What action film have you watched/bought recently?

[oaxaca]

Death Hunt is a classic Bronson film, one of my favourites. Lee Marvin's role suits him down to the ground too!

[wongfeihung62]

Just rewatched Woo's "A Better Tomorrow 2". An incredible last 20 mins with an insane body count and the mansion walls literally splashed with blood.

[wongfeihung62]

Originally Posted by napalm-in-the-morning

Just managed to track one of these down. Had heard a little about it but doesn't appear to have had a big release at any time. Excellent review and I'm looking forward to seeing it. Sounds like an overdue case for remastering with some extras. Surprised that the rights haven't been snapped up.

Definitely Wang Yu's finest film. I recommend anyone with even just a passing interest in martial arts cinema to watch this. Makes a great double bill with "Seven Samurai".

[42ndStreetFreak]

"The Mechanik"

Dolph Lundgren is in fine granite from here as an ex-Russian paratrooper whose family were killed by Russian mobsters during a shootout.
Years later (after revenge is seemingly taken) he is hired to find a kidnapped woman, who it turns out has been kidnapped by the same Mob boss he thought he had killed....

Now this was a pretty damn satisfying watch and a wonderfully violent one too. But we have some script/editing problems here.

Negative first:
What's with all the, sometimes continuous, short scenes linked together by endless fades to black? Very obtrusive.
Welcome to the world's worst rescue plan.

(1) We then learn the escape route is driving countless miles to the Finnish border in crappy, keeps breaking down, old van!
No plane ready? After all the parents of the girl are obviously rich. At least provide a better van!

(2) Is there only one road out of Russia to Finland?! Seems so.
And (seeing as it seems there is only one road) if Dolph wants revenge why did he not let the others go on in the van and wait for the bad guys to come down that one road?
Instead they all wait a full night in a village (seemingly because one of them is injured...but in that case just Dolph could have stayed on his own with him) and thus the bad guys catch up and now an entire village is in danger!

Some bad continuity too.
In one shot they drive past a distinctive building, in the very next shot they are driving towards the exact same building.
Dolph smacks a guy's face in and walks away. About 5 minutes later, and 3 different character scenes later, we go back to Dolph and he's still standing over the guy he just hit!

So we have a BADLY plotted script and some cheap mistakes...BUT....

Thankfully the sheer amount of fun action and no nonsense violence (some GREAT shotgun splatter here and some good, non-CGI, gunshot wound effects and blood sprays) delivers the thrills and it all culminates in a pretty damn good stand-off in the village and a stunningly satisfying demise for the big baddie. ****ing awesome scene!

Dolph is also on top stoic form, looks great and kicks ass with kicks, fists and many shotgun pellets brilliantly.
Best damn shotgun violence/action film since "Rolling Thunder" actually!

[oaxaca]

Think I'll check out 'The Mechanik', havn't seen any Lundgren films so will give him a go.

I watched, ahem, Allan Quatermain and the lost city of gold last night. Blatantly inspired by Indy Jones, and seemed to be based on H. Rider Haggard's novel "Allan Quatermain" more than any other of his novels. I think the cast (Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone and James Earl Jones) are all likeable people and save this film from being unwatchable; although Henry Silva was atrocious as per, lol. Lots of obvious studio sets and plot holes and probably not as good as Chamberlain and Stone's King Solomon's Mines (which I havn't watched yet), but still entertaining, if very cheesy. I think having read the book helped me enjoy it a little more.

[Gigantor]

KICK ASS and FROM PARIS WITH LOVE

[Gigantor]

Drop zone
point break
kung fu killer

[42ndStreetFreak]

"Valhalla Rising"

Nicolas Winding Refn's swift follow-up from his superb "Bronson" is a strange and otherworldly beast that is (for the most part) nothing like the film the traliers/posters/covers would have you think.

Not for Refn a re-hash of "The Vikings" with added mud 'n' blood. Oh no. Instead he paints a stunning looking picture about faith, transcendence and destiny.

The ever intriguing Mads Mikkelsen plays the completely mute fighting slave, a feared legend amongst the Highland tribes, who escapes his brutal captivity (shades of "Conan the Barbarian" here) and is taken by invading Vikings, who have converted to Christianity, on a crusade to The Holy Land...only they end up somewhere very different.

Getting off to a superbly crafted, astonishingly brutal start (necks are snapped, throats bitten out, skulls smashed open, entrails ripped out), with the stunning scenery, electronic soundscapes (that reach almost "Downward Spiral" era 'NIN' intensity ) and rough hewn production design delivering a mixture of cinematic theatrics and a brilliantly realistic recreation of a barbaric age.

Once the (long) sea journey begins though, and the group get to wherever it is they have got to, the film slows down and becomes a psychological, spiritual and physically extreme journey where drinking hallucinatory brews and walking for miles and miles (with the odd time-out for a death) take up almost all the remaining running time until some more gore makes an appearance and leads us into the melancholy, God becomes flesh, re-birth finale.

Thankfully Mads looks amazing with is one-eyed facial mutilation and tattoos and makes for a brutally physical presence.
The landscapes, dreamlike/nightmarish cinematography, sparse but effective music, solid acting, sudden bursts of extreme brutality (far too much needless CGI blood though sadly) and generally intriguing set-ups manage to lead the viewer through the obscure plotting, murky philosophy, heavy-handed religious (Pagan and Christian) iconography and general lethargy of it all to make "Valhalla Rising" a success.
Although it is certainly a close thing here between success and self-indulgent failure and the film will most definitely not be for all tastes.


The suitably eccentric DVD comm track with Alan Jones and Refn is a must listen as well, as some of the more obscure aspects are at least partly put into focus.
Avoid the trailers though, as they actually give away the Viking's location which I don't think you are meant to explicitly know about until the final scene.

[Hammer time]

Robowar-One of Mattei's Predator ripoffs not bad but rather pointless

Kickass-I was expecting gore/ultra violence lonewolf and cub style but it was watered down version,not enough of the red stuff

[Gigantor]

Has anyone watched FROM PARIS WITH LOVE,I liked it but I have yet to hear from anyone else who has seen it.