tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18082991257378388952024-02-18T22:00:07.698-08:00The Explodable World of ActionActionmovies! The most culturally important and relevant artform ever!
Also, home of Falkology, the studies of Johan Falk.Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-88151494614834193682018-07-11T11:18:00.002-07:002018-07-11T11:28:19.936-07:00ATOMIC BLONDE (2017)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCggbtsg5EbpuviDlpgZTZmjO3fTOsp1IHnX22rzvD2hW08YQ7qUp9CW9-B4mGAPCsgb-yhqYUzwW4PXIsagyb_nT3wyWcV-R7371YqXQfQ-Y6emxWYJN4KEF7lnkoo79jynIqKri7x0g/s1600/Atomicblonde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCggbtsg5EbpuviDlpgZTZmjO3fTOsp1IHnX22rzvD2hW08YQ7qUp9CW9-B4mGAPCsgb-yhqYUzwW4PXIsagyb_nT3wyWcV-R7371YqXQfQ-Y6emxWYJN4KEF7lnkoo79jynIqKri7x0g/s320/Atomicblonde.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
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<i>Atomic Blonde </i>directed by David leitch, one of the co-directors of the marvellous sleeper sensation <i>John Wick </i> is one film I had high hopes for. It looked fantastic with its retro inspired late 80´s look and soundtrack. Like a Luc Besson film of the 80´s. It still does. But a missed opportunity was squandered here I think. It could have been a wonderful movie with the level of worldbuilding of John Wick but set in East Berlin at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.</div>
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John Le Carré, a british writer of Cold War spy novels did that. Created all these mysterious organizations and shadowy characters that was and still is so compelling. Spy stories invite to world building I think thanks to the levels of intricacies involved.</div>
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But what we are left with is a fairly superficial nonsensical spy nonsensical film, that tries to blend genres, but perhaps it was the two genres that never should be melded. The action film and the spy drama.</div>
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Action films are propulsive by nature, moving forward, creating momentum. Spy stories are reflective with its elliptic narratives, quite the contrary to action films. And this film is an example of how bad they mixed.</div>
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I once tried to mix red and white wine in the same glass. A hopeless effort and stupid endeavour. They were never going to match.</div>
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So, what is the story?</div>
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Well, an East German defector with a list of spies needs to get across the border. And Atomic Blonde ( I can´t remember her real name) played by Charlize Theron is tasked by the British Intelligence to get the list back and the defector.</div>
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That is basically the story, but it is hidden by pointless elliptic flashbacks told through an interrogation after the events and ends with an even more pointless twist. Spy stories usually have unexpected turns, but I found this one ill fitted.</div>
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But what do we have, if we can´t rely on a solid story? Well, we have a soundtrack that at least deviates a lot from the usual nostalgic 80´s back catalogue, because a lot of these songs are German which frames the story very nicely. We also have the usual blue lighting commonly associated with late 80´s action films.</div>
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Since it´s a film directed by the co-director of John Wick, it is sprinkled with dynamic fight sequences throughout. I say, sprinkled, because unlike John Wick, this is not a very focused movie. John Wick- the character was a dynamic character with propulsion which fitted the narrative nicely. And the fights functioned well with the rest of the movie.</div>
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There is nothing wrong with the choreography here. In fact they are a highlight of a rather superficial effort. But Theron's character requires a rather more dynamic plot to suit her own dynamic presence.</div>
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In the end, we have a slight action film, with little to recommend it outside the phenomenal fight scenes. Charlize Thereon proves she can kick ass, but needs a vehicle to provide her so she can stomp the pedal and really go all in.</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-7685352853005689262018-02-06T13:32:00.002-08:002018-02-06T15:05:40.505-08:00NINJA SHADOW OF A TEAR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The original <i>Ninja</i> is a fantastic throwback to the Golden Age of Ninja-movies ( the 80´s). A ninja flick with the correct B-movie sensibilities only hampered by the lack of consistently awesome Scott Adkins fightingry. <i>Ninja</i> 2 makes up for it by being a simple string of fight set pieces. It lacks the strong ninja mythology pathos of the original but instead shows a dynamic pacing and quite frankly is never boring.</div>
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Apparently neither <i>Ninja</i> 1´s director Isaac Florentine or/and its star Scott Adkins were happy with the first outing. They thought it looked too cartoony so in this movie they adopted a more grounded approach to the fight choreography with the listing of Swedish stuntman/martial artist Tim Man ( a Swedish Ip Man).</div>
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It starts out, instead of a montage of ninja lore, with some outrageous WW2 propaganda footage that warns of Ninjas in the pacific. <i>NINJA! BEWARE! </i>This sets up the rather lacklustre plot that at least never hinders the enjoyment of the film.But some elements might be worth examining.<br />
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It feels less Ninja-esque than the original film but instead it really highlights Adkins phenomenal acrobatic skills as a cinematic martial artist, seldom has his skills been put to better use than in this, the <i>Undisputed</i>s<i> </i>not-regarding.</div>
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Scott Adkins plays American Ninja Scott Whatever. He is settling down with his Japanese wife, only to find her dead as he returns from some bullshit errand she sends him on in the middle of the night. He gets a visit from an old friend, Nakabara, played by Kane Kosugi. Old Friend who happens to have a dojo in the same country as the clues Scott finds out about his wife´s murderer leads him to. The same guy who purposefully throw some metaphorical Ninja Dust in Scott´s brain by delivering some heavy handed exposition about the same ninja shit during WW2 that we encountered in the opening.</div>
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You shouldn't trust what you are being spoon fed is the gist of it. The opening propaganda film serves as a foreshadowing of the events to come. We laugh at the silly propaganda from the olden days but later when Scott gets blindsided by being spoon fed some historical nonsense we see the idea of how little informed we are can determine how we act or respond. Scott knows shit about the history and cannot question anything he is emotionally upset by his wife´s death and goes on a quest of vengeance unquestioningly. Something we can learn some very hard lessons about in this day and age.</div>
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So , Scott is being sent to kill a rival to his Old Friend which turns out to be a pretty unspectacular villain. The only thing mentionable about it is the second lieutenant, played by Tim Man who has perhaps the single best fight in the film with Adkins. With the exception of the final showdown when Scott throws down with Nakabara. A true delight for fight fans.</div>
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The plot is pretty complicated compared to <i>Ninja</i>, but it also makes sense. The first movie introduced us to the idea of Ninja. Part of being Ninja is being shadowy, shoving dust in peoples eyes, construct distractions. </div>
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<i>Ninja-Shadow of a tear</i> does all that. But also advance the notion that Ninjas can create fake news, fake stories to construct how we see things. Beware of Ninja! It may not be strong on Ninja mythology, but it is strong on the implications of being a Ninja and being extremely current and topical in how ninjas is being depicted for a 21st century.</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-27764035089341706552017-08-18T17:15:00.003-07:002017-08-18T17:15:57.975-07:00THE DARK TOWER (2017)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<u><i>About the Books:</i></u><br />
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I have to admit. I am not a fan of works of fantasy. Most of them consists of endless number of books that are more interested in world building than to tell an exciting or concise story.</div>
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I know, that is a pretty back handed complaint. I am sure many of them are worthy of a long time investment and a big sore ass from reading them lying on my shitty couch.</div>
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So I figured since I already spend most of my time lying on my ass on my shtty couch reading Stephen King books collecting sores I might actually give his longwinded sweeping epic fantasy series a chance.</div>
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I don´t regret that. But I will have to describe some of my previous attitudes towards literature. Before I read King I read mostly hardbioled crime fiction. Elmore Leonard. Donald Westlake/Richard Stark, James Ellroy and so forth. I had a very specifc demand on story telling. Plot was everything. That was what I used to think mattered. And I was somewhat wrong. In the hands of a writer with a vivid imagination it can really open your mind when you let things breathe. King is the type of writer who uses a lot of internal psychology , digressions in story using flashbacks and a lot of descriptive words to flesh out the world and the characters and would have left a lot of my favourite writers shaking their head at. He spends time with people and the world.</div>
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His prose is perfect for worldbuilding.</div>
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I immediately learned to love his style because it has heart. I read a lot of prose hardboiled ones, that are mostly cynical. But King is a humanist at heart. He understands people on a fundamental level I never thought a human being could do since Dostojevskij.. When he wrote <i>The Dead Zone</i> he saw the flaws in human nature that could give rise to a political monster like Donald Trump.</div>
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His horror stories may be about monsters. But mostly the ones that are closest to us. He shies not away from difficult issues or situations and that is why people respind to him</div>
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<i>The Dark Tower </i>is his magnum opus that collects not only a lot of his previous works, but also on a meta-level descripts on a deeper level how much stories means to us people. Which brings us to a bunch of people responsible who has no idea what the idea of story is or what it should mean. To them it is just a three act structure. The deeper meaning of the human condition has no meaning. The monsters lack all kind of meaning. What is left is a shell made by robots. Shame of you. You shoudl really be ashamed of yourselves.</div>
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<i><u>About the actual film:</u></i><br />
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A young teenager ,Jake Chambers, has nightmares surrounding some imagery about a big Tower. He is being put through therapy as his parents thinks he is crazy. Earthquakes happens because in another world we get to see how children are forced into machinery that shoots out beams to hit the tower Jake is dreaming about. Jake visualizes a house of great importances and finds a portal to a world in which he finds a Gunslinger whom he also has imagined in his dreams. Together they form a journey. The gunslinger, Roland is hunting a man in black who killed his father. The Man in Black as we find out is also responsible for the ongoing destruction of the Tower. Somehow Jake wants to save the Tower. Blablabla....</div>
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It has been a well documented troubled production. A lot of people have been involved in trying to bring Kings work into fruition for a number of years. The end result is a by-the-numbers action/sci-fi/fantasy adventure that has the emotion of desert sand. It is so dry and uninspired, which is a shame as the product has a lor of promise. </div>
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It lacks pretty much anything worthwhile from the books. The heart is gone and is replaced by a generic three act structure that nobody would be impressed with. A script that is heavily underdeveloped and is barely saved by the editing and some performances.</div>
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The lacklustre budget does not help. It is clear that this did not have the financial backing it deserved. For instance, the aftermath of the Jericho Hill battle is barely portryaed beyond a couple of corpses. And the few impressive effect sequenzes are restricted to similar beam explosions to the tower to signal the deadline-type of urgency that is so painfully familiar to the shittiest of screenwriters.</div>
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It seems the climax is where the attention has been targeted at as it is not the tiresome bloated CGI-fests of Marvel/Dc but actually a fun and well constructed gunfight in which the elaborate skills of the Gunslinger Roland really gets shown. It ends with a funny schlocky Magic Vs Bullets showdown of <i>Resident Evil</i>-proportions as Roland and The Man in Black clash. It is pure unadultered pulpy schlock and that is the only sequence that is worthy of mentioning. Maybe that sequence should have been more prevalent in the rest of the film. At least the Gunslingers abilities could have been utilized more. </div>
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I did not hate it as much as a lot of people has. I don´t think it is as terrible as some think, just generic. But that might be the problem. It lacks heart Any heart of the Stephen King novels that I learned to love is gone, At least you wont have to wore out your ass in the couch as I did when I read the books when you catch it on Netflix as it is only 90 minutes long.</div>
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<i>The Dark Tower</i> has not forgotten the face of its father, it is just a simpleminded stepchild who never even knew the face of his biological father.</div>
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A shame. A goddamn shame.</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-51960046693178494892017-04-26T04:59:00.003-07:002017-04-26T04:59:56.888-07:00EXPLODABLE FINAL FIGHT SCENE #5 THE ODD COUPLE<div style="text-align: justify;">
No not the one with Walter Mathau and Jack Lemmon. Although it would have been better if it had ended with a kung fu showdown. No this one stars Sammo Hung and Lau Kar Wing ( brother of legendary martial arts filmmaker Lau Kar Leung) as two rival weapons masters that one day each year meet up to decide once and for all who is the best of them both. And every year it ends with a tie so they end up taking up pupils to fight for them instead. It´s a great showcase of some of teh best weapons work in a martial arts film ever. And this final fight si breathtaking.</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-79874311905767396572017-04-22T23:04:00.000-07:002017-04-22T23:09:25.235-07:00NINJA (2009)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9wsJakJp7l4XVDGwbtDpD6oRRgx7qy7vMOK5tD0c7dlXMX3f4doNDfYGg9PRrHbr5QLEYr-hwKcKf14Ep0bybUp-nYSQuKIKsd48CpzzJuoXx5e2LRd22W0_lA4bzgwimtd7orkHxzKw/s1600/Ninja.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9wsJakJp7l4XVDGwbtDpD6oRRgx7qy7vMOK5tD0c7dlXMX3f4doNDfYGg9PRrHbr5QLEYr-hwKcKf14Ep0bybUp-nYSQuKIKsd48CpzzJuoXx5e2LRd22W0_lA4bzgwimtd7orkHxzKw/s1600/Ninja.jpg" /></a></div>
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Good ninja movies are hard to find these days. They seem to have disappeared in the popular consciousness with a big smokebomb. They used to be everywhere in the eighties. Hell I remember they were even in the soap opera <i>Falcon Crest </i>back in the day , but don´t quote me on that one. My memory is pretty hazy. Like mist in the past clouding my ninja memories.</div>
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<i>Ninja</i> directed by Isaac Florentine is a beautiful breeze of fresh air in Ninja-cinema. An actual solid Ninja movie for the 2000´s using a lot of the mythical tropes we associate with the pop art version of Ninja. I am not sure if what we associate with the word Ninja has any historical validity. But history is sketchy anyway.<br />
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Scott Adkins stars as American Ninja Scott Bowman, adopted as an orphan into a japanese dojo by Sensei Takeda played by Togo Igawa (<i>Street Fighter:Assassins Fist</i>). But he has a rival on the school, Mazasuka who don´t care for gaijin or outsiders. Like Sho Kosugis character in<i> Enter The Ninja</i> never cared of Franco Nero in <i>Enter The Ninja</i>. So already we have established a conventional conflict in Ninja cinema, in which <i>Ninja</i> adhers to. Mazasuka wants to become the next sensei of Ninja-school so he can get the family treasure ( a bunch of awesome ninja shit), but he gets his ass banished from said Ninja-school during a friendly matchup against Casey, but ends up not-so-friendly. He vows revenge..blablabla and soforth. Casey is on route to become the next sensei instead, while Mazasuka finds a new career path as an assassin for a ridiculous cult of white priviledged men out to kill its business competitors and strikes a deal with them.</div>
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Later he kills Sensei Takeda and comes after Casey and the treasure. That is the plot. And it is pretty basic compared to the convoluted affairs of the sequel. </div>
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Florentine and Adkins has gone on record saying they were never really pleased with this first <i>Ninja</i> outing, that it was too reliant on wirework and CGI. I can see that. But the more I watch this the more it feels like a true ninja-film of yore with shurikens, katana-blades and a vast array of different Ninja weaponry. And there are a lot of excellent fight scenes in this as well. Scott Adkins goes up against a whole room of scumbags and dispatches them in a most beautiful way. There is also a very impressive subway fight that, according to Florentine, was one of the few scenes he was proud of in the making of <i>Ninja.</i></div>
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I think the more heightened impact the wirework and CG actually gives this film the type of flavour it needs. The silliness of ninjas and their almost supernatural skills is something that eighties nnja-cinema exploited in intriguing ways and the exoticism of japanese culture was at a highpoint so it would not be completely out of place of having this exaggurated look at a pop culture phomenon that has not been relevant in decades. As such I think the film works as a film belonging to a tradition of Ninja-filmmaking long gone.A tradition that has vanished in thin air to suddenly re-appear in 2009 to ambush the audience with its silly but awesome sets of trickery.</div>
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The seuqel <i>Ninja-Shadow of a Tear</i> takes the fight scenes to a more grounded level to accommodate Adkins abiliteis better , because apparently <i>Ninja</i>s more japanese style of fighting that the fight choreography was built on suited Scott Adkins poorly. I don´t know, he looks pretty great in this, and that is probably a testament to his physical skills. because of that this a damn fun film to watch.</div>
Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-46626114861194827142017-04-22T08:35:00.001-07:002017-04-22T08:35:21.547-07:00EXPLODABLE FINAL FIGHT SCENE #4 THE RAID 2This film is a favourite of mine. As a sequel it builds and expands on the claustrophobic survivalhorror elemts into an <i>Infernal Affairs</i>-esque gangster epic with many more colorful characters a more complex plot and fight sequences staged so beautifully they could be part of a museum exhibit. The kitchen fight at the end is something else. Brutal, fast, energetic. A classic.<br />
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<br />Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-37206987786208270492017-04-20T00:21:00.002-07:002017-04-20T00:21:36.901-07:00EXPLODABLE FINAL FIGHT SCENE #3 NINJA- SHADOW OF A TEARAnother Scott Adkins joint. This is a slight spoiler as the real villain is not revealed until the end. But if you have son of legendary Sho Kosugi in the same film as Scott Adkins, you can bet your sour smelly ass that they will clash against one another. This is a great finale to a perfect B-action film that contains enough story beat to put the fights together but never deviate from what the film want to capture. This is Scott Adkins at his finest. <div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-46163774121360590752017-04-18T01:07:00.004-07:002017-04-18T01:07:59.008-07:00EXPLODABLE FINAL FIGHT SCENES #2 UNDISPUTED 2I was thrilled by <i>Boyka</i>, but <i>Undisputed 2</i> might still be my favourite entry in the series. Not only is Boyka the villain before he becomes the hero, but this final fight betwen him and Michael Jai White ( <i>Blood and Bone</i>, <i>Black Dynamite</i>) is just all sorts of amazing.<br />
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<br />Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-48093448581525082902017-04-17T04:52:00.003-07:002017-04-17T04:53:46.651-07:00EXPLODABLE FINAL FIGHT SCENES #1 EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER (984)This is a good one. The final battle in te Shaw Brothers classic <i>Eight Diagram Pole Fighter</i> starring Gordon Liu, directed by the legnedary master Lau Kar Leung. The finale involves poles, teeth flying, plenty of blood , hihg flying flips, kicks and all sorts of cirque de soleil-esque mayhem<br />
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<br />Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-89733914342807103242017-04-13T11:10:00.000-07:002017-04-13T12:17:51.247-07:00BOYKA-UNDISPUTED IV (2017)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdp-coOY21kcGqKcUWSMAGE4-RgLD06-HPtO5fYfBggNIs-tBs4HsjhjoZTmze_rp7nqVWsPj9AKkm6gC7SyX_TxpIQ6Hw5vVs5vxG7c3yAwjgoOU4VbddjRRx_IKTN30p2nQgz24dSE/s1600/Boyka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdp-coOY21kcGqKcUWSMAGE4-RgLD06-HPtO5fYfBggNIs-tBs4HsjhjoZTmze_rp7nqVWsPj9AKkm6gC7SyX_TxpIQ6Hw5vVs5vxG7c3yAwjgoOU4VbddjRRx_IKTN30p2nQgz24dSE/s320/Boyka.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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This has been a long awaited sequel to say the least. Despite the problem of piracy, director/producer Isaac Florentine and Scott Adkins managed to scrape together enough cash to make another one. And for those of you who pirated the last movie, you can stop reading this and go fuck yourself. Or at least feel some kind of shame, and redeem yourself and buy this film legally. As I did. This was recently released in Sweden on bluray/dvd.</div>
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The <i>Undisputed</i>s are the kind of lowbudget movies that are much more vulnerable to piracy as the profit margins are not as high as the bigger budget blockbusters so the sales must be good enough to warrant a sequel, and as this one already seem to suffer the same fate as part 3 then I am sad to say it will probably be no more of these made. Sad, becaue Boyka is such an unusually rich character.</div>
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The first <i>Undisputed</i> was directed by Hollywood legend Walter Hill, starring Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames. Rhames, a famous heavy weight champ gets convicted for rape , and is sent to a prison in which boxing seem to be a norm and tournaments being held. The reigning champion of the prison is Wesley Snipes. I have to say, it is a very bland film that never tries to delve deeper into the inner workings of underground prison fighting. Until....</div>
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<i>Undisputed 2</i>. Directed by israeli stuntman Isaac Florentine and now starring Micahael Jai White ( <i>Black Dynamite</i>) in the Ving Rhames role. Now set free and forced to do Russian commercials, in well, Russia he is now framed and put in Siberian prison where another fighter played by Scott Adkins lurks. His name: Yuri Boyka , undisputed Russian champion and self-proclaimed "the most complete fighter in the world". Boyka, the prison king of fighters this time loses to Whites character, so there is a reverse in this one. This one and the rest of the series combines dynamic fight sequences with much more world building in terms of the underground fighting and has two very charismatic leads in what would have been an otherwise obscure boxing franchise. This is the one in which boxing starts to get relegated and replaced by high flying kicks, mixed martial arts and just beautifully choreographed and brutal fight scenes that could rivel the masters of Hong Kong action cinema<br />
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<i>Undisputed 3</i> also directed by Florentine, focuses on Boyka returning from his loss and getting back to form. Boykas is the point of view we take in this one and an entry that is so important to understanding both the character of Boyka but also the seduction of this franchise.</div>
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Part 2-3 starts Boykas journey from a villain to becoming a better person or at least we are lead to believe that. At the end of part 3 Boyka is being set free and now for the first time in many years Boyka is free to go wherever he pleases.</div>
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Until now. Boyka is the first film in the franchise that follows previous perspective. How could this franchise go on in an interesting new way?</div>
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I think <i>Boyka</i> tries to be a redemption story despite that part 3 was labeled <i>Redemption</i>, But with Boykas past and experience with the last few films, it kind of means something; this existential conondrum that has hit our hero once he has become free from prison, trying to help out at a local church. Boyka wants to redeem himself from his past. But he don´t realize his prisoner ways are still in check.</div>
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He keeps fighting in the ring in regulated fights, but his obsession of winning ends up with killing someone that we are being told has the same kind of suicidal drive of Boyka. He then seeks up the widow, who has managed to come into trouble as her late husband was in debt to a Russian mob boss and she is now indebted into white slavery because of she cannot pay.</div>
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Boyka wants to redeem hinself by offering to pay off her debt change for fighting for the scumbag boss.</div>
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That is more story than I like to indulge, but I was
surprised that Adkins/Florentine/Davidson/White etc. managed to create a story
for Boyka outside of prison that worked. For me it felt like a purgatory part
one must go through, and that at the end of the third film that was the end to
the story. But that just shows how much of a handle these
dudes have on this guy. Boyka is a villain working himself slowly towards the light. Or think he can as he is raised catholic and believes in redemption. He is stumbling through these films from the fall of the second film, he rises in the third and now he wants to do better, but his former life does still hold a grudge to him and as a tragic result his old life quickly still hold him in a a grasp. Like most prisoners, serving a long term sentence, they have probably a hard time adapting to a new way of life. It is kind of sad when you have to face that you have little choice to change or adapt.</div>
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<i>Boyka:Undisputed </i>is not just a solid sequel , but the kind of action film starring people who actually are good at martial arts, displaying their skills at their best potential. The story is well crafted, and despite a new director on helm (Todor Chapkanov) is on board a lot of Florentines´ own flourishes are still there. The swooshing sound effects, the un-subtle zoom-ins. All of these that gives you an almost Shaw Brother-esque experience. It is all there. Don´t worry. The fights deliver in spades. Shot extremely well as usual with wide angle lenses that captures the movements perfectly.</div>
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Boyka is back. And I am glad he is. We missed you ,bud!</div>
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For those of you who want to see Scott Adkins in action and never have, here is a compilation video:</div>
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Enjoy!</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-36627936608786737772017-04-07T21:40:00.003-07:002017-04-07T21:43:12.456-07:00KILLER CONSTABLE (1980)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYXUvyuQ7W-xo_6CnSyI-HZ1XVZC9-B8ctNJAx1ZHQtFwGQU6Aj6OBGqfRf2S8kFAy3Ar7Tdiv_9uxqGK5-cYoQuo94YLcsT4Gs2ZyEyHS2PlefgL_d58PPYQshn4a2UqZNH0dG84YIGU/s1600/killerslip_1400x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYXUvyuQ7W-xo_6CnSyI-HZ1XVZC9-B8ctNJAx1ZHQtFwGQU6Aj6OBGqfRf2S8kFAy3Ar7Tdiv_9uxqGK5-cYoQuo94YLcsT4Gs2ZyEyHS2PlefgL_d58PPYQshn4a2UqZNH0dG84YIGU/s320/killerslip_1400x.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<i>Killer Constable</i> is just not another solid Shaw Brothers actioner with a relieable and bankeable star. It has other virtues that transcends it into action- heaven.<br />
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I have been moaning on and on about action cinema needs to grow up, develop more sophisticated story lines with more developed characters, both male and female. I want to dig up examples to show to the world that action films does not need to be stupid. <i>Killer Constab</i>le delivers a story with deep consequences, terrific vsiuals and terrible tragedy. An operatic excersise of mayhem, with plenty of dead people, sacrificing themselves for what they believe is for the greater good. A story about an evil man coming to terms with his wicked ways and finally using those evil ways to perform one of those redemptions to put an end to corruption. Sure, it´s the type of mythic story that ha sbeen told again and again around campfires, but the execution here is spot on.<br />
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The prolific Shaw Brothers actor Chen Kuan Tei plays Leng Tian Yiang (Constable John Killer) of Arbitrary Investigations of Ancient China (AIAC) A pretty unfuckwithable guy, basically the Judge Dredd of Imperial China who never takes any prisoners on one of his cases. he just flats out murder whoever is considered guilty. I guess it is cost effective in the days of Ancient China, as you get rid of all those show trials that always end up with a guilty verdict anyway. So good job of being efficent. Also good job being a ruthless asshole. </div>
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Someone has stolen the Imperial Treasue of two million chinese dollars which puts the Empress Dowager in a bad mood as she wont even eat. Constable Killer, known for his ruthless and efficient ways is being put on the case in order to right an Imperial Wrong and put the Impress back on her eating schedule.</div>
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Constable Killer puts together a team for the mission, but one of his oldest friends is reluctant about following Constable Killer. he has grown tired of his ruthless ways and has started questioning his modus operandi. But there are plenty of other dopes to choose from to join this police squad of killers. so he wont have a problem putting together a bunch of loyal unquestionable fools who will die for him during the course of the film. And you feel bad for them that they have to die because of someone is greedy<br />
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Constable Killer traces the millions that were being stolen to an older guy with a blind daughter, which makes us faces a similar scene as later depicted in John Woos´s <i>The Killer. </i>as the two rivals have to present<i> </i>a facade in front of her to spare her from the inevitable clash in which one of them must fall for the other ones blade<i>. </i>The daughter unknowing of the rivalry of both warriors. This is also the part of the film in which the Constable learns of who teh real culprit is, a greedy offical of the Imperial Court.</div>
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This is a great film for many reasons. It is the kind of violent cop action film placed in a martial arts setting with plenty of police brutality, but instead of justifying the violence, the film takes the postioning of presenting the harsh consequences of behaving in that unhinged way. Plenty of people dies throughout the film that doesn´t deserve it. The violence is not used as the usual by-the-numbers exploitation but plays an important part in the story, and although a lot of cannon fodder villains are being dispatched on a almost industrial line of massmurder, the characters that matters are treated with a certain amount of respect and poignancy. you wouldn´t expect.</div>
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The editing:in the action sequences is jarring and effective. It relies more on the visceral effect on the viewer than a part of a continous flow of the action not that common within HK action. And a fairly progressive view on film making. It is more cinematic than theatrical. I love kung fu movies, and the techniques on display, but this movie delivers more in cinematic terms than in satisfying a hardcore audience who want prolonged sequences of exchanging of blows. It might be a film even those who aren´t fan of kung fu cinema might be interested in seeing.<br />
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The influences of the spaghetti western can be felt, as one of the characters in the film carries that same type of mystical feel of Clint Eastwood, carrying swords as they were guns fastened at his hips, givng two shits about any other person, less he gets paid<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6H9kAsjOBIG52Tjl0KP3Lw5M8zPqDsIY_SaK6G14KD8bW7wNtB3Fi-TjrxH_Syrz8rOgbRGhReMEg7ugzaH8uNqHJurqhS-pVaYC6tVtxnG4SjBLUUhVgU8QXJjxIsHLyYxZN8UP2HzE/s1600/vlcsnap-2017-04-03-20h36m38s819.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6H9kAsjOBIG52Tjl0KP3Lw5M8zPqDsIY_SaK6G14KD8bW7wNtB3Fi-TjrxH_Syrz8rOgbRGhReMEg7ugzaH8uNqHJurqhS-pVaYC6tVtxnG4SjBLUUhVgU8QXJjxIsHLyYxZN8UP2HzE/s320/vlcsnap-2017-04-03-20h36m38s819.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Like a Chinese Saloon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Stranger</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...perhaps going for his guns?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Showdown </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guns from the hips</td></tr>
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This guy is awesome. he does intervene in the Constable business or the plot, but he is just such a formidable badass that he manages to hamper the team and kills one of them as well.. I personally love a sidearmed villain ready to pulverize a perfectly fine force of badasses. And when he comes across like a mythic gunfighter that escaped a spaghetti western it is even better!<br />
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What is great about this film is that it deals with the corruption of power, both the antagonist and teh protagonist of the film are guilty of it. What is worse is that the team that Constable John Killer has rounded up for the mission are more than happy to sacrifice their lives in the process. Except his long time brother ( figure of speeach) who at the beginning of the film will have nothing more to do with Constable Killers reckless ruthlessness. The unquestionable loyalty of people is tragic, they are led to believe they are doing good, but instead are being used by people in power to further their greedy agenda. Like Donald Trump uses people as door mats. So , this film is even more relevant than ever. Because we cannot really trust people in power, as power corrupts and we must stay vigilant when it does.<br />
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This has become one of my favourites and if I had any medals to give out it would be for excellence in craftmanship. and a Purple Heart to all those who died for Constable Killer. I will salute you with a drink of whiskey.<br />
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For those about to die, we salute you!<br />
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-85242907206135044212017-03-20T11:20:00.000-07:002017-03-20T11:21:34.763-07:00DRUG WAR (2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If possible, I prefer a film that can deliver the visceral and artistical pleasure of action cinema with a more human and highly complex narrative. Drug War sure as hell deliver. It pulls quite a sucker punch on the viewer. <i>Drug War</i> is a procedural movie that for the most part only depicts rather than employ a moral point of view for the audiences to identify with. I really appriciate that. And Johnny To is a film maker that can make it work..</div>
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I´ve only seen a few of his works. <i>Fulltime Killer</i> which felt like a postmodern take on the John Woo hitman with-a-conscience/ duality between men formula. Flashy stuff mostly.<i> Election, The Mission</i> and this one all seem to be more realist and procedural, at the same time contain incredible stylistic elements, a fast moving plot and a highly detailed exploration of the world of Triad gangsters.</div>
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Louis Koo ( <i>Robin B-Hood, Flashpoint</i>) stars as Timmy Choi, a very unfortunate high level Triad member getting caught by the police during a sting operation. In China there is a death penalty for drug dealers, so he is forced to make a deal with the police and doing some undercover work for them. Choi is struggling with his loyalty throughout the film which brings the film some tension.</div>
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The police officers in charged of this operation is depicted as incredibly professional and very good at what they do, so you can see that Choi can not easily blow smoke up their arse. They know the type of person they are dealing with here, someone who is out for themselves when its their own ass on the line. But that can easily change so they have to be wary of him.</div>
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Despite, or perhaps because of the lack of melodrama, the film presents us with a very grim world detached of consideration of human lives. The cops don´t care for Choi, if he lives or dies. And at the end nobody else does because of the choices he has made.</div>
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I guess the way Choi is presented as someone struggling with the situation, this is a point of view the film takes. As the cops are not really given much personalities, just hard assed professionals not giving a shit about Choi´s situation. They at some points come across as just as ruthless as the Triads.</div>
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The climactic shootout is a perfect example of the stylized procedural elements of the film. With very little attachement, To shows us," this person shot this person , and then this person shot this person". With the editing, the sequence becomes an almost rhytmic domino-effect of the conflict resolution. It is reminiscent of the big shoot out from Michael Mann´s<i> Heat, </i>but there is something disturbing about the callousness of all the murders.</div>
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I would rank this as highly as <i>Infernal Affairs</i> when it comes to hardboiled cop actiondrama from suutheast Asia and it deserves a wider audience than it probably will ever get.It is an intelligent film with strong central performances, tough action sequences and a gritty tone.</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-110880628535242222017-03-10T11:26:00.002-08:002017-03-10T16:48:03.220-08:00KILL ZONE ( a.k.a SPL) (2005)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCNEyPcGjvH3UStk7pYUpTdcKS5fzUge-xlkv12ZobuaIPKaL08UJFODUIfg-9K7MpDyv5MdxVKkhYTcGg8367nmM-F7PHND9KAoF980H1wYlV8f-e9A9sDKDwEnG5luXQ_ekzHZizrE/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCNEyPcGjvH3UStk7pYUpTdcKS5fzUge-xlkv12ZobuaIPKaL08UJFODUIfg-9K7MpDyv5MdxVKkhYTcGg8367nmM-F7PHND9KAoF980H1wYlV8f-e9A9sDKDwEnG5luXQ_ekzHZizrE/s320/maxresdefault.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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Donnie Yen said in an interview regarding <i>SPL</i> (<i>Kill Zone</i>) that people are not used to heavy drama in fast paced actionfilms. He also in that same interview acknowledged that most of the films he has made during his career, the story usually played second fiddle to the action sequences. But regarding this project he started to collaborate with director Wilson Yip because he knew him to be able to pull of the dramatic story that gives the action a more emotionally powerful context. The result is a pretty potent sort of spectacle.</div>
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Most people watch action films just for the sake of the action. And that is fine. But , people, we need to strive forward and produce better stories and contextualize the fights better in order to make better action pictures. This is according to me ( and Donnie) an art form. And there is good art, there is bad art and then there is absolut garbage. Donnies awareness of the lack of focus on plot/story and character in conventional Hong Kong Action-Cinema shows a determination and an willingness to make better films as well as action sequences. Commendable in my opinion.</div>
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2005´s <i>SPL</i> ( <i>Kill Zone</i> outside of China) is a good example of an action cinema that carries a bit more dramatic weight than usual.. The plot focuses on a cops-and robbers narrative which have been popular in Hong Kong in recent years. perhaps thanks to the astounding success of <i>Infernal Affairs</i> (later remade by Martin Scorsese as <i>The Departed</i>). We have a team of cops so determined putting crime boss Wong Po (played by the kung fu legend Sammo Hung) behind bars that they go to extreme lengths to put him there by framing him for murder. </div>
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The cop in charge Chan Kwok Chung( Simon Yam) expericnced once how they were trying through correct police procedural ways by producing a witness that could in a court of law be the final nail in the crime boss´s coffin and the end of his reign. The witness and the family got brutally murdered. The only survivor was the child, which Yam decides to adopt and raise. Unfortunatly the incident made him so determined to put Sammo behind bars, that he neglect her upbringing. This is also a major motif in teh film, in which the more important parts of your life is being swept aside for petty revenge. All the other members of Simon´s team have families or issues that they neglect to deal with until it´s too late.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Simon Yam on the case</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kung Fu legend in unusual form as a villain taking the threats from the cop not too seriously.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Donnie worrying if he is going to kick some ass or not. ( he will, some rather large ass)</td></tr>
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Simon Yams character also get the news that he has a brain tumour and just a few days left on the job he is about to be replaced with Ma Kwan (Donnie Yen), but the team is reluctant to let him in, which creates some tension.</div>
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Yen is someone who questions the methods of the team, even the boss has his suspicions, but he himself has a bit of a problematic past, as he once punched the hell out of some guy with his policing fists of fury. Everyone has some shades of grey in this film. Yams determination is understandable, but regrettable. Donnies character is not the clean cut hero either. And Sammo as the crime boss, at the same being ruthless he is also shown to be a very caring father and husband, in scenes that actually, while being brief, sets things up quite beautifully. </div>
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Being able to produce a somewhat complex drama within a 90 minute framework ,that has to contain a fast-forward narrative with plenty of action, is pretty good job. The film has some hickups in the story/character department. The central conflict is established through a convoluted in medias res fashion, An unfortunate by product of this day and age when you have to "grab peoples attention". I would rather have had a slow build up to the explosive climax, where you can feel the tension between the rival central characters build up.</div>
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Prolific and legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman said in a very recent interview, that producing films for theatrical relase or for television/home video has different demands. With theatrical releases the restraint on producing , and throwing the audience in the mix early on is not that necessary,as the audience who´ve payed for the ticket usually sticks it out. But on TV/Homevidoe/On Demand the criteria on the production can be quite harsh from the higher ups, as the audience can switch channel easily if nothing particularly interesting is happening.</div>
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<i>SPL</i> enjoyed a limited theatrical release outside of Hong Kong (according to IMDB only Japan and Singapore had theatrical releases), but I think this is still more of a stylistic choice from Wilson Yip. The movie is brimmed with stylistic devices to convey certain elements such as plot and character traits through such means as internal visualiations, flashbacks, split screen and all sorts of tricks, so it is possible that the convoluted opening was just artistic choice that Yip stuck with. Admittedly it makes a pretty powerful impact., so I don´t know what I am complaining about really. I just think it is sad that you have to pull out all your cinematic guns in the first minutes of a film instead of letting the story brew awhile. Maybe because this is the kind of film that ends with the usual explosive kung fu climax, so that it´s still possible for the film to not completely blow its load too early ( ohhh...)</div>
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The look of the film must be mentioned. It has none of the washed out colors these types of "morally grey" cop dramas usually have. The cinematography is lush and full of vibrant colors, especially in the finale in Sammo Hungs gaudy night club.The finale contains a performative spectacle from two legendary kung fu masters, but also as a scenographic spectacle it works incredible as a backdrop. Here are some shots from the climactic and classic finale between Donnie and Sammo:</div>
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I mean, look at that. A lush vibrant colourful cirque-de-soleil-esque spectacle. It (almost) ends with Donnie flipping the heavy set Sammo like this:</div>
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Jesus, that is awesome!</div>
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I don´t want to spoil the plot or the ending, butr if you call it a spoiler with two rivals dueling it out in awesome martial arts fashion, then you clearly need to see some more movies.</div>
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Some final thoughts:</div>
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I always love a good action film that has the "martial arts-cop" trope. And Donnie has done this and several others , like the fairly recent <i>Flashpoint</i>, but also <i>In the Line of Duty</i> and <i>Tiger Cage 2. </i> So he has cracked a few cases over the years wth his kung fu skills in the police force.</div>
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The original title <i>SPL</i> ( <i>Sha po lang</i>) is based around chinese zodiac symbolism concerning three stars which is meant to be represented by the three main characters. This culturally local subtext would therefore be considered as an unsellable title abroad ,as the the people in charge thinks of action cinema as something slightly above porn. Something to sell to testosterone filled teenagers who hates the idea of a smart action film. </div>
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"Just call it Kill Zone so they don´t get confused on what kind of film it is."</div>
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Years has gone by and generations of people has grown up on martial arts cinema, People who are today grown up and can appreciate a good story with complexity. People that can choose a film from more than "how cool" the title sounds. Instead some dipshit decided it would be better to rob the film of its internal meaning by turning it into the most generic sounding horseshit of a title.</div>
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I know this shit has been done for so many years, but I think we can perhaps start to talk about films being distributed <i>despite</i> its local context rather than what is most universal. That way we can start thinking about stories in different ways. It´s not like the film does not stand on its own outside of China. Quite the contrary. The title-change does little to change the actual film more than from a marketing perspective. </div>
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But,seriously, the title sound like a Steven Seagal film shot in Bulgaria. Not a plus.<br />
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Anywat, this is a movie that on a second viewing has grown on me tremendously. A fine modern piece of action-cinema that is both focused in its narrative but still highly traditional and innovative in the form of how a kung fu movie should look like. In the years after 2005 we have had more martial arts films coming out of Asia with examples such as <i>Merantau, The Raid 1-2, Man of Tai Chi, Ip Man 1-3. </i>All films at one level or another has shown that kung fu/martial arts cinema can still thrive in a CGI-heavy comicbook environment that refuse the spectacle of the human body by replacing it with replicas of humans.<br />
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I will always prefer the performative spectacle of martial artists over CGI wizards.</div>
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They made a sequel, that is just as good in my opinion, and it is called... hold on to your horses.... <i>Kill Zone 2</i>! They didn´t add the words Redemption or Retaliation in there. At least that is something.</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-72822472421119143422017-02-27T13:49:00.002-08:002017-02-27T14:38:46.323-08:00BEFORE JOHN WICK THERE WAS JOHN WOO PART 1: A BETTER TOMORROW (1986)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQULGBJ0n60IGRzvf8ve9YWsyfzjuZvH6PZEaqkZ6T1hTPGKlt_dT1D4ExadBUIjHBEIN-q914YQqr_Wiw1hv3DdOmMu-C9zM4S0Nmg-GVeoh5xyy0vsAOpLVZj1G8NzIoGkZAjR0JgqY/s1600/51RBW6TCBYL._SY300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQULGBJ0n60IGRzvf8ve9YWsyfzjuZvH6PZEaqkZ6T1hTPGKlt_dT1D4ExadBUIjHBEIN-q914YQqr_Wiw1hv3DdOmMu-C9zM4S0Nmg-GVeoh5xyy0vsAOpLVZj1G8NzIoGkZAjR0JgqY/s1600/51RBW6TCBYL._SY300_.jpg" /></a></div>
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As <i>John Wick Chapter Two</i> has hit Sweden like a ton of bricks, I thought it would be proper to pay respect to the director that influenced the style of action. the director´s name is John Woo and his stylized gun violence has most certainly made an impact on the Wicks. The directors Chad Stahelski and David Laitch have mentioned in several interviews how Hong Kong Action cinema and John Woo in particular was inspiration for their action saga.</div>
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As an easily influenced teenager, John Woo was,(followed by Robert Rodriguez Woo-influenced <i>Desperado</i>), the best thing, that ever happaned to me. <i>The Killer</i> is one of the greatest film experiences I have ever seen ( and that was on a VHS tape, mind you) and even his lesser Hollywood-works like <i>Broken Arrow and Mission Impossible II</i> I have fond memories of watching. Good stuff</div>
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John Woo started off working in the highly influential Shaw Brother studios and directing a number of kung fu films. One of those was the early Jackie Chan vehicle <i>Hand of Death,</i> one of the few in which Jackies chacter dies<i>. </i>He made several more films (including the abandoned <i>Heroes shed no tear</i>s that was later re-edited and released after Woo became a success) before his breakthrough hit <i>A Better Tomorrow.</i></div>
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<i>A Better Tomorrow</i> was a milestone in Hong Kong action cinema. Not only was Woo re- inventing a genre. He also created a new style of action sequences. He was the originator of what is now referred to in the West as "Gun Fu", in which the guns are an extension of the feet and fists of the characters.</div>
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<i>A Better Tomorrow</i> is also considered the first in asubgenre known as "heroic bloodshed" When crafting <i>A Better Tomorrow</i> Woo sought to re-invent the swordplay movie in modern times, using the same themes of chivalry and heroism in a more poetic urban gangster setting. Swordsmen who lived by a code turned into triad gangsters. The code of honor among John Woo´s heroes in these films and to the extent they follow that path leads to their demise. Tragic heroes. So Woo transferred a lot of ideas from the swordplay movie, exhanged the swords for guns, hence the heroic bloodshed and later culturally revised into the american actionfilm as the "Gun Fu".</div>
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The story focuses on the friendship and malebonding between three protagonists. Chow Yun-Fat plays Mark Gor, a slick well spoken awesome Triad-dude with a high sense of dignity. .Ti Lung plays Ho, his best friend but also the brother of Kit ( leslie Cheung) who is a cop ( sounds awkward)</div>
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Ho and Kit are brothers very close to one another, despite on different side of the law. Hos loyalty to it and his struggling loyalty to the Triads and his best friend gets in the way. Mark and Ho are a different kind of brothers. They are sworn blood brothers by the code of the Triads. </div>
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The two worlds clash when a drug affair goes wrong and Kit and Ho´s father falls victim because of Ho´s ties to the Triads. Mark goes on a revenge spree while Kit completely disowns his brother and Ho seeks to redeem himself in the eyes of his brother by giving up his life. and turns himself in to the police, serves time and when he comes out he is hoping his brother has forgiven him. Fat chance. Kit is more determined than ever to bring down the Triads. And Ho with it if possible.</div>
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The heightened reality and the strong melodrama of the piece might be a bit alien to people these days. In the West, restrained emotions are looked upon as far more genuine artistic expressions. This type of raw emotions may come across as silly and over the top. But the writing is good and the performances are powerful to make it work. And it ws unusual to have this kind of action film have emotions. The themes of friendship, betrayal and brotherhood are all there in place and the emotions really are worn on the sleeves.</div>
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It was at the time when the film was released in the West unusual with a violent actionfilm to have a great story, emotions and deep symbolic imagery in an era dominated with explosions and exaggerated muscular masculinity. The masculinity on display here, is more concerned with a much higher degree of emotional expressions unlike the American counterpart that was so influenced by the american traditions of stoic emotionless and cynical portrayals of how a man should act.</div>
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The film also launched the career of Chow Yun-Fat as Mark. His cool charisma and charm made action fans fell in love with him. I mean look at this:<br />
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Those last shots are from the films most iconic scene , in which Mark enters a restaurant,plants guns in vases. And as he shoots a bunch of dudes he makes good uses of the guns he has placed. Fucking phenomenal.</div>
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Chow Yun-Fat made two-gun fisted action cool. Kids nowadays call it dual wielding. For me it has more of a Western connotation. The gunslinger with two guns, like Hopalong Cassidy. This is somethng Chow Yun-Fat as an actor had to deal with for a long time. He became so synonomous with this gangster persona that the jobs he was offered was the type that fitted the Mark character of <i>A Better Tomorrow </i>or the later films he made with John Woo<i>. </i></div>
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There were films that tried to break that persona or at least play with it. Ringo Lams <i>City on Fire</i> and <i>Full Contact </i> were highlights that tried to work with his gun fu persona in a bit different way. <i>City on Fire</i> has more in common with French Connection, with its more direct cinema approach than the highly stylized world of heroic bloodshed that we are presneted with here. <i>Full Contact </i>however was fullblown heroic bloodshed-style but an incredible revenge film in which Chow Yun-Fat got to show some different strokes as a physical actor as he played a bouncer rather than a suave looking dude in a suit.</div>
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<i>A Better Tomorrow</i> is not John Woos best work. It suffers from an uneven style in terms of actionscenes. The shootout in the restaurant is such a classic piece of stylistic editing and use of slow motion that the rest of the action- sequences fall short because of it. Most of the action sequences are just shot without any real stylistic flourishes to them. Watch <i>The Killer</i>. The restaurant scene sums that film up and Woo elaborated on what he accomplished on that sequence in an entire fucking film.</div>
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Here is the legdendary scene, pay close attention to the editing.:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdQJWPOkNdA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdQJWPOkNdA</a><br />
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<br />Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-72577293161062573822017-02-25T03:08:00.005-08:002017-02-25T03:08:52.019-08:00JOHN WICK CHAPTER TWO (2017)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>John Wick Chapter Two</i> is the second chapter in the highly revered action saga that re-launched Keanu Reeves into a new phase of his action-person and re-invented him into this rugged bad ass mould. His "deer-in-the- headlights"-charisma has transformed into a more gritty version of it with an older more chiseled-face Reeves. We´ve never seen Keanu quite like this in any other role. Quiet, stoic and incredibly intense. More reliant on focused stares and his incredible physicality than on his line deliveries. When he speaks it is mostly a few syllables or at most one sentence.Sometimes he gets to yell. Seldom has a part been so perfectly suited for him as John Wick. </div>
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A lot of stuff has led up to this point. His collaborations with JOhn Wick-directors/stunt performers/second unit directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski on <i>The Matrix</i> projects, but also on Reeves directorial debut, the criminally underrated martial arts extravaganza <i>Man of Tai Chi</i>. This laid the groundwork for what Keanu Reeves is today, much like the bodies John buried on that day of his most impossible task and how it built the foundation for the Russian Mob.</div>
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What is great about the style of action in these films is that they´ve managed to incorporate not only the physical spectactle of the human body in the traditions of Hong kong action cinema, but in a video game-esque environment. Whenever John is shooting his guns his actions reminds us of first person shooters, in when you´ve shot one guy "BLAM!"you quickchange with the tap of a button to the next target " BLAM AGAIN!". Which is why John manages to get som many crazy headshots. I think it is a quite a unique way of modernizing action cinema in an intelligent way. </div>
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At the same time the film teaches us that the underworld organizations are reluctant to use a lot of modern technology. When they are transmitting information,communicating or storing information, they use bigass books, they keep physical records. They use Commodore 64 computers and a 1950´s esque telephone switchboard operations board for communication.</div>
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I think the build up to the action sequences were made more classy in the first one, but in this one they go a bit crazy with symbolic imagery instead, with mirrors, a modern arts exhibit (Reflection of your soul) and all sorts of interesting stuf that gives the film more weight than you´d expect from a straightup genre-piece like this.</div>
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A lot of dry humour, has seeped into this one as well. Stuff that is hard to explain in text form, But trust me. This is also a very funny movie. It is also a movie in which three people gets stabbed with a fucking pencil</div>
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I noticed a homage to John Woos <i>A Better Tomorrow</i>. In that film Chow Yun-Fat places guns in vases at a restauarant fo uses later on. In <i>John Wick Chapter Two</i>, when Wick escapes he has hidden an assault rifle and a shotgun in seperate places which he access as he makes his esacpe. Good shit.</div>
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<i>John Wick Chapter Two</i> is a superlative sequel in every way. More world building, more interesting characters that inhabit it, more exotic environments, and way more violence. The fights are longer this time, the body count is higher, the dry humour is developed further and this keeps becoming a very distinct franchise with many legs that can carry it forward as the film ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.</div>
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John Wick WILL return!</div>
Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-78483466355495330852017-02-22T11:54:00.001-08:002017-02-22T11:54:03.741-08:00LADY BLOODFIGHT (2016)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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An all-female remake of <i>Bloodsport</i>, you say? Directed by Chris Nahon ( <i>Kiss of The Dragon</i>)?</div>
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I was intrigued. And I ended up liking it a lot. </div>
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Amy Johnston, plays Jane and when we first meet her, she works as a waitress and unfortunatley is constantly hassled for being a woman who happens to be easy on the eyes. She gets fired from the job because she doesn´t take shit from perverts. Also, her father disappeared when he entered the deadly martial arts tournament Kumite eighteen years ago And now that she got time on her hands. Instead of pleasing customers, she might as well please herself for once ( that came out wrong). By finding out what happened to him going to Hong Kong and participate in this exclusive and shady tournament.</div>
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At the same time a rivalry between two female kung fu masters ( Shu and Wei) are tasked with taking up prodigees to fight for them to determine which one of them is the best. The fights between them in the last Kumite ended up a draw so it´s decided to let them fight through proxies be the way to determine who is the best of the best. </div>
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So, there is the <i>Bloodspor</i>t formula sprinkled with the kung fu classic <i>The Odd Couple</i> starring Sammo Hung. It is a pretty good use of formulas, I would say. The rivalry between Shu and Wei and the reason behind it is explored thorughout the film. It gives the story a bit more layers and it feels like an attempt of making a B-movie with an actual story that is not entirely uninteresting</div>
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Jane finds a mentor in Shu, who agrees to train her. Meanwhile, evil bitch Wei finds another diamond in the rough so the film parallels their development. Shu and Wei will fight using proxies. Kind of like the kung fu masters of <i>The Odd Couple.</i></div>
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It is indeed a <i>Bloodsport</i> movie as several key elements from that film finds itself into this film. We get to see the fights between all the contestants in a montage. </div>
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Though the montages lack a distinct 80´s rocking soundtrack! There is also a female version of Bolo Yeungs classic villain Chong Li and a moment in which the Chong Li character kills a friend of Jane.</div>
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There are small moments of light humour injected in thefilm that help strengthen the bond between Jane and Shu and details like that elevates it from your standard productionline action film. It is clearly made by fans of the genre. And it is. <i>Lady Bloodfight</i> is written and prduced by Hong Kong actionfilm expert Bey Logan which gives the film more credit I think.</div>
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Usually female on-screen fighting is mostly presented in a way so that the girls doing the fighting stays pretty looking ( <i>Charlies Angels</i>) but here Amy Johnston gets messed up a lot and put through the ringer throughout the film.</div>
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It is pretty uncomfortable to watch. But I think it is great to see women being allowed to be presented as ferocious warriors and not just pretty doll faces to look at .<br />
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There might also even be some elements of <i>Undisputed </i>in there with the puppetmaster arranger who profits from the tournament through fixed fights. So there are a lot of familiar tropes that has been constructed into a really enjoyable martial arts vehicle for Amy Johnsson. Johnston who has made herself a career doing stunts for big ass superhero movies. Now she gets to act, and does it decently compared to other female martial arts movie-fighters such as Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano. She projects a particular vulnerability , more reminiscient of Uma Thurmans Beatrix Kiddo, than the other two and as a result is more relatable.<br />
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The fights were apparently choreographed by Xin Xin Xiong, a veteran of Hong Kong martial arts cinema. He played Clubfoot in <i>Once upon a Time in China 3</i> and even though IMDB fails to mention it, I am fairly confident he choreographed the fights in <i>The Musketeer</i> from 2001<br />
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<i>Lady Bloodfight </i>might not revolutionize anything, but it is a solid entertaining martial arts tournament movie. And we need those. Or at least I sure do.<br />
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<br />Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-15109861298762708872017-02-16T04:25:00.003-08:002017-02-16T04:25:34.339-08:00John Wick (2014)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The upcoming <i>John Wick Chapter Two</i> made me realize I´ve never written a single sentence of this most highly regarded art film of this generation; a man struggling with his past and whose emotions are taken the shape of gunfights. His internal struggled externalized as physical force. Very exressionistic. Very artful. And the reason why it was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, and won thirteen instead. An unprecedented event in the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Over here in Sweden it won the highly prestigous Best Direct-To-Video Award. Well enough, I guess. I still hold a grudge against those c***s***ers in charge who willingly let this gem go straight to dvd and refuse the audience a prime example of A-grade action in a superbly crafted B-movie. </div>
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But let us set aside all the accolades and why this is such a historic milestone in Cinema and look at the mythos of John Wick. It did something new in action-cinema. It actually cared for world building. Something usually reserved for fantasy and/or science fiction.<br />
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<i>The plot</i>:</div>
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John Wicks wife got sick, died and left a puppy for him to care for. The puppy gets killed duringa breakin by a reckless mob boss son. The mob boss Viggo ( Mikael Nykvist) fuckin hate shis son for doing that, but does what is expected and tries to shelter his son from the upcoming storm that is Wick. The rest is just a tour de force in ass kicking. Wick is a lightning storm of anger. A snow storm of fury. A tsunami of sizzling bullets. A sharknado of dead bodies flying through the air hitting pedestrians.<br />
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Allright that´s enough....</div>
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There is not a single moment or frame in this film that does not convey the sense of a strange off beat world. Cops does not seem like a powerful factor. It is almost entirely inhabited by criminals, We do see John use collective transportation, as they stole his Mustang he was left with a fucking Prius in his garage . He must either have felt himself undignified driving around such a piece of shit car. Or maybe it was his wifés and as a sign of respect or grief he just did not feel comfortable driving his dead ass wifes car. It is very moving and deep and full of possible intepretation. It just goes to show how deep this film goes. It shows us, rather than tells us. We can decide what we are being shown means. As good Cinema should. Writing people on the nose is for pussies. Shooting people in the face however is for real men. ( well...)</div>
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John is a respected citizen by both cops and criminals. Which is a rare thing in the real world. The one that upsets the balance is the dipshit son of the Russian mob boss. Rulers usually get shit sons, which is why it is so hard to create lasting dynasties. And pissing off John Wick who goes under the specifically Russian mythic name Baba Jaga, is not a good way for your long time family plans. He should have ordered shitson Iosef The Terrible to quickly inpregnate a woman before he got wiped out. In that way Viggo might have saved the dynasty.</div>
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The hotel of assassins I like to think is inspired by Richard Starks Parker novels, whcih are actually a good example of world building. Stark built a world of rules among thieves and in the process he crafted a unique world. The Outfit is an organization built on criminal enterprizes and resides within a hotel where no affairs can be conducted. There is a similar hotel in <i>John Wick</i>, but built for a league of assassins instead.</div>
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You get the sense that the world has been built around John Wick, which is a crazy sense to get, but nonetheless true, which makes this scenario and world so much more weird and stylized as a result. You know that John Wick controls it, as much as Neo controls or shapes the world of The Matrix.</div>
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That is what you feel. One man in control of the world. Even the cops does not want to fuck with Wick. Wick is the centre of the world. That is usually the case with every single cookie cutter cut and paste action movies. But here it is so absurdly obvious that it has become self aware and that is what makes <i>John Wick</i> such a special movie.</div>
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The fights are fast, ecclectic and has a no-nonsense approach to them. The fights builds upon the legend of John Wick and even though he might not fulfll everything that is being told, you get the clear sense of someone who is single-minded and focused. The fights tell us clearly of who he is and what he is. Few action heroes live up to this. Some great uses of dutch angles conveys this in a couple of scenes. It is a daring stilistic choice but it works and they are used sparingly and tastefully.</div>
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If you thought I was done with weather metaphors you are sorely mistaken. I find it interesting how storms works itself into revenge stories. <i>Max Payne</i> (the game) and the Klaus Kinski classic <i>And God said to Cain </i>all have upcoming storms/bad weather scenarios play out in the background accompanying the protagonists trajectory of revenge, It feels very Old Testament. I like it.<br />
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The final fight between Viggo and Wick takes place in downpouring rain. A physical, close encounter that feels painfully sluggish compared to the last batches of actionscenes. Wick is running out of gas. And from all the weed Viggo has been smoking he must have gotten to the stage of afterglow, because he suddenly he feels a confidence boost that he could take on John Wick!<br />
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Kids, don´t do drugs.<br />
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<i>John Wick Chapter Two</i> opens in Swedish Cinemas February 24th and I can´t wait to see the next chapter.</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-26628277062131601362017-01-26T03:00:00.001-08:002017-01-26T13:38:47.404-08:00A Touch of Zen (1968)<br />
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<i>A Touch of Zen</i> is one of the first truly great chinese martial arts films. A wuxia, which means a sort of heroic tale of chivalry. Swordplay movie for short. Directed by King Hu, this movie has been canonized by countless film scholars as a groundbreaking film and it was made in an era in which chinese filmmaking was considered lesser artistically.</div>
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I recently bought Eurekas bluray version. Up until now I had only seen this movie on a shitty Optimum Asia dvd with poor picture and sound. But now that I got to see it in a new fresh print with correct aspect ratio, I can only say; Wow! This is a breathtaking piece of art. Not only because of its stunning cinemtaography and use of atmosphere and mood. But the narrative and how it is told is beautifully done.<br />
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The story starts off off small, opens up and blossom like a flower throughoput the film in a beautiful way. The plot itself consists of the usual political intrigue one would associate with periodical chinese martial arts pictures. But director King Hu paces it beautifully, framing it as a story around a humble scholar living in a rural village and how he becomes mixed up in a larger national plot , and how he finds a part to play in it.<br />
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Visually it even starts out small, with a fly stuck in a spider web, indicating the central character is part of a larger web. Stuck in a world he has chosen to not be a part of, but ends up in it anyways.</div>
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Great, poetic opening to the film. Then we see the web engulfed in mist:<br />
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And cut to morning:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcaqcdafjxgfj0Mt-8veQ8tm9jxiMd90ETzXNrxkiPrbYL5ZUQgaAkerKezpwF1vJD2EhMG3WUaIJcvphpOs8bAB5VU6tDmK9Y4ZxVszOVZL11fVuoOc89ENVW0vv35lAnTmqQlm1K9QU/s1600/vlcsnap-2017-01-26-11h11m04s825.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcaqcdafjxgfj0Mt-8veQ8tm9jxiMd90ETzXNrxkiPrbYL5ZUQgaAkerKezpwF1vJD2EhMG3WUaIJcvphpOs8bAB5VU6tDmK9Y4ZxVszOVZL11fVuoOc89ENVW0vv35lAnTmqQlm1K9QU/s320/vlcsnap-2017-01-26-11h11m04s825.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zooms out</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Revealing the rural landscape</td></tr>
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There are several beautiful vistas established, indicating the story takes place in a desolate location, far from teh capital, where all the political intrigue ,that later on will enter this world,stems from</div>
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The village is untroduced a a series of moody shots with mist, creating a sense of isolation and mystery</div>
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A lot of mood is introduced before our main protagonist Mr Gu is introduced. A humble man who likes to draw portraits of people. A scholar not interested in the world surrounding this isolated village. but he is soon to be mixed up in a larger narrative.</div>
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I love this opening, and the first hour you get to follow his perspective and how this plot develops. It is a violent action film through the eyes of a scholar, a man of peace.</div>
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What I would like to do in this text is to establish the influences and the dialogue between Japanese and chinese cinema through this particular film. My overall point is stylistic influences from Japan, but also a mix between the two whn it comes to staging fight sequences.<br />
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First, let us look atv motion. Here is how Kurosawa creates motion in Seven Samurai:<br />
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Using a telescopic lens, the foreground with the grass, swishes and contributes with the lack of depth to create a higher sense of speed and motion than it would have had without the use of the foreground with a particular lense like this.<br />
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Look at how King Hu stages motion in a scene, a battle in a forest:. he uses the bamboo forest brilliantly with the mist contrasting the trees to really make them stand out. In a similar style he creates a sense of speed through movement, although it might be hard to tell from these particular images.</div>
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I am not sure this comes across very well, through still images, but the bamboo trees enforce the movement in a way that would not have been as visually striking if she had run unto a plain. It is not as blurry as the Kurosawa film, which could be attributed to the poor dvd copy of Seven Samurai.</div>
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Kurosawas use of movement in that example is highly dependant of a particular rhytmic editing pattern and is also a very short sequence in which the samurai rush to the rescue. Unlike this scene, which is an entire action sequence. But the use of mise-en-scene to develop speed I think is important to emphasize. And the influence of Kurosawa I think can be noticed here, even though the sequences and the purposes are different.</div>
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I also like to compare the two different editions I own, and why this is such a marvellous improvement</div>
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Earlier dvd::<br />
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New release:<br />
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It is certainly richer,more sumptuous, with the beautiful shot of two warriors in the background, shrouded in fog battling. I am not sure you can tell from these screen shots though. Trust me, it is poetic.<br />
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The fights are built using analytical and constructive editing in tandem*(see appendix). The fights usually have a master shot, to establish the scene then cut to medium shot, but in between when there my be supernatural feats to be performed, it is created through constructive editing. Nobody can fly for real, so usage of trampolines are used together with close ups to stitch together the illusion of flying. A primitive mode by todays standards. but is effective here.<br />
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The fights seem to work as a combination of the staccato pattern of chambara films and at the same time contain the particular brand of chinese fighting, with longer takes and a larger emphasis of exchange of blows than singular strikes. Both the start/stop and build up/release pattern of a samurai fight exists along the balletic movements of chinese fighting.<br />
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What I like to point out about this dialogic exchange between japanese and chinese culture is that this movie was made in an era when Japanese Cinema was considered much more developed than the chinese in Hong Kong. Chinese production companies often hired janpanese filmmakers to make sure their products got better. And so the influence of japanese culture on the development of chinese cinema is one way to approach this movie. King Hus more japanese approachh could be an indicator for chinese filmmakers to try to elevate chinese filmmaking by using japanese standards as they were thought of as more artistic than chinese. Bruce Lee certainly thoughts so. His fights were entirely constructed through the staccato pattern. But later the chinese developed a style through the creative filmmakers like Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan and Yuen Woo-ping that would create a "Wow-factor" that no film industry in the world could compare themselves to, through sensational use of spectacular bodily movement through balletic motions, more akin to the visual spectacle from the silent cinema than through narrative driven conventions of the modern day. And through taht delvier a cinematic experince that was dynamic and unique. And still to this day can be felt.</div>
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Appendix:<br />
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*analytical editing is the mode of how to clearly visually communicate the space between characters and their positions to an audience. Usually in classical Hollywood cinema a scene opens with an establishing shot. For instance, if you are in Paris we establish the environment by an establishing shot of Paris, with the Eiffel Tower. in centre frame. Then cut to an indoors master shot to clearly show where the characters in the scene geographically belong to one another. . .<br />
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*constructive editing relies on the audince being able to geographically tell what is going on without a master shot or establishing shot. Constructing a geography through editing without the use of a big master shot. Insert shots are also a way of constructive editing, something that a lot of HOng Kong action cinema relies on, for visual impact, like a close up of a foot hitting a face. Constructive editing is in Hong kong action cinema used for visual impact, to enhance a sequence.<br />
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Also look at the openingsequence of <i>Shaun of The Dead</i> for a great use of constructive editing in a comedic way. No master shot is used, and the space between characters are purposefully hidden to be comically revealed to the audience.Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-57393540690321242902016-12-22T05:47:00.002-08:002016-12-22T05:47:47.129-08:00JOHAN FALK SERIES PART 20: THE END<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Previously on Johan Falk:</i><br />
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The mole was revealed to be Lasse, one of the more harmless, less violence prone individuals of GSI.<br />
But still a lot of stuff is revealed. Thje organisation is showing its real face and are gunning for Johan and his family.<br />
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<i>Plot:</i><br />
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At the same time as Johan is hiding his family from teh Russian mob, coordinated efforts are being made into shutting down their foes from Moscow. We learn that the Organisation taht ahs been a constant threat throughout is a much bigger one than expected. Even part of the events leading back as far as<i> Johan Falk#2: Executive Protection</i>.<br />
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<i>Jibber jabber:</i><br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;">In discussing the finale on facebook ,a lot of people seem to focus on the exact events of what happened. The ending is somewhat ambivalent. They speculate whether Johan is alive or not.And that is fine. It is a lot of fun speculating on the end. All power to you. But I might figure a different, more symbolic approach. As we get closer to Christmas we might want to look closer to miracles or stuff like that</span></div>
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One interesting comparison can be made to Russia. We can perhaps see Russian orthdoxy religion pervade the world of Johan Falk, as he finally redeem himself for his previous isoation, to sacrifce hmself for the greater good. On Christmas Eve nonetheless as the whole thing from <i>Zero Tolerance</i> started. The entire sereis started on that day and ends on it in a great symbolic way. It started with Falk saving his step daughter. And <i>The End</i> ( well) ends with him saving his step daughter and her child. Very symbolic that the series ends on Christmas and that birth is given.</div>
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Within Russsian Orthodoxy isolation and seclusion are considered heretic practices. or unapproved of Falk redeems his soul by sacrificing himself for a greater cause. He starts out as a lone wolf in <i>Zero Tolerance</i> but gradually throughout the series assimilate himself in society. </div>
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Remember Lasse? He himself , a victim of GSI, was confronted at one point with orthodox catholic religion. And it may have struck a chord with Johan in the end, because it might have been leading him into a similar course. Now we actually might see some Russian attitudes seeping inside Swedish mentalties in which we may havbe never seen before. People who sacricifce themselves, see themselves as obsolute for the greater good. Lasse hanged himself, Johan, he may have survived, we don´t know , is though highly indebted to a higher cause. His life for the survavl to the family.</div>
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It is interesting to note that some of the more pivotal moments in the series Johan spends on his back. </div>
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The opening of the GSI series, but also the end of <i>The Third Wave</i> and <i>The Child Infiltrator</i>. Holding Ola, playing with him in GSI. Saving one of the young perpetrators from being shot in <i>The Child Infiltrator</i>, saving a pregnant Helen in <i>The Third Wave</i> after being shot in the head.</div>
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Several sequences in these films symbölizes pivotal moments in Johan Falks life are being spent on his back.<br />
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And the last and most important scene of his life is played out as his step-daugher is giving birth as he is being tortured. Symbolic to say the least. On the verge of death as someone is on the verge of giving life. .<br />
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This shows poignancy to his suffering. Johan gives up his life for another. Life is given birth as another is offered. Very ritualistic. And Johan finally sacrifices himself for the greater good which brings his story into full circle. In <i>Zero Tolerance </i>he was the isolated shell of a man. And in Russian ortodox religion. isolation is a sin as I have previously mentioned. And now in that regard he has truly emerged as a man as who symbolicly finally relinquuished his isolated position and brings order and stability back to the family.</div>
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In Russian literature there is a archetype called the superfluous man. It is a certain type of individual who is unable to create any changes in society.. Johan is the american type of individual lone ranger trying to get the job done on his own. But he fails . Crime continues to exist throught the series, there fore he never amounts to much change. The only change he can contribute is the one in his own vicinity. He manages to save his step daughter through torture. But at the same time bring down the organization through his sacrifice. So for the first time his crimefighting has had greater effect than usual. </div>
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It is a bit of a reach, but that shell of a man that we previously knew has gone trough twenty movies to redeem himself and proven himself from going through from isolation to assimilation. Johan Falk is now truly one of us as he sacrificed himself for the common good, the family. The collective. And the future.<br />
<br />
I like the idea of noticing or intepreting ideas that may or may not intentionally have seeped into the series. Some of the outside influences that is part of the franchise. Like; the Estonian lullaby that is introduced in Executive Protection and keeps recurring musically throughout the series as well as other melodic motifs in the music that are "Russian" or at least "slavic" especially in this third season. with tracks like <i>Kavkaz</i> and the haunting <i>Eg Er Riddarrinn</i> . These musical motifs, I think give some gravitas to the stuff that I have mentioned above. <br />
<br />
Also the philosophical ideas of crime/punishment/redemption that stems from orthodox religion introduced in <i>Operation Nightingale</i>, and how it might storywise work itself into on a deeper level throughout the story and try to give the work a meaning below the surface level is also something I have come to appreciate. I might be full of shit in these last few paragraphs for this final installment. It´s not exact science. It is an intepretation, should be taken as such, and as I said I like to give meaning to films that deserve it. And I think in this instance this series is definetly worth it.<br />
<br />
<i>Wrap up:</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Regardless, of the fate of Johan Falk, his memory lives on not only in the heart of his loved one but also in the heart of us action fans. Even though we may never see him again, his work lives on in these twenty films. And for new generations to enjoy.<br />
<br />
Thank you Mr Johan Falk for all these years!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0jZbXKH4agpFSDI1PuhMXo">https://open.spotify.com/track/0jZbXKH4agpFSDI1PuhMXo</a><br />
<br />
<i>The End.</i><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-32093866610336374372016-12-13T13:47:00.000-08:002016-12-13T13:51:48.275-08:00JOHAN FALK SERIES PART 19: LOCKDOWN <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><b>Do not read the following unless you want the entire shit being spoiled for you. You have been warned!</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><br /></i>
<i>Previously on Johan Falk:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
A mole exists within GSI. Who is it, and will anyone find out? Does it relate to anyone Johan knows? We finally find out<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Plot:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of GSIs most loved and respected gets gunned down by the mole. The police station enters a state of lockdown; which means the building is closed until the perpetraror is captured. And he does.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It turns out the mole is a former GSI-member. You might remember him. You should. And I should have. I never thought of him, even though I should´ve. I am bad at these detective things.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The GSI mourns and tries to deal with the situation. A situation in which a former cop is actully at the forefront of it. What does it mean?<br />
<br />
Helens previous husband has really been making an ass of himself (Johan Hedenberg)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I am an idiot and never should have given birth to anyone</td></tr>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
And Helen sorts out a lot of information and is in the course of action quite a smart person who brings an entrire Russian operation down., But thta is for a later discussion. here is NOW:</div>
</div>
<br />
<i>Jibber jabber:</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Lockdown</i> is a great episode. Not only is it startling in the revelations to come, but opens up a different set of view points for how to percieve this very difficult situation. We are left with some doubtful opinions about our own way of life and opens up an uncomfortable final conclusion in <i>The End</i></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Two shots that define the final moment of a disastrous event.</span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I think Lasses motivations and his encounter with Hannas religious beliefs are worth mentioning as they might in some way be relevant for understanding <i>The End</i>. In <i>Operation Nightingale</i> between the two of them Lasse claims he do have a firm belief. But it lies in his predetermined views of crime and punishment as in most cops do. . It strikes at first as the normal way for a police to judge a person, but on further investigation one could look further. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Speaking of crime an punishment, that might not be an entirely appropriate term that Lasse used. As a pretentious scholar like myself, you could see it as an allusion to the Dostojevskij novel, with the same name, if one might strike such a claim. In that novel, the discussion focuses on who is in the right of committing a crime; which brings us to the moralistic conundrum of the series. The justification of criminal activity can be traced back to that 19th century novel of how to justify a crime with its means. In broader terms, the crimes are committed by humans, not an abstract being called "criminals". Human behaviour is eternal and needs no specific race.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Lasse is like Raskolnikov in <i>Crime and Punishment</i> guiltridded with his part in Hannas death and has up until now wandered around in some sort of moral vaccum, As an inactive part he has been passive just as Raskolnikov in that same novel. Never present. Passive. But unlike Dostojevskis novel we never have followed him, even though we might have. He seems like somone who has entered a void, guilt ridden with his actions as he was never someone who was suitable for the job at GSI. He has becoem in some ways become superfluous ( a term we will get back to) to what is going on.<br />
<br />
We have not seen him since, bit we can guess his mind of thinking. Not really believing in anything anymore even though he could hardly be blamed for the murder of Hanna.The situation was brought on by the police, the ones who is supposedly in the moral right has put Lasse in some sort of Limbo as he struggles with the consequences.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
This is something he blames GSI for putting him into this position. His strong sense of crime and punishment has been part of his belief as a police officer, but seeing and experiencing what GSI has done or been doing may have had a greater effect on the state of his soul. Yeah, that is right. I used that word. Lasse feels someone has done a crime and needs to be punished. His soul needs redeeming, and maybe in his mind GSI needs to be punished.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So crime is not necessarily a queston of a certain type of man destined to be evil , but of a certain kind of behaviour that every man has within himself. Even Lasse who was a sworn police offices proves to be the victim, There seem to be a certain part of humanity that Swedish cops simply just seem not to grasp or more specifically perhaps Johan Falk? Who knows?<br />
<br />
The team tries to deal with the loss of Patrik and now Sophie needs to step up and she does, It all led up to a shift in power so to speak. Now that Patrik is dead, she needs to keep the fire burning or to shift a focus in how to move the team forward.But before she can set change in motion there is need for some spring clean up to take place, and among that spring cleaning one particular Russian woman needs to be swept out. The Baba Yaga that has haunted Johan Falk; And they do catch her. The Baba Yaga; the Russian witch.<br />
<br />
This is both an ideologically interesting episode as it is action packed. The finale throws some exciting action moments at us. But the opening Lockdown sequence is just as well memorable and exciting although more emotionally involving. This episode packs quite a punch in my opinion. And a lot of Lasses baggage at us to ponder. And a lot of that baggae leads us to ponder what will happen next.<br />
<br />
In the end, Lasse commit suicide. He becomes the first real victim of the squad. He sacrifices himself. His body disintegrate while what he has done lives on.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<i>Next time on Johan Falk</i>: This is The End</div>
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<br /></div>
Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-34452285098614507632016-11-16T03:14:00.003-08:002016-11-16T03:14:37.828-08:00JOHAN FALK-SERIES PART 18: WAR DIAMONDS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<i>Previously on Johan Falk:</i><br />
<br />
Things has gotten darker for GSI as Johan Falk has been framed for murder and is being extorted by the Russian mafia to help them. At the same time GSI learns they have a mole in their midst.<br />
<br />
<br />
Seth and Jack are now open enemies and both crews are desperatly trying their luck on a diamond heist. At the same time has a new player emerged; a Caucasian mob that has its base in an MMA club where they recruit talent ( reminds me of how Mr Han operates in <i>Enter The Dragon</i> but he had a kung fu island instead of a puny club.)<br />
<br />
Seth gets involved with a woman he might regret as she might be doing someone elses biddings.<br />
<br />
<i>The plot:</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This one has an undercover suspense story built into it this time. Niklas ( Alexander Karim) is infiltrating an MMA club run by a Caucasian mob ( the Russian kind of Caucasian) as they are mixed up in the diamond heist. But the heist goes awry and everyone involved , including Niklas, are being holed up on an unknown location as the mob boss wants to find out which of them ratted him out.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Johans wife starts to take an active role in the proceedings, and shit gets serious as brother goes against brother in an all out struggle for control between Seth and Jack</div>
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<br />
<i>Jibber jabber:</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This bring brings back a lot of suspense that I felt <i>Silent Diplomacy</i> lacked, as one of the characters we actually care for is in jeopardy. I´m sorry , but I never really cared for Pernilla in any of the films she was in, She never had a personality to her, but Niklas has developed throughout the course of the series, given some quirky character traits and comes across as a likeable dude. And we learn that he is capable in the mystical ways of Mixed Martial Arts, which brings me to a trope a I highly miss in todays action-cinema: The Kung Fu Cop. I love it!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I miss seeing movies about cops that are well versed in martial arts, cutting the red tape and go straight to the throat punch instead. We used to get a ton of those in the early 90´s starring Cynthia Rothrock, Thomas Ian Griffith and Don "The Dragon " Wilson. All Academy Award-worthy performances, believe me. And Niklas follows a fine tradition of Kung Fu Cops in the newer MMA tradition that Donnie Yen may have started in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0992911/">Flashpoint </a></i>for instance. I did not expect to see this in a Swedish action film, but I am happy to. The world need more cinematic kung fu cops who can get the job done, one kick to the throat at the time!<br />
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We get to see Niklas do some sparring against Seth in the club. Seth does not rat him out, as Niklas also knows who he is, They both know their true identities. It is a Catch 22. They are both informers, and again says a lot about the overall theme of the story of how the real world is more diffuse, harder to grasp on a deeper level than what we are being told in simplified newspaper narratives where there is simply room for black/white points of view.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Later when Niklas is trapped with a few others. , unlike Frank, he is not above above suspicion. We do see early on that he has built up some credibility amongst the crew, but there is still suspicion and therefore has he found himself in this nightmarish situation in which no undercover cops want find themselves in. See <i>The Textbook of Undercover Nightmares</i>, chapter 1, page 9.<br />
<br />
This is the type of situation a cop can finds himself into, whereas someone who has had time to build a street rep outside a police force, outside the boundaries and restrictions of procedural police work can do much better. We learn how capable he is in situations which are strainous to say the very least. He keeps his calm and use his wits when he notices perhaps some of the others holed up with him might be easily influenced.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
It is nice to see Niklas get some more screentime. Which is a good idea to bring him up, so he can shine in Falkology as well. At first in the very first film of the second season ( see <i>Rules of the game</i>) he is as freshbaked member of GSI we can see how he has problems with Johans methods. Now he finds himself in a position in which he has to take matters in his own hands. We see him as a pro active guy, expert in martial arts, talking to people, feeling them out ,a sense of who they are and such. He should have a spin off series, I feel; Humanistic MMA Cop.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Meanwhile Johan starts to get squeezed by the Russian Mob who wants him to do a few favors for them. Johan starts to act irrationally violent towards them and is using a gun, threatening them to back off his family. It almost seems like his PTSD or whatever he has has gotten to him,<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr-BBlhmAmBDFQn7tRyFZBXS3VF5EUhLjFeG0iaOaCPrApQIgvOIWQ9njD6jUBzj6qqz-gHYhW6pYwynf56sCo-eHI-TQ5go_LMQegEoVYDlFSXq89mILDSWn5QGi40sXRjrwMK1D7tKM/s1600/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h42m17s648.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr-BBlhmAmBDFQn7tRyFZBXS3VF5EUhLjFeG0iaOaCPrApQIgvOIWQ9njD6jUBzj6qqz-gHYhW6pYwynf56sCo-eHI-TQ5go_LMQegEoVYDlFSXq89mILDSWn5QGi40sXRjrwMK1D7tKM/s320/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h42m17s648.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNiMxaUNV4UhDkZXK0qDjdT1dnb3SoYOLjj2DhAxeEEHlHoR2Ln1enhRRjjGDiSlJzbvRr_AvxTsrCB76CG-pNmyNjgf_z6nBvqFRkWUfKbwPPPHqRi3kU2wI7EeK9JYS9bWF-3VrtJg0/s1600/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h43m02s461.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNiMxaUNV4UhDkZXK0qDjdT1dnb3SoYOLjj2DhAxeEEHlHoR2Ln1enhRRjjGDiSlJzbvRr_AvxTsrCB76CG-pNmyNjgf_z6nBvqFRkWUfKbwPPPHqRi3kU2wI7EeK9JYS9bWF-3VrtJg0/s320/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h43m02s461.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zooms in on Johan, cut to Helen in the kitchen...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUuSCcHm612ijVfkngnYmuedZCyhIQ05s1LR2aZg0JFezpvzU01ONHtMQIzJu_2rzPFhLlroqT7rfbhKhHvLS2x5yLdzjtnG2sqwzY6fXcPNKFw97_FlAveI6j9ZcWxlftlPMR2Ms2VY/s1600/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h43m09s638.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUuSCcHm612ijVfkngnYmuedZCyhIQ05s1LR2aZg0JFezpvzU01ONHtMQIzJu_2rzPFhLlroqT7rfbhKhHvLS2x5yLdzjtnG2sqwzY6fXcPNKFw97_FlAveI6j9ZcWxlftlPMR2Ms2VY/s320/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h43m09s638.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shot on the family</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnFXTTSbFijGBS28KOS-epm97shLibEBZ-BL3BgeTqS4uu2y9KtQwUcV_4tpHgNVc6QLXaZJTJf6Ue1TdIN0IoMp5LhDE4EOppOVw49SPFdssE1fUZLOBqfrlhN0NvAkv-nvJ30EEynTk/s1600/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h43m13s515.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnFXTTSbFijGBS28KOS-epm97shLibEBZ-BL3BgeTqS4uu2y9KtQwUcV_4tpHgNVc6QLXaZJTJf6Ue1TdIN0IoMp5LhDE4EOppOVw49SPFdssE1fUZLOBqfrlhN0NvAkv-nvJ30EEynTk/s320/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h43m13s515.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zooms in on Johan as whirring internal sounds keep escalating</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivf0vPjxwidqi3Amk6JVe4UWVVfKjJLPhFbaubONTrdRaFdVA6gnucC5PpUSAubANyxkfrucr2KOrsUAiwXkVchvNnzBNQAKvMlvN_JyL_iEuLICtvBMdY_hWAd1w-8apSaWR9oQD20rY/s1600/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h45m50s769.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivf0vPjxwidqi3Amk6JVe4UWVVfKjJLPhFbaubONTrdRaFdVA6gnucC5PpUSAubANyxkfrucr2KOrsUAiwXkVchvNnzBNQAKvMlvN_JyL_iEuLICtvBMdY_hWAd1w-8apSaWR9oQD20rY/s320/vlcsnap-2016-11-16-11h45m50s769.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The internal whirring sound stops suddenly as Helen walks into the frame in the next shot</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When Johan comes home to his family after the confrontation we experience his perspective. There is great use of a whirring sound as we finds ourselves in Johans pont of view that is suddenly interrupted as Helen approaches him. We have seen similar techniques employed where we are shut out from the external world to get a sense of Johans isolated position... Once in <i>Executive Protection</i>, when Johan is andering aimlessly around the cemetary all caught up with the consequences of his action, and clueless on what to do next. And in both those sequences, Helen shows up and interrupt his internal state which leads him to actually become pro active again and to start solve the problem at hand.<br />
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Helen is crucial to Johan, she is the one person that dragged Johan back into the world and made him a family man again. I think these scenes are quite important to understand Johan, and for understanding Falkology. They are ways for us to get inside Johans head and perhaps glimpses of someone who is used to shut the outside world out from him. But now , more than ever, is in dire need of people to help him.<br />
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Good shit.<br />
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<i>Next time on Johan Falk</i>: Shit gets real. For real!</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-88289137742937460442016-11-14T04:23:00.003-08:002016-11-14T04:25:23.652-08:00RATCHET AND CLANK (2016)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUysODlM1omoPrTNZ2G4NNK1mkBnJ9mV5nu7WEo0ns6939wbHX9uBdsqQQoXREJ8vARtvTPAWPfx-HYXoT2VM7GYiJgkMbU7RopL-7KFo-4hmlyV1b9jzieYwfpcDNldvn9ItpPnFXWXo/s1600/Ratchet_and_Clank_2015.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUysODlM1omoPrTNZ2G4NNK1mkBnJ9mV5nu7WEo0ns6939wbHX9uBdsqQQoXREJ8vARtvTPAWPfx-HYXoT2VM7GYiJgkMbU7RopL-7KFo-4hmlyV1b9jzieYwfpcDNldvn9ItpPnFXWXo/s320/Ratchet_and_Clank_2015.png" width="215" /></a></div>
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Oversized weapons that could devastate an entire planet, explosions, witty dialogue, some sexual innuendo, upgradable gadgets,groovy soundtracks and high quality animation and voice acting. man I love the Ratchet & Clank videogames and has a guranteed place in The Explodable World of Action as they deliver carnage, mayhem and destruction on a level that makes Rambo look like a pussy.</div>
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Too bad this film has none of that. </div>
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I mean, it´s not...tahat bad. It is just very very ordinary. And in this climate where Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks deliver high quality animated entertainment , this does not cut it. It needs to be far better to make an impact.This is simply not good enough for a mainstream audience. And not even enough for a fan like me. A shame.</div>
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Ratchet is a lombax ( a cat like creature), but also a mechanic who dreams of joining the Galactic Rangers, as his hero Captain Qwark is part of it. Qwark is a narcassistic douche who likes to come across as heroic even though he is not. War is brewing in the galaxy as evil Chairman Drek is destroying planets , since he is evil. And now GalacticRangers are looking for recruits. Ratchet is optimistic of joining the fight. Ratchet also comes across a small robot, a defect from a war robot producing plant who also joins up to combat Drek. And this is basically the plot. It sounds generic. Because it is. It has very little of the wit and charm of the games.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I don´t know. I don´t want to be snarky about it, but <i>Ratchet and Clank- The Movie</i> is the<i> Episode 1 – The Phantom
Menace</i> of <i>Ratchet and Clank </i>videogames. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Which means, it is perhaps the worst
possible way to be introduced to what made this series successful in the first
place. It´s not really that bad, it´s just feels like Cutscene-The Movie while
removing the fun, addictive gameplay that made the Ratchet and Clank experience
great.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">You should be alarmed by the production history
from what you can learn from Imdb. A lot of talented people was actually
involved with it from time to time, during the ten year process of bringing this franchise to the screen, Edgar Wright and Guillermo Del Toro are two, but left because of “creative differences”, which translates
to; this movie is gonna suck. Creative differences means, they wanted to infuse creativity into the project, but Sony said; No creativity! Obey!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Add to that that they replaced some of the voice actors from the games with Hollywood celebrities and you can smell the cynical attitude
towards maknig this film. Mind you, it is still James Arnold Taylor and David Kaye who voices the main protagonists and they do a great job with what there is to be done. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Also, apparently, some of the scenes in the film are <i>actually cutscenes </i>in the new R&C-game which came out around the same time as the film was released. I mean, that is kind of shocking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ratchets character has changed from the game and anything
originally interesting in the dynamic relationship from the original game is
gone. Ratchet was the reluctant hero, and Clank , who wants to do the right
thing, was also incredibly naïve. That dynamic led to some fun bickering
between the two. In this film, they already establishes as friends. And there is no growth to the characters..</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In other words, less interesting story telling than the videogame had. Ouch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I can´t stay mad at this movie for actually existing
and some of the jokes are clever and has some funny timing. But it is weird how
something as originally looking on a Playstation can come out with suc a generic-looking style to it. And why did the non-gaming audience not took a liking to it? The games are great and they stuck to the games pretty damn close. I have a theory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ironically, one of the reasons why people does not
seem to care for it, non-gamers I mean, is simply because it looks gamey. The filmmakers did not even bother at least changing the
character models or anything from the games to make it look interesting
for cinema goers. This is the same fifteen year old design in 2016.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is a case in which they actually stuck <i>too</i> close to the
source material. I´ve heard people say that Ratchet and Clank has a terrible
character design, which is a sentiment I
do not agree with. But this might be a problem as obviously the character design
from the games does not seem to translate as easily to movie goers . When R&C was
new, 15 years ago, it was revolutionary to see such high level of animation and
developed characters with excellent voice acting in a videogame. That has long
been a standard in motion picture history , with great animation and voice
acting stretching back to Snow White And that was 1934.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">That is a problem, the design of the characters
belongs to the gamers and not the mainstream audiences with a completely
different point of view in contrast with characters from a newer medium
transitions poorly to a medium that has had many decades to develop and therefor
R&C comes across as not-great in comparisons. I like the characters, but that is because I was there from the start, fifteen years ago. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">If the animated films had not progressed and delivered so many movies with high quality stories and characters, maybe this one would have made a success. But I don´t think it is an par with say <i>Kung Fu Panda</i>. Not by a mile.. It lacks a distinctiveness, I feel in comparison.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It also does not help that the acton set pieces are not that memorable. The
insane level of destruction and seizure inducing mayhem from the games have
translated into typical space shit, that belongs in <i>Star Wars The Clone Wars</i> or something. Speaking of Episode 1, there is a sequence
reminiscient of that movie; the pod race, of which this is a much worse version
of. It´s like the podrace, without the podrace.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Well, this movie was probably made for fans, which certainly explains why this film was given zero marketing in mainstream media. But even as a fan
I expected more. I expected wittier writing, more devastating action,exploding
cities and more bullet hells. I expected Rambo 3 in space. And got a lamer version
of it.- I got <i>Episode 1- The Phantom Menace</i> level of space action with a sporadic laser blast here and there.. At least that movie has a kick ass kung fu fight at the end that almost redeemed the entire thing in my opinion.. This delivers really nothing satisfying. Ther are some fan service here and there, but I never found them enjoying as the film as a whole is pretty boirng..<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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I´ll stick to the games and I will most likely never revisit this movie ever again.</div>
Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-77719229804648801442016-11-08T11:38:00.001-08:002016-11-08T11:38:03.120-08:00NINJA CLASS: LESSON 2: REVENGE OF THE NINJA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRHpmJ5ZVHGdVo53d12ByFpTCXeCJBGA56W5PCcZnZMMecCwqSXijdSLw2R3zE4pKUMDUd7EmOYU0hb5lSSdt5LACU0RecbZzJtIdfA8AGqfDOoHBjeAWOTDUnB2yc0CB4KzJc_M6f6c4/s1600/Revenge_of_the_ninja.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRHpmJ5ZVHGdVo53d12ByFpTCXeCJBGA56W5PCcZnZMMecCwqSXijdSLw2R3zE4pKUMDUd7EmOYU0hb5lSSdt5LACU0RecbZzJtIdfA8AGqfDOoHBjeAWOTDUnB2yc0CB4KzJc_M6f6c4/s320/Revenge_of_the_ninja.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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This movie opens with a massacre on a Japanese village and in which a woman gets her throat cut. but also some poor kid gets a shuriken in his fucking face . </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVciiAeP35p34C2dM4PXFRw__2xEZrPBIyAnkcANWbl1P6yoRnpYR-AVA10QQs64810xHShKEwO0RxSSkqHtr1n-w0vSZ8Ok0bWsNOUcBJjhfs1pNmx6nnoi42fGeqiWrLXyjGsyL6HR8/s1600/vlcsnap-2016-11-08-20h25m28s996.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVciiAeP35p34C2dM4PXFRw__2xEZrPBIyAnkcANWbl1P6yoRnpYR-AVA10QQs64810xHShKEwO0RxSSkqHtr1n-w0vSZ8Ok0bWsNOUcBJjhfs1pNmx6nnoi42fGeqiWrLXyjGsyL6HR8/s320/vlcsnap-2016-11-08-20h25m28s996.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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That is definitely how to set a tone for your Ninja-movie! It is also quite a staple of Ninja movies, in which the hero´s village gets destroyed, a mythical trope well worth using.in these types of movies as we actually are dealing with archetypes and formulas.</div>
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This is also asurprisingly bloody and violent effort compared to the other in this Loosely Connected Ninja-franchise made by Cannon. </div>
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Sho Kosugi plays a Ninja, named Cho, whose family gets entirely wiped out in Japan, except his precious son. Cho is convinced by his friend Braden ( played by American Asshole #3211) to move to the U.S as apparently it is safer there. Unbeknownst to him, his asshole friend only does it so he can have a nice front to smuggle drugs through. Isn´t that nice? </div>
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His friend shows some sweet sneaky cocksucker techniques. So he must be a Ninja. Which he is. He is American just as Cole, which shows he is sneaky. But instead of Seducing Wife-technique, he employs Convincing Cocaine-Smuggler technique, an even harder technique to achieve. Braden is a far more sophisticated Ninja than Cole in my opinion. he just does not simply satisfy himself in bed, but satisfy himself financially.</div>
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Cho agrees and setups an art gallery of weird and creepy looking dolls who breaks easily. His son accidentally breaks one of these and finds a suspiciously looking substance. And then all Ninja-hell breaks loose. So to speak.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWK9MNVpbrMqTBEtWLbcR0WN6zn27TDR1e2oIHB7eUOCRNb4uiKqI-QCjfKs6jlYI1sULqZXR6pt5njIFesi5vNFPhmjAAIKz-vmdW-jNwHjfdT7A5SKaTdDeD04f0Li_tOFFIepHGMzk/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-07-20-11h37m52s122-1024x550.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWK9MNVpbrMqTBEtWLbcR0WN6zn27TDR1e2oIHB7eUOCRNb4uiKqI-QCjfKs6jlYI1sULqZXR6pt5njIFesi5vNFPhmjAAIKz-vmdW-jNwHjfdT7A5SKaTdDeD04f0Li_tOFFIepHGMzk/s320/vlcsnap-2012-07-20-11h37m52s122-1024x550.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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In this film, the American Ninja is seen through a different lense, He is not the protagonist, but instead the villain. He is seen as someone who is manipulative, but in this film not in any glamourous way, It is almost like if Cannon Group knew they dropped the ball on <i>Enter The Ninja</i> and tried to make it up. The perspective has shifted and lies now with the honorable protagonist Japanese Ninja,Cho, who is desperate in wanting to blend in american society, He is so obsessed in blending in that he yells at his son for being bullied, then fighting back, for actually fighting back. Weird.</div>
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The shift is dramatic from <i>Enter The Ninja</i>; now we have an honourable Ninja wanting acceptance within american society. Good for them, It seem like a half assed attempt on the filmmakers part of not trying to demonizing the Japanese, but instead presenting them through positive racist stereotypes instead . Well, it is progress, I guess.</div>
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The fights are legit as you now has an accomplished martial artist in the lead instead of that bar brawler Texan from <i>Enter The Ninja. </i>No offence Franco Nero, but you are neither Ninja nor american.</div>
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Japanese culture being exploited for greedy american needs is clearly demonstrated here. The villain is trained in japanese mystic culture, but not as well as our Japanese hero, which actually makes this one seem less xenophobic and just plain awkward in its representatuve delivary of values. The film is hamfisted in ways that is clealry shown, Cho is manipulated in some dumb way and we never understand why Braden is such a good friend to Cho, and why Cho believes anything this american ninja asshole says. Especailly after his clan is being murdered. </div>
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A more cýnical person like myself, wonders why Cho was never around in the opening scene. Well, after the massacre we see him lurking back together wth Braden, all the Ninjas goes into hiding. The filmmakers do not even bother hiding the fact that the white dude is evil, which makes the argument that Cannon wanted a very different appraoch rom the first one. they wanted a fucking evil American ninja this time.</div>
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There are some spectacular setpieces in this. One of them has Ninja climibing a skyscraper, and it is not CGI. It is simply Ninja. Because in the 80´s Ninja could do anything. CGI could do shit.</div>
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And the final at the rooftops is a showcase of anything you dreamed of seeing in a genuine Ninja film. I love it.</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-9709949397256474902016-11-07T07:29:00.000-08:002016-11-07T07:33:55.169-08:00NINJA CLASS: LESSON 1: ENTER THE NINJA (1981)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNL0Xsnpa3NrLTFy30qvbnYdFFBuLuGtjmYMKiKExkjiz0V8xzISi3HYR-KRcfa7e3QemER_mAit8cv5jHq1MglnUqolahi2-n1d5Ge5YYTefm_FZpy8sAz0rzlDuj_im_5aDSSsp-SVg/s1600/MV5BMjI2OTI5MDUwMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzI2NTgzNA%2540%2540._V1_UX182_CR0%252C0%252C182%252C268_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNL0Xsnpa3NrLTFy30qvbnYdFFBuLuGtjmYMKiKExkjiz0V8xzISi3HYR-KRcfa7e3QemER_mAit8cv5jHq1MglnUqolahi2-n1d5Ge5YYTefm_FZpy8sAz0rzlDuj_im_5aDSSsp-SVg/s1600/MV5BMjI2OTI5MDUwMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzI2NTgzNA%2540%2540._V1_UX182_CR0%252C0%252C182%252C268_AL_.jpg" /></a></div>
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What better way to sheer oneself up by doing a week full of Ninja-movies? Giving yourself a big soothing bath of shurikens. Jusr slip into the bath of sharp metal throwing stars and immerse yourself in the increasing pool of your own blood. Ahhh...</div>
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Our first lesson starts with <i>Enter the Ninja</i> from 1981 by schlockfactory Cannon Group, the first in a loosely connected series of ninja-movies, which in all honestly was mostly for monetary reasons, not artistically or for any specific ninja reasons, unless those reasons are hidden deep within the shadows of some Ninja-ass or some bullshit like that.</div>
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Anyway, this is one of the earlier ninja-movies that started the trend. A trend that unfortunately has died of, or vanished, like Ninja itself. People today seem to laugh at Ninja. They would be wrong. They can appreciate Ninja, if Ninja is lackey to a supervillain in a superhero. But if Ninja happens to be Super nInja, they think Ninja is funny. Ninja is not funny!! Ninja is immortal. Ninja is powerful. Ninja is sneaky. Ninja will fuck you up, sleep with your wife and leave.</div>
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<i>Enter the Ninja</i> is about sucg a Ninja, an american. From Texas. How Ninja can that be? Not very Ninja-sounding to me. But he is Ninja nonetheless. His name is Cole (Franco nero). He graduates from Ninja Academy in Japan and visits his Vietnam warbuddy, helps him out a bit, fucks his wife ,gets him killed and then disappears. That is basically the story. Typical of Texas Ninja to exploit his ninja skills this way. His Seducing Wife-technique is impeccable, employed without higher morals in my opinion. But then again Ninjas are sneaky fucks. Ninjas can seduce your wives. Ninja can fuck them without you even noticing even when you are in bed with your wife.Ninja vanishes. And Ninja makes her pregnant. Such are the horny powers of Ninjitsu</div>
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Before all that,it is worth mentioning that while he manages to graduate from Ninja Univeristy in Japan, he makes an enemy. A fellow Ninja, a genuine Japanese Ninja ( Sho Kosugi) who sees this hillbilly Texan as a threat to his culture.</div>
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If I was in Sho Kosugis shoes ( Ko-shoes?), I would also be upset with having a Texan coming in and stealing my Ninja-thunder from underneath my feet. I mean what the fuck does a cowboy know about being a Ninja? He´s been here one week and know he totally owned us in our own game? I can sympathize with him.</div>
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In between all that, a ruthless businessman wants the land that Cole´s friend has.Why? Because of money. And then when he realizes a Ninja is working against him, he starts yelling "I want my own Ninja" like a spoiled brat, so his lackey will have to go to Japan to interview a few Ninja for the job. And wouldn´t you know it. The enemy of our Texas Ninja gets the job. So you have in the climax a cultural battle between mystical ninjas from the far west and the far east. And as it is an American production the Far west far exceeds the Far East.</div>
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<i>Enter The Ninja</i> is definitely the weakest link in Cannons Ninja-trilogy. It is not as legitimately good as a hardcore Ninja-flick as <i>Revenge of the Ninja</i>. And it is not as weird, crazy, borderline-experimental as <i>Ninja 3-The Domination </i>in its ecclectic mix of Ninja, aerobics and exorcism<i>.</i>. But it is preposterous enough in its earnestness so it is worth a watch at least. And to learn a trick or two about the Seducing Wife-technique to create some unexpected and unexplained pregnancies without risking a paternity suit.</div>
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1808299125737838895.post-30053113495031341402016-11-05T05:52:00.000-07:002016-11-05T05:53:29.666-07:00HARD TARGET 2 (2016)<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6ccRuWrQ_EeFQBGHvLuFqIfY-3raeXl1HghndzmuOqVmyNwsPyGPBNiBz9_5q_qTDnNosfnRN33Vc-go6RLCLHyE0evHymehgAhuFfLHSiEPLEM4v_UzkfmiUh1uSCGEwjZe6MGCPo0/s1600/Hard_Target_2_-_BR_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6ccRuWrQ_EeFQBGHvLuFqIfY-3raeXl1HghndzmuOqVmyNwsPyGPBNiBz9_5q_qTDnNosfnRN33Vc-go6RLCLHyE0evHymehgAhuFfLHSiEPLEM4v_UzkfmiUh1uSCGEwjZe6MGCPo0/s320/Hard_Target_2_-_BR_cover.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<i>Hard Target 2</i> is no<i> Hard Target</i>. By that I mean it is not called <i>Hard Target</i>, but <i>Hard Target 2</i>. That is the first evidence in my chain of reasoning. But it is also directed by Roel Reine, not John Woo. It also stars Scott Adkins, not Jean Claude Van Damme.</div>
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It is also not as good as <i>Hard Target</i>. The ultimate proof on the matter. But it is most certainly worth a watch (and a purchase).</div>
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Now that we have established that <i>Hard Target 2</i> is not <i>Hard Target</i>, let us start with Hard Target. An in the end quite compromised artistic vision in many ways. John Woo not being able to be John Woo by Universal Studios.Not enough balletic violence to be blunt about it. But it still managed to have survived as an iconic Van Damme vehicle, known for its excessive mix of martial arts, poetic gunplay action and extreme mullets. But also incorporating a bunch of bitchin doves and some nice visual touches, some stunning slow motion shots and perfect rhytmic editing to match and you have a pretty sweet film.</div>
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Great movie. Highly recommended.</div>
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<i>Hard Target 2 </i>takes the formula of rich assholes hunting desperate poor people,, switchning locales from vibrant, desolate New Orleans, to not-so-vibrant but still desolate Burma. It still looks cool with all the jungle shit and all. Jean-Claude Van Damme is no longer part of this dangerous game of man vs man. Instead we have 21st Century´s version; Mr Scott Adkins( <i>Undisputed 2-4, Ninja 1-2, Universal Sodlier Day of Reckoning</i>) I´m afraid he has no mullet, but makes it up with a ferocious agility and some deadly legs to kick ass with.</div>
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Like previously said, the plot switches the background of poverty in Lousiana, to a more isolated, manfree environment. Surprisingly considerate by these rich assholes,, as there is less chance of collateral damage. Probably also considerate to the restrictions of the budget. It is also a very tired cliche in terms of thematics. But I am cool with it. We don´t get enough jungle action these days.</div>
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Adkins plays Baylor, an MMA -fighter, accidentally killing his best friend in the ring, gives up his career and ends upp pugilizing himself for a few bucks in remote locations. That is when the villain of this piece Robert Knepper ( Prison Break) notices his talent and offers a one-match only deal in which he can cash in half a million dollars. Too late he realizes all they want to do is hunt his ass.<br />
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Compared to the original, this skips to the point fairly fast, like a good exploitation genre mnovie should. But before we get to teh hunt, we also get to know Baylor through several minor fight sequences in which each one makes him progress through the world of underground fighting. His first fight is in a shitty barn and the last fight before the hunt takes place on some rich assholes rooftop in which Baylor meets the villain.<br />
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Besides Robert Knepper, we also have in villainous roles, Temuera Morrison ( <i>Once were Warriors</i>) and Rhona Mitra ( ehhh...) to give the villains at elast some color. Among the hunters is also a douchebag computernerd, claiming himself to be the Mark Zuckerbergs of FPS´s. Jesus, what an ass. There is also a hilariously camp spaniard bullfighter and some dumb hillbillies to round out the villainy.<br />
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The film flows along fairly nicely, the action is decent, but the low budget is apparent. They have used some overhead drone shots to give the film more production value, even though it is a bit overused. We don´t need sixty establishing shots of the jungle. But other than that the cinematography is surprisingly nice. The fights could have used some more flair to make it more exciting as there is nothing in the action deppartment that matches Woo´s visceral style from part 1<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98NB-nbwzznJeSWvJYoCbKWcmg-_5x1poe0N58-u43h_MN4eORyBKF5ZCve25LHkmJCGV5hQ-zyoJlG_zpaQsuBjRdeq3d-fJYSEj2pE6gzFYh1kj4P8xTQr75hUkGedYKjF8lO-5EeQ/s1600/Hard-Target-2-Bow-And-Arrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh98NB-nbwzznJeSWvJYoCbKWcmg-_5x1poe0N58-u43h_MN4eORyBKF5ZCve25LHkmJCGV5hQ-zyoJlG_zpaQsuBjRdeq3d-fJYSEj2pE6gzFYh1kj4P8xTQr75hUkGedYKjF8lO-5EeQ/s320/Hard-Target-2-Bow-And-Arrow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Roel Reine might not be an auteur, but he is the kind of meat and potatoes-director I can appreciate , as he does not try go beyond his paygrade but delivers a fairly enjoyable sequel with some nice cinematography, like his previous sequel <i>Man with teh Iron Fists</i> 2. He infuses these type of DTV-sequels with a look that makes the film feel a bit more expensive than it really is and as a whole give it a more roudned presentation than most low budget straight to video actioners.<br />
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Adkins proves once again his physical abilities in more ways than in just the fights. He gets to run, climb,swim, and jump around a lot and I am convinced he is doing most of it.<br />
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It´s no <i>Turkey Shoot </i>or <i>Hard Target</i>. But it is <i>Hard Target 2</i>. And that is good enough.<br />
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Andreas Bengtssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821010705429096544noreply@blogger.com0