Kick'em In The Ghoulies

  Film Reviews 2

 No' 10 ' a magic number ,because it's the tenth review and it's The conclusion to the first film i reviewed on these very pages yes it's RED CLIFF 2  and the wait has been well worth it ,because after the original film i thought this is going to be hard to beat ,not just in the action stakes but also in the way the first part kept me riveted to the screen.                                                                        So after  a slight over view of the first film at the beginning we are at the start of the 2nd part or should i say at the end of the first as the film was shot in one go it's like we have had the largest commercial break in time and i must say i fell right back into the story even though i had watched the first one over seven months ago.                                                                                     Once again we have Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro take up the reigns again as they oppose the Prime Minister Cao Cao .

With this film it's all about the final battle and how it will be fought so this gives us time to get to know the characters from the first part a bit better as both sides plan how they can win the forthcoming battle ,both sides have spies on the other ,but this is quite open in the story so no spoilers here .Without getting to involved in the story as i don't want to give to much away here as  a lot of reviews do ,i mean i recently saw one review of the film and they gave away every thing so as to it not be worth watching ,luckily this was after i had watched  Red cliff 2.

We all know there's a battle and i must say it's the most spectacular battle i have seen in a long time ,and remembering that John Woo likes to use actual people not CGI as much as possible .I mean you can smell the fire ,feel the thousands of soldiers battling away ,it's pretty stunning to watch, the bigger the screen the better to get full impact ,i mean don't watch this on a small screen or some computer download ,buy the reel deal and and crank up the sound.The film stretches in at about two and quarter hours or so not as long as the first part but close giving ample time to the characters and seeing what nasty deeds the Prime Minister has set out for his foes and then showing his calm and good guy side as to sway you around to his thinking and may be you will question who is the evil party here .                               

So to sum up a top conclusion to the first part and brilliantly shot with some of the most stunning battle sequences i have seen in a long time .Top acting all round and if i had watched both films one after another in one sitting it would not have seemed like i had been sitting for five hours or so ,probably one of the best films i have seen not just in this genre but all in all.The Snake.                 Score out of Ten = 10 

A other trailer for red cliff giving scenes from both parts

Copyright © Sahammongkolfilm 2008

So this is it what every martial arts film fan has been waiting for .Right Ong Bak 2 has no relation to the first film apart from the name and that's where it ends .

Tony Jaa plays Tien a young man who as a boy see's his father and mother slain in front of him ,now this is set in a ancient mythical time and the young Tien is captured by slave traders who also use the slaves as fodder for there game of crocodile fighting .When he puts up a fight he is thrown into the pit to fend for himself and at each possible escape is pushed  back in.

Until the leader of a band of pirates come to his rescue and kill the traders and give the young Tien a knife to kill the crocodile with.To the leaders surprise Tien kills the crocodile and is taken to there village where he is offered to stay and learn all about martial arts from Kung Fu and Muay Thai and wrestling to Samurai swordsmanship or leave and fend for him self .Well he stays as you would 'your parents are dead and what you going to do 'so begins his training until he comes of age and we see him as a young man Tony Jaa.

The pirates go around battling slave traders and the such like and get attacked from such people .This opens the story for some great fight scenes featuring all sorts of martial art,but this not before Tien is put to the test to see how well he has progressed .

Battling kung fu experts and samurai swordsman to a cave dwelling Vampire woman from what i could make out each battle is a real treat for the eyes.So when he is offered leadership next to his Savior ,he accepts but he must first do one thing for himself,Find his parents killers and his child hood sweetheart and get revenge.The rest i will leave to you to find out.

So is it any good well we all know this was a long and troubled shoot and Panna Rittikrai the man that made Jaa look so good in his first films fell out with Jaa and left him to it as Jaa was directing the film himself with help from Panna .

Tony Jaa went Awol for two months as costs spiraled and the stress got to much for Jaa.Yes it's good but not as good as the first Ong Bak or Tom Yum Goong in that some of the fight scenes are shot a bit close and the action is missed and two of them it looked like they were sped up whether they were or not it could just be the way they are shot.

You can tell the beginning fights are well put together with lots of long shots and as it progresses fast editing and stylised shots take over These are great for American flicks but when watching this type of film we want to see the action .So should Tony Jaa direct ,well no because he can't do it all unfortunately he's not Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung they were trained to do this ,there Peking opera training set them up for everything .

Even Jet Li admits his Directing debut was not a good one ,a lot of people know this it's the film he hurt his back on doing a stunt and doing everything is hard to do. Jet Li's back plagues him till this day.He does not direct anymore .

So back to Ong Bak 2 even though i enjoyed it very much it did not blow me away like the first film.Panna Rittikrai is a master  director and has shown this in the film Chocolate and had he had control of the film i think it would be brilliant.But i do think it unfair some reviews of this film has slated it rotten and even though the story is not finalized in places it's not that bad.

The thing is a lot of these reviewers don't do martial arts they don't know how hard it is to pull off something that looks good on camera so i take there slating with a pinch of salt, had it been Tony's first film they would all be praising him.There are some dreadful fight flicks out there look at Death Bet.Here's to the next one Tony. The Snake                       Score out of Ten = 7

Afro Samurai Resurrection a animated film with voices by Samuel Jackson and Lucy Lui is an attempt to bring Japanese Anime more to the masses ,and it works to a point .

Afro is a lone samurai  who with his alter ego who follows him around or suddenly appears is a  man on a mission to free his dead father from being reanimated by his arch  arch enemy (Lucy Lui).Now the problem is that Afro cannot challenge her as she now possess the no'1 head band ,which Afro originally had.Who ever has the no 1 band cannot be challenged unless he or she possess the no'2 head band.So first Afro must find who has the no'2 head band  and challenge that person for it ,then he can confront the one with the no'1 band.

A bit like belts i think but if we all had to challenge everyone for our next belt there would not be many of us left.Once with the head band Afro can challenge his enemy who has turned each of her dead friends in to androids to help kill Afro as he had killed them and betrayed there trust.

 So as a hero he does not  come across as one to me and as he has brought this upon him self. Any Ways as a piece of entertainment it's quite good with some nice animation .As far as compared to other Anime that follows the ancient Samurai or Chinese arts i think i prefer those .But i did enjoy it but not as much as the hype surrounding it.There's lots of good Manga out there like Lensmen and Ninja and Storm riders,may be you should check those out too .The Snake                                                                                         Score out of Ten = 6

Ho-Sung Pak plays a assassin working for the mob who decides he wishes to quit and settle down for the quiet life with his girl friend 'who does not know his line of work'.Of course this is not the case as we would be bored and turn the film off .

Alas his bosses don't think he should and when he gets a hit on himself that goes wrong and his girlfriend gets blown away 'he's not pleased.Lee (Ho-Sung Pak)vows revenge on a scale to make you tremble ,as he works his way through the ranks of the mob smashing and beating the hell out of every body to get to the man that got his girlfriend killed John Lowe played here by Michael Dorin.Hell there's even a part played by Huggy Bear himself 'Antonio Fargas.

This is good and Ho-Sung Pak is a good fighter from the looks of things ,with some good scenes which are brutal even though some times the direction is a bit jumpy with quick editing from Wayne A Kennedy.Which i am sure from the look of things is not because of the lack of Ho-Sung's abilities .This reminds me of the films from the states in the Eighties and early Nineties when every body was making a kick flick ,but this i enjoyed and would watch again.

So a good flick and worth buying and watching The Snake.            Score out of Ten= 7

Now luckily unlike our last review this is actually a watchable piece of fodder .Against the Dark is a film in turmoil in such that it can not decide what it wants to be .

It resembles Blade with Wesley Snipes in the fact that Steven Seagal plays the leader of a group of hunters out to stop the scourge of Zombies taking everyone over and on the other hand it has a lot in common with Dawn of the Dead and such like films .Now Seagal continues to turn out new films and to be honest this is quite good on the budget front compared to other films of his lately.

But from a martial arts point of view it's a let down in the lack of fighting first and second that Seagal does not do that much himself apart from walk around saying i'm  a Hunter before he kills a Zombie with a couple of slashes of his sword in the few times he appears on screen .So it does not feel like a Steven Seagal project and more like he's doing a cameo every 15 minutes.so as you can see it passes the time and has enough action to tolerate watching all the way through.The story goes that Katana master Tao (Seagal) leads a a ex  special ops unit of vigilante Vampire hunters who go and infiltrate a Hospital to get out the last remaining survivors before the military bomb the place .

But watching the flick the Vampire story is more Dawn of the dead and the Vamps share more in common with this film or the video game Left 4 Dead .But in the end it does entertain but maybe not in the way you thought it would.The Snake.

Score out of Ten = 6 

A martial arts feature from the western world this time 'Death Bet ' is a film that stems from Australia .Now i know what your thinking but Australia has been home to martial art flicks before 'any one remember Strike of the Panther and it's sequel Return of the Panther although not brilliant they where watchable fodder on par with any film Steven Seagal may do nowadays .

But to tell the truth as i always do this film is not on par with either of the above films or any film you might even try to make in your lounge .Set in a Port  town  in Australia a local gang run a underground fighting venue to make money .I can not stress hard enough how bad this film is an every possible way from the totally shoddy acting 'to a point where actors can't keep straight faces while doing a seen to some of the worst lines ever heard and on top of this some totally lame fight sequences ,Death Bet should be avoided at all costs or you might just take your own life just watching this dire drivable.

Starring a cast of unknowns which have no talent in any department this is a waist of the £3.00 it cost to make this movie .The film introduces Kenny Low as a new fighting star in a film written and Directed by Morten Willoch.Please please avoid like the plaque as throwing away your money to buy or rent this is pure evil.The Snake.

Score out of Ten = 0 

Mickey Rourke  there's an actor we have not seen much of lately ,and for what ever reason i won't go into here as it's not what were about here .

Now i know Mickey Rourke came to fame in the blockbuster 9and half weeks all those years ago but i remember him for his role in the film Angel Heart where he played opposite Robert De'niro who played the devil and Rourke played this down and out detective who gets into some kind of voodoo magic trouble .

An excellent film anyway and if you have not seen it you should .But where here about his new film which is directed by Darren Aronofsky which is about a once famous wrestler (Randy''The Ram''Robinson played by Rourke) who twenty years later is still playing the independent circuit and not living the high life as he lives in a trailer park or his van at times .

Now on the independent circuit they don't have big budgets to lavish on special effects so these are devised by the wrestlers before hand and they use whatever they can to cutting themselves with razor blades or buying props from hard ware stores to bash each other with .Any way after a pretty tough show Randy is forced to retire an look on life from an other angle and hopes to find friendship with a local lap dancer he frequents with and also try and repair the rift between his teenage daughter as he has not really spoken to her as she sees him as waist of time as he only ever cared about wrestling ,

But when it all goes wrong he figures what the heck and returns to the ring to recreate one of his old matches from the his past glories.Now Rourke is brilliant for the part as he has lived this life for real in some ways and plays Randy to a T .

Though there's not a lot of battles the ones that are done are top notch and shows the brutality he goes through to get the job done .With a good supporting cast of Marisa Tomei / Evan Rachel Wood and Todd Barry this hits the right notes .

I feel it only works on the big screen ''where i saw it '' so if your going to see it watch it as it's meant to be .As i don't think it would look as powerful on your average 32'' TV.All in all a good film which won't make you happy that's for sure and brings home when you can't go on forever and ever know when to quit. Score out of ten  = 7 .     The Snake.

Real Karate Real Fights Real Japan  the header reads and like all films you take it with a pinch of salt ,But with this film from 2007 by Shunichi Nagasaki you will enter a world of pure martial art bliss .Starring Akihito Yagi,Tatsuya Naka,and Yuji Suzuki.

From the opening 5 minutes you know your in for something special when just from watching the training sequence at the beginning you know it's REAL KARATE then the first blow is struck by one of the stars of the film and it blows you away ,I think  i stood up and shouted YES at the top of my voice like i was at sports event or something .Any way the story goes like this.

  Before World War 2 ,three disciples ,Taikan,Choei,and Giryu,were taught by Karate master Eiken Shibarain a remote mountain Dojo.

When the Japanese military police attempt to seize the training hall,the three disciples resist and soundly defeat them though Choei receives a crippling injury ,even though he's only injured in the arm he could have become the one armed boxer or something instead of moping about with a sling .

After wards , on his deathbed their master bids his pupils to focus their skills inward and decide who is worthy of being his successor and being presented with his Black Belt.You know it's not going to be cripple boy as he's sobbing in the corner over a smashed up arm ( use your legs for Christ's sake).

So it's down to the two remaining pupils to earn the right to the Black Belt.Who will it be ,you cant wait can you well i am not going to tell you .The remaining two take opposing paths in life one working for the military as to test his skills against worthy opponents the other through no fault of his own ends up living with a strange family.

Well i can say this is pure Karate all the way and the force of how it is portrayed is a joy to behold and no one interested in the martial arts should miss this film each and every move is so real you think people are dying here.The stars involved are brilliant and credit to them and the director ,because they have made a film that embodies the essence of the martial way and i commend them for it .

On top of that we don't get to see that many fight flicks from Japan as most come from Hong Kong or Thailand now so this is something  special .

 Score out of Ten = A great 8

     Starring Fan Sui Wong,Elaine Lui  and Nina Li Chi this fantasy flick filmed in the Java jungle by Stanley Tong was quite a unusual film.Giving that Fan Sui Wong was the young boy from Above the Law,the Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock classic

.After this Fan seemed to go on some super fitness program and spawned muscles all over and was a good fighter with lots of talent and appeared in the violent manga inspired prison film Story of Ricky  along side Yukari Oshima ,which was a cult film  in the west .

So to break him in to the mainstream this kinda Indiana Jones style adventure was made where Elaine plays a young girl looking for her father who is a adventurer looking for ancient relics and disappears in the Java jungle .

Nina li chi plays i insurance investigator who befriends Elaine in a bid to trace her father .And so the adventure begins ,all though the plot is quite thin on information what follows is a non stop hour and half of stunts fights, although none stand out as classics as they are fairly short bouts that show the talents of Fan which is what where here to see .Being shot in such a remote place is also a bonus for some great shots with the locals and some real life close calls with nature as you can see in the out takes .

The high points are when the girls get covered in scorpions and another when they are confronted by Komodo Dragons ,a beast you dont want to mess with.So although this may not be at the top of films to track down if you can find it that is it does offer a  enjoyment value .                                                                           

 Various scenes from the film Stone Age Warriors

RED CLIFF ,the new film by John Woo which has been besieged by bad luck on set ,is most likely one of the best films of the year .    Based on the story of the same name, set in 208AD in china during the Han dynasty .Despite the presence of an emperor, Han Xiandi, China was divided into many warring states .

The ambitious prime minister CAO CAO ,by using the Emperor as his puppet ,waged war on a kingdom in the west Xu,ruled by the Emperors uncle Liu Bei,CAO CAO'S ultimate goal was to wipe out all the kingdoms and install himself as Emperor to a unified china .This resulted in numerous battles which culminated into the most famous of battles ,

The Battle for RED CLIFF ,in which over two thousand ships were burned.           

The minute you put it on ,from the opening credits ,you know your in for something special ,with really glorious looking sets of bright colors and a story that take's you in straight away ,you know your watching  a John Woo film from the camera angles and stop motion scenes which he first used in a Better Tomorrow ,down to the white doves which are meant to bring good luck .

Unlike a lot recent traditional films the battle's are gritty and violent ,yet wonderfully shot and vast ,and one battle scene stretches in at about half an hour .And the acting is top notch ,but with a cast like this it could not fail .

Now RED CLIFF    come's in at about two and a half hours and the story is not concluded as there will be a 2nd part released next year ,again at about  two and half hours .but don't let this put you of as unlike a lot of open ended films this comes to a nice conclusion that sets you up for part two .

I urge you not to wait for the western cinema release which will be one film only and a edit of the two eastern release films .track it down buy it now .You can get it on YES ASIA .