior hour.
This move gets off to a bad start, with a boring-come-irritating drama scene that attempts to conjure up a traumatic experience while building a backstory for the main character. Fortunately this only lasts a few minutes, and then the better stuff gets underway.
Chris Pratt (with vibes of Seann William Scott) stars as Peter Quill – the main man in this movie. He’s a fun character with convincing acting, and carries the occasional moment of humour very well too.
Dave Bautista adds substantial value as a strong powerful ally called Drax The Destroyer, although he gets beaten easily by the main antagonist called Ronan – himself played quite well by Lee Pace with a massive dose of CGI and masking up so much that we can’t really see who he is.
Zoë Saldaña (star of Colombiana, 2011) is the main female in this movie. She’s a green woman called Gamora, and a trained killer. She joins the team of misfits, to save the galaxy, and has the odd moment of romance with Chris Pratt’s character. Her performance is adequate but nothing outstanding. She wears heavy makeup including some bits to make her look less human.
Michael Rooker plays Yondu, the head of the Ravagers, quite well.
Bradley Cooper provides the voice of Rocket, the bounty hunting raccoon; and Vin Diesel provides the voice of Groot, the talking, walking warrior tree.
Considering the ratio of tedious drama to exciting action, the ratio of easy viewing to irritating viewing, the general quality of acting, the half-smooth half-muddled script, and the general strength of cinematography, I have to rate this movie Bang Average, on a par with Captain America 1 and 2.
But if Chris Pratt had some kind of super power or incredible talent that made him special, and the main crew were not a bunch of weird alien misfits, this movie could have more of a classical superhero vibe, but as it stands it’s far more casual than exciting (when it’s not a noisy mess of drama). Although it has the odd bit of good action and the odd bit of good humour, it’s hard to get behind the main characters, some of whom are not even human, and most are weird looking beastly aliens with bright red, blue or green skin. I wouldn’t even call it childish, I’d call it too goofy or wacky-minded to relate to, and too nonchalant to really get behind. Thus, although some parts belong in a much more highly rated movie, the overall production is so full of pros & cons, it ultimately boils down to a Bang Average action hero movie by Marvel Studios. Having said that, after a long tedious patch, the ending is pretty strong and shows the specialness in Pratt’s character Peter Quill for the first time, as well as another level of ability in his main comrades (Saldaña’s Gamora, Bautista’s Drax and Cooper’s raccoon) as they’re officially dubbed the Guardians Of The Galaxy by the main antagonist, Ronan. Question is, why so late? Why suffer two hours of weak drama for one strong ending? There should have been more bits like that, to prevent this movie getting lost between genres and never surpassing mediocrity in either genre. With a few more scenes like that, this movie could have easily gone up several rating levels.
Credit also goes to Josh Brolin who barely recognisably plays Thanos (with the help of ample makeup & CGI) – the most powerful being in the universe, and Ronan’s boss (until Ronan acquired the infinity stone). Prior to Guardians, Thanos also appeared in Avengers (2012) where he was played by Damion Poitier instead; then Josh Brolin took over the role of Thanos for every subsequent movie until Avengers: Endgame (2019) where he dies.
Sequels
Next up, if you’re following all Marvel movies in order, is Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron (2015) featuring a multitude of superheroes just like the first Avengers movie from 2012, including Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow and more, but no Peter Quill or anyone from the Guardians movie series yet, although Avengers 3: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers 4: Endgame (2019) both feature the entire Guardians team. Or if you just want to skip to the next true dedicated Guardians movie where Chris Pratt and his team of misfits get all the screen time, that would be Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 (2017). There’s also a Guardians 3 (2023) in case you’re going down that route.
Cyborg is a Mad Max style post-apocalyptic action drama starring a young Jean-Claude Van Damme just one year after his breakout movie Bloodsport.
Due to the amount of pain & suffering depicted, including plenty of murder & torture, this movie could qualify as borderline horror. The most gruesome shots are omitted but there’s still enough unpleasantry to warrant a bit of fast-forwarding.
Van Damme plays a ‘slinger’ called Gibson who helps get people out of a ruined New York City. He stumbles across a female cyborg (a robotics-enhanced human, like Robocop without the strength & weaponry) played adequately by Dayle Haddon. She needs help getting to Atlanta to deliver vital information to doctors so they can make a cure for the plague that’s ravaged the world.
He also stumbles across another female, played terribly callously & nonchalently by Deborah Richter, with an outwardly-confident nervous twitch, not dissimilar to the demeanour of an adult industry worker – no surprise therefore that she has multiple scenes of nudity here. She tags along with Van Damme’s character because she’s otherwise quite helpless in this scary wasted world, plus she’s trying to convince him to help the cyborg deliver the cure to Atlanta.
Along the way, Van Damme’s character Gibson faces a ruthless gang of pirates led by a guy called Fender (played very convincingly by Vincent Klyn) who rejoices in misery and wants to own the cure for himself. The same guy also murdered Gibson’s family, so Gibson has a vendetta to fulfil.
Due to its originality and its frequent action, with a fair bit of quality, while being let down by plenty of slow scenes with empty filler content that ought to have been condensed out, and due to the overwhelming amount of horror genre infesting this movie, I rate it So-So / Lower-OK from a smooth action hero movie fan’s perspective. It’s more than Watchable, but only just.
Fun fact: this movie was put together using the sets & costumes of the abandoned Masters Of The Universe 2 plus an abandoned Spider-Man movie. Due to budget issues, those movies were scrapped even though a lot of money had already been spent on them, so they made this movie Cyborg to put those sets & costumes to good use and it turned out to be quite a hit – well played Cannon!
Not a bad movie, starring Sylvester Stallone a CIA explosives expert turned mercenary for hire on the free market, and Sharon Stone as the woman who hires him. They both put on fine performances as expected, although the plot is a bit thin and steamy. Supporting actors include James Woods and Eric Roberts who both do decent jobs as the two main bad guys in this movie, both reporting to the mafia boss played by Rod Steiger who does an average job with a terribly fake sounding accent.
The movie’s mood is slow but captivating, and the action is intermittent but of a fairly high standard – overall it kind of works. With grand musical effects it has vibes of an old Bond movie just without the fancy plot – this one’s very one-dimensional but still an enjoyable watch if you’re not too busy and haven’t seen this movie in the last decade or so.
This movie has plenty of the same creativity that made the previous two a success. Pat Morita does an outstanding job as Mr Miyagi, and Ralph Macchio does a decent job as Daniel-san too. This time the movie is set back in the States, but new rivals emerge in the form of an old student (Terry Silver) of the nasty Cobra Kai sensei (John Kreese), plus a new recruit (Mike Barnes) hired specifically to beat Daniel in the tournament and beat him up in the process.
Thomas Ian Griffith almost steals the show – he does an outstanding job as Terry Silver who makes it his mission to deceive and torment Daniel-san and Mr Miyagi. Sean Kanan does a decent job as Mike Barnes who bullies Daniel-san throughout the movie (as he’s hired to do by Terry Silver), and Martin Kove does a decent job reprising his role as John Kreese too.
Other cast members include Daniel’s new girlfriend Jessica Andrews, the lady from the pottery store across the road (played by Robyn Lively, who does a fair job), and Snake, a student of Terry Silver who is tasked with organising & assisting the bullying (played by Jonathan Avildsen, who does an excellent job, he is very convincing, albeit in a relatively minor role).
Due to creativity maintained, as set by prior movies in this saga, and considering the introduction of great new cast members, plus a strong ending as per usual, this movie deserves a 7.5/10 in my view.
This movie did well to develop the characters the way it did; but if it had a bit less bonsai tree drama, a bit more interesting action, a bit more meaningful philosophy, and a stronger leader female, plus dare I say a stronger lead male playing Daniel-san, this could be a more exciting movie worthy of an 8 or higher. It’s got so many strong ingredients that other movies don’t have. It’s fun to watch the whole series of Karate Kid movies back to back every few years, and these days we have the luxury of topping that off with the new Cobra Kai show which has six seasons out already and is still going strong. I recommend you finish every season of this show before moving on to Jackie Chan’s 2010 remake of The Karate Kid which has none of the same actors and is all about Chinese kung fu really, not Japanese karate.
See also: Cobra Kai – the new satirical action comedy drama TV show
The new Cobra Kai show sees many of the old Karate Kid actors return after several decades away, including: Ralph Macchio who plays a middle aged Daniel-san; William Zabka who plays a middle-aged Johnny Lawrence, Daniel’s nemesis from the original movie; and elderly versions of John Kreese (played by Martin Kove) and Terry Silver (played by Thomas Ian Griffith).
But that’s more for nostalgia than anything. The best thing about this series is the introduction of a new generation of outstanding cast members including Xolo Maridueña (from Blue Beetle) and Tanner Buchanan.
Note though, this show is a bit satirical, not so serious as the movies were. That doesn’t mean the acting is bad, it’s just a different vibe, a different genre now.
Classic moody old Van Damme and classic moody prime Scott Adkins join forces in a beautiful depiction of two expert assassins colliding on a job then joining forces to finish personal vendettas against the odds. The only reason I don’t rate Assassination Games higher is because it has a fairly simplistic script and probably a lower budget than it deserves. The basic concepts in the plot are good, but they fail to flesh out into a more comprehensive plot to entertain us on another level which we should be considering the stars involved. The script is thin but the two action hero superstars carry this movie into a moderate success. The opening scene seems almost B Movie quality, but it quickly improves. Granted, there are some cool sets, like Van Damme’s apartment with secret rooms, and his agent’s lair was convincing too. All in all, it’s makes for decent viewing when you haven’t seen it in a while.
Supporting cast includes Kristopher Van Varenberg, also known as Kris Van Damme, and Bianca Van Varenberg, also known as Bianca Bree and Bianca Van Damme – these are Jean-Claude Van Damme’s two children from his current wife who he divorced then re-married (Jean-Claude has a son to ex-wife Darcy LaPier also – that one being called Nicholas Van Varenberg). Indeed, Jean-Claude Van Damme’s name is actually Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg. In this movie, his daughter Bree plays the comatose wife of Scott Adkins’ character, and Van Damme’s son Kris plays one of the enemies of Adkins’ character.
Bloodshot is a novel concept – creative and action packed – great for anyone who’s never seen it before. It is a bit one dimensional still though. The introduction of the hacker is a nice plot development but aside from that it’s all very simple.
Vin Diesel is his usual self – a fairly entertaining action hero, but a bit dryer and slower than my favourite action movie stars, although he oozes energy from underneath the surface. This role doesn’t perfectly suit him, but he does pretty well in it nevertheless.
Supporting cast includes Eiza González, the lead female – she does quite well in her role as an attractive assassin being controlled by Guy Pearce’s character. Lamorne Morris does quite well as the coding whiz who hacks the controlling technology to set Vin’s and Eiza’s characters free.
Guy Pearce does alright as the main nemesis on the brains side – the guy who controls Vin Diesel’s character until he breaks free – but he is a bit too meek in demeanour for such a power hungry role – a naturally stronger character here could have made this is more convincing movie.
Sam Heughan does a good job as the main nemesis on the (tech assisted) muscles side – he has a very convincing attitude for the role.
Alex Hernandez also does alright as one of the main team members. Good attitude for the requirement of the role.
Toby Kebbell also does quite well, as the first victim of the mind-controlled main character played by Vin Diesel. He displays an impressive contrast of acting styles here, from a savage psycho killer with a screw-loose wacky side, to an innocent and vulnerable victim with strong understanding and quick reactions.
Talulah Riley plays Vin Diesel’s wife – her performance was fair enough, although it was a bit washed & wafery – a more attractive & powerful woman like Eiza González could have done a better job in this role and helped make the movie more convincing since the plot is so heavily based on Vin Diesel’s character being so attached to his wife and so moved and vengeance-seeking when she’s killed.
Overall it’s a busy action packed movie and quite creative in its core concept, but is a bit one dimensional in terms of extended plot detail. It’s especially interesting for those who haven’t seen it before or in many years. Due to the strong special effects, fairly rich action, generally decent cast, and quirky concept, but with a dodgy nanite theme in-keeping with so many movies released around 2020; I rate Bloodshot about equal to its rival Hobbs & Shaw, or Black Panther 1 and 2. Indeed it’s disappointing to see so much pushing of the idea that technology in our body is a beneficial and even cool thing, especially when it comes to nanobots messing around in our blood according to their own discretion or an outside controller. Bloodshot is an awesome movie the first time you see it, if you can forgive its dodgy theme features, but significant tedium sets in and significant flaws become much more apparent if you rewatch it too often.
Colombiana stars Zoe Saldaña as Cataleya (after a 30 minute backstory where someone else plays her younger self).
Zoe Saldaña is perhaps best known for being the main blue chick in the Avatar movie series, as well as the main green chick in the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies. She also played Uhura in the Star Trek movies. But as strong as all her other roles were, nothing tops her performance in the lead role of Colombiana so far as action hero movie connoisseurs like myself are concerned.
From its well crafted opening with great patience, sound effects, camerawork and cast members (including Amandla Stenberg who expertly plays a young version of Cataleya, plus Cliff Curtis who quite well plays her uncle Emilio living in USA, Jordi Mollà who quite well plays the main baddie early on, and many other strong supporting cast members)… To its smooth yet committed plot development that scarcely fails to retain the viewer’s fixated attention (especially for first time viewers but quite effectively for occasional rewatchers also)… Colombiana is an understated memorable near-masterpiece as far as female assassin movies go.
Lennie James also puts in a strong performance as the FBI agent in charge of identifying, tracking down and capturing Cataleya.
Colombiana has a simplistic plot, but it’s generally well executed with great tempo, acting and effects all round. When a less captivating scene starts to drag on too long, it tends to change pretty quickly soon after, in order to relieve the frustration, so boring bits are scarce and short at the worst of times – credit to the directors for that.
Having said that, the chunky middle of the movie is by far the best of it; stylistically reminiscent of Jessica Alba in the Dark Angel sci-fi series. The start, and even more so the long action scene near the end, are a bit gritty and one-dimensional, which can get tedious for frequent rewatchers of this movie. So while I would rate the majority of this movie ‘very good’ alongside the best male-led assassin movies like The Equalizer, Hitman, and The Transporter; due to its weaker ending (sure, it’s got a long & loud action scene, but that’s not everything) I have to shave the edge off it and rate this movie overall as merely ‘pretty good’ alongside the best female-led action hero movies like Wonder Woman and Ghost In The Shell, which is no poor achievement by any means – they’re still fairly strong movies, quite well made.
This movie sequel is about as good as the original Ninja movie from 2009. It carries some of the same core characters and plot references, but has plenty of new plot material to work from. In this movie we see another vengeance-led mission except this time Scott’s character has nothing to protect – he’s lost everything and is on a “kill ’em all” kinda mission now as he tracks down the untouchable druglord who he thinks killed his pregnant wife, taking out everyone he encounters along the way. It’s a solid movie, about as good as the original – some things are better, some things are worse. This time it’s not set in America though, it’s set in Thailand & Burma.
This movie is thoroughly entertaining – it’s one of Jackie’s slightly more gritty performances but still provides great action for his usual fanbase just with the omission of the usual comedic edge. The only letdown is the socio-political message being pushed by this movie. That aspect of it really stinks. Still, Jackie holds it down very well so it doesn’t upset the movie too much. We’re treated to a very strong performance by Pierce Brosnan too, as an Irish politician and former IRA leader who has to defend his farm-come-castle from an angry elderly Chinaman who happens to be ex special forces – a role played flawlessly by Jackie Chan with the help of a great all-round movie production.
It’s slightly minimal on plot aside from the core concept – hardly as many twists & turns as The Matrix – but that’s fine. It focuses on one theme – a slowly developing scenario – and does it exceedingly well.
We’ve previously seen how fantastic a movie can be when a top martial arts movie star teams up with a former James Bond, as happened when Van Damme worked with Roger Moore on The Quest (1996). The Foreigner is no exception to this trend – Jackie Chan makes a great team with Pierce Brosnan here, only this time they are adversaries.
There’s a good amount of combat but this movie, but the entertainment value comes more from the story. Action wise, it’s not nearly so complex or grandiose as James Bond, but it’s got a good amount of simple action throughout. Script wise, it’s a very simple story, well executed. Cast wise, there are several strong characters in this movie.
Rumour says Jackie had been craving a more serious romantic or dramatic role (minus the comedy) for a long time. Now that he’s finally had one, we can see why. He’s an outstanding actor. It’s a very moving movie. This follows the pattern of his first few American movies, where he wasn’t permitted to choreograph his fight scenes in the ways he knew would work best, because the directors couldn’t think beyond trying to imitate the old established style of screen combat, but when Jackie eventually gained enough authority to do his own thing, the world loved it, and I hope those early directors held their heads in shame.
