I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013)

Director: Steven R. Monroe

Notable Cast: Jemma Dallender, Yavor Baharov, Joe Absolom, Aleksandar Aleksiev, Mary Stockley, Valentine Pelka, Georgi Zlaterev, Peter Silverleaf

There is a lot of love for the original I Spit on Your Grave (aka Day of the Woman) within the realms of cult cinema and it deserves a lot of respect. However, the film is flawed. As of the writing of this little review, I have taken a lot of flak from various fans, critics, and horror hounds for stating that Steven R. Monroe’s remake of I Spit on Your Grave is a better film than the original. I still stand by that. While it took me far too long to get to it, I finally was able to watch Monroe’s sequel I Spit on Your Grave 2 and now I’m prepared to take another round of abuse from fans because this sequel is even better than his remake. I know, I know. I must have gone mad. I liked a remake better than the original? Then I liked its sequel better than that?! Yet, as the credits rolled on I Spit on Your Grave 2, it was hard not to think this. Not only does this one pull away further from the cheesy moments that hindered its predecessor, but it throws in a variety of solid narrative shifts that expand on the themes and formula to make it feel fresher, leaner, and meaner.

Ley Lines (1999)

Director: Takashi Miike

Notable Cast: Kazuki Kitamura, Michisuke Kashiwaya, Tomorowo Taguchi, Dan Li, Show Aikawa, Naoto Takenaka, Samuel Pop Aning, Oh Far-long

To finalize his thematically connected Black Society Trilogy, Takashi Miike goes for a combination of the first two (Shinjuku Triad Society and Rainy Dog) for the third entry Ley Lines. While this idea seems very promising at its conception, the resulting mix that arrives in Ley Lines is a tad underwhelming particularly when the expectations are so high. The film is still an ambitious and artistic venture into the world of outsiders and their connection to organized crime and certainly deserves a lot of praise thrown its way, but it’s not nearly as entertaining in its grit nor is it as stylized in its characterizations as the previous entries. On its own, it’s still an accomplished work showing Miike’s directorial pizzazz at being able to weave exploitative elements with dramatic heft and thoughtful exploration of its themes, but at the same time the film tends to fall off balance with a few sequences that undercut the whole.

Mr. Six (2015)

Director: Guan Hu

Notable Cast: Feng Xiaogang, Kris Wu, Hanyu Zhang, Li Yi Feng, Xu Qing, Liu Hua

I typically don't go into a film expecting anything, but when a film is advertised heavily as an action / gangster film, I sort of believe I know what I am at least sitting down to watch and getting myself into. No. Not her... not with Mr. Six. Instead of a gangster flick or even action, what we get is the build up to said type of genre and then it is pulled from us to reveal a melodrama, and a pretty solid one at that.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017)

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Notable Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Ruby Rose, Eoin Macken, William Levy, Iain Glen, Lee Joon-gi, Rola, Ever Gabo Anderson, Fraser James

For the record, I have never been a huge Resident Evil fan. The video games, yes, but the movie franchise has always left me feeling a bit perplexed and often underwhelmed (to put it mildly.) By the time that the fourth and fifth entries had rolled around, I was feeling almost irritated by Paul W.S. Anderson’s nonsensical writing and overzealous Matrix inspired bullshit action set pieces. Needless to say, going into Resident Evil: The Final Chapter I was feeling a bit down on the whole thing.

Perhaps this why I didn’t think it was all that terrible.

Don’t mistake this surprise enjoyment of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter as a statement that this film is good. It’s not. It’s just better than the last few entries into this series. It fixes some of the issues I had with the series previously, but it also adds some new problems into the mix that cannot be overlooked. However, in the end, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is at least a fun and energetic action film ride that’s worth the watch for fans…even if it’s still kind of an overarching mess.

Re:Action - Top 5 Liu Chia-Liang Films for the Shaw Brothers

Picture courtesy of Celestial Pictures social media.

Each year around the time of the Lunar New Year, I try to come up with a new Shaw Brothers list for readers and fans. Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s easy. It depends on the topic. Last year I covered the ten Shaw Brothers box sets I would like to see get a physical release for collectors, but this year I wanted to cover a topic that I see asked about (and have been asked about) a million times or more, “what are the best Liu Chia-Liang [aka Lau Kar Leung] films?” As a Shaw Brothers director, he didn’t fully direct as many films as some of his peers like Chang Cheh or Chor Yuen did and yet his work with the studio can be felt in films today that have nothing to do with martial arts or even Hong Kong cinema. The way that he was able to balance heart, complex choreography, drama, entertainment, humor, and thematic threads is something that makes his films stand out even in the robust Shaw Brothers catalog and it has been a significant influence on all of action cinema. His cinematic material is, quite simply, that good.

Destruction Babies (2016)

Director: Tetsuya Mariko
Notable Cast: Yuya Yagira, Masaki Suda, Nana Komatsu, Nijiro Murakami, Denden

Destruction (Distraction) Babies is officially one of the most nihilistic pieces of work I've ever witnessed! Taira (Yuya Yagira) is a young man on a swift path of desctruction. The opening features him beating and being beaten to a pulp. He gets up, brushes off, and goes at it again. Rinse and repeat over the next 108 minutes and you have this film done. I could essentially say nothing further, and just recommend the film, but that defeats the purpose of a review.

Taira has a brother named Shota (Nijiro Murikami) who spends the movie in search of his violent brother after he leaves their small hometown, to set the world ablaze. The movie never really develops a plot, nor are there any likable characters, whatsoever. That is what works about this film so well. Everything is so cold, so heinous, and absolutely disgusting, that you can't help but be pulled in. It's the whole "I shouldn't have scene that", but for an entire movie. It's exhausting, and honestly a tough watch, but it is so well made, and so intense, that the movie demands your attention.

Rainy Dog (1997)

Director: Takashi Miike

Notable Cast: Show Aikawa, Tomorowo Taguchi, Gao Mingjun, Chen Xianmei, He Jianxian, Li Lijun, Zhang Shi, Billy Ching Sau-yat, Doze Niu, Vicky Wei, Blackie Ko Shouliang, Zhang Liwei

Takashi Miike is a diverse director. His iconic style might include outsider characters defined by unique traits or his use of very intense violence, but that doesn’t stop him from journeying into a slew of different styles and genres. This even goes back as far as his early career. Shinjuku Triad Society, the first of three films included in this Black Society Trilogy set from Arrow Video, displayed his ability to inject his own style into a Kinji Fukasaku style yakuza. The second film in this set, Rainy Dog, takes the yakuza genre into a different direction though. It's one that uses many of the same themes and focuses, but strips them down to the essentials. It delivers a film that still pushes its audience into some uncomfortable areas, but uses its suffocating atmosphere, disconnect, and ultra-vague character and world building to accomplish it. If Shinjuku Triad Society was Miike taking his V-cinema ideas to the next level, Rainy Dog is taking that level and spinning it into a much more artistic and wholly different tone…to some very impressive results.

9 Souls (2003)

Director: Toshiaki Toyoda

Notable Cast: Ryuhei Matsuda, Koji Chihara, Yoshio Harada, Asami Imajuku, Jun Inoue, Itsuji Itao, Misaki Ito, Jun Kunimura, Kotomi Kyono, Akaji Maro, Onimaru

I admit, until Third Window Films had announced their Toshiaki Toyoda boxset, I knew nothing of the man except that he had directed the very low-budget, ultra-violent Pornostar, which apparently had nothing to do with porn. I wasn't sure what to expect or if I would even like his works, but film by film, I think he gets stronger and more confident in his craft.

9 Souls initially was off-putting and I didn't care for it, so much so that I actually didn't get through it all on my first watch. A couple of weeks passed and I returned to this depressing yet goofy world and, I must say, this time around I was completely won over. The plot is fairly thin, but sets up a most interesting road movie. A young man is sent to prison, accompanied by nine other cellmates. One cell mate is offed after speaking nonsense about 'holes'. Quickly the nine remaining inmates find this hole, and breakout of their prison.

Violent Cop (1989)

Director: Takeshi Kitano

Notable Cast: Takeshi Kitano, Maiko Kawakami, Makoto Ashikawa, Shiro Sano, Sei Hiraizumi

Kitano's debut comes out of the gate swinging with this fast-paced bloodbath of a gangster film. It doesn't really focus on the aspect of gang members, like his latter works, but he (Kitano) as the cop, is just as, if not more crazy than any gangster in the entire story. Mixing this violence with Kitano's trademark dark humor, you easily get one of Kitano's very best works to date.

Initially I thought the film was sort of lacking, despite the strong opening, as the scenes that unfold are pretty mundane and repetitive, but quickly realized we were just on the beat with Kitano's character, no pun intended. It's designed to show that even in the most simple situations, his handling of crime doers is far above and beyond the law, making his extremes later on very believable. How he hadn't been fired before is beyond me, but I just went with it.

xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017)

Director: DJ Caruso

Notable Cast: Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone, Kris Wu, Ruby Rose, Tony Jaa, Nina Dobrev, Toni Collette, Samuel L Jackson, Nicky Jam, Rory McCann, Michael Bisping, Ariadna Gutierrez, Hermione Corfield, Tony Gonzalez, Neymar Jr.

Fifteen years is a long time. In the grand spectrum of things it’s not a super long time, but for a franchise like xXx, it’s long enough to create a James Bond meets X-games knock off, lose your key star who refuses to return, try and replace him in an inferior sequel, die, become a footnote in the history of the action films, allow said original star to revitalize two of his other franchises, and then recruit a series of new talent and the original star back for a surprise third entry. A third entry that, in all seriousness, is easily the best of the franchise. “How can this be,” you ask. “How can xXx: Return of Xander Cage exist?” Considering that Vin Diesel has elevated two of his other franchises (The Fast and the Furious and Riddick) from the bowels of hell, is it that odd? What does make it odd is that Return of Xander Cage is so much fun. While the first two entries have their merits as B-movie entertainment, they leave a lot to be desired, but Vin Diesel has learned a lot from the re-emergence of his other two franchises and takes those lessons to heart for this third entry. It’s not as good as either of those series, just in principal it lacks a sense of grounded seriousness, but Return of Xander Cage is outrageously entertaining. What can I say except that, despite some very distinct eye rolling at the first third of the film, I had a blast.

Shinjuku Triad Society (1995)

Director: Takashi Miike

Notable Cast: Kippei Shiina, Tomorowo Taguchi, Takeshi Caesar, Ren Osugi, Yukie Itou, Kyosuke Izutsu, Kazuhiro Mashiko, Airi Yanagi

While it’s not expressly said here on the site, Takashi Miike is easily one of the favorite directors by the writing staff here. For me, he’s one of my top five favorites and it was always unfortunate that a lot of his stuff has recently gone out of print or never actually makes it over to the US for a release at all (in reference to his entire robust career). Fortunately, Arrow Video must have seen this void recently as they announced a slew of Miike films will be getting the Blu Ray treatment. First up this year is the Black Society Trilogy. It’s a thematically connected set of films about crime that kicked off Miike’s career as film maker rising from the bowels of V-cinema. First up in this set (and the focus for this review) is Shinjuku Triad Society that sets the stage for the themes and style of the next two films – and perhaps lays a lot of ground work for the rest of Miike’s continuing career. It’s a film that’s gritty, often abrasive in moments of oddity, and completely effective at telling its story. It’s not perfect, occasionally showing its rough roots in smaller things like editing, but it’s still a fantastic modern spin on the yakuza films from decades prior in Japan.

Supreme Swordsman, The (1984)

Director: Keith Li

Notable Cast: Derek Yee, Jason Pai Piao, Ku Feng, Yuen Wah, Wong Yung, Margaret Lee, Lee Hoi-Sang, Ling Yun, Kwan Fung, Jamie Luk Kim-Ming, Austin Wai Tin-Chi, Huang Pei-Chih, Lung Tien-Hsiang, Cheng Miu, Wong Lik, Eva Lai Yin-Shan, Shum Lo, Wong Chi-Ming, Kong Chuen, Yuen Bun

I’m always down for some Shaw Brothers wuxia films. Even as the 80s rolled on and their wuxia films became crazier and stranger, most of them retained entertainment value with their fantasy aspects and polarizing tonal shifts. With the Derek Yee starring flick The Supreme Swordsman though, there is both classic wuxia set ups and the crazy off kilter wuxia that the studio became increasingly infatuated with as the years rolled on. While the film tends to receive a decent amount of praise from fans, it’s ultimately a mixed effort that sets up and ends on some phenomenal ideas and characters, but uses some questionable tactics to get there.

Outrage (2010) and Beyond Outrage (2012)

OUTRAGE (2010)

Director: Takeshi Kitano

Notable Cast: Takeshi Kitano, Kippei Shiina, Ryo Kase, Tomokazu Miura, Jun Kunimura, Tetta Sugimoto, Takashi Tsukamoto, Nideo Nakano, Renji Ishibashi, Fumiyo Kohinata, Soichiro Kiamura

Upon my second viewing of Outrage, I still feel a bit conflicted about the film. On one hand, Takeshi Kitano handles his "comeback" to the yakuza film with a very intense and precise touch. The film is very vague in its build, rarely giving exposition outside of assumed connections from the audience, and it bops around a variety of characters as it pieces together its plot about the rising internal strife of a larger yakuza family. To its benefit, Outrage is brimming with fantastic performances and the tone is suffocating in how it presents itself with surgical precision. Kitano might have branched out from yakuza films in recent years, but really this is the kind of comeback to the form and style that it was made out to be and in that kind of execution it’s right in line with expectations.

Iron Angels 2 (1988)

Director: Teresa Woo

Notable Cast: Alex Fong, Moon Lee, Elaine Lui, Chan Ting-Wai, Hsiao Yu Lung, Kharina Sa, Tak Yuen

AKA: Angel II, Angels 2, Fighting Madam 2

While many Hong Kong and Chinese films remain stuck in a purgatorial state to find a decent release in the US, there are many films that deserve a bit of attention that don’t properly receive it. The film Iron Angels (you can read my review HERE) and its sequels are a franchise that should be loved and yet remains strangely off grid. For the first sequel, Iron Angels 2 or many of the various alternate titles it was released under, I was able to watch the film via Amazon Prime in one of the more exciting finds I’ve had while digging through the underbelly of the streaming service. If you’re a Hong Kong action fan, then I highly suggest, if you have it, to go watch Iron Angels 2 immediately. It’s one of those films that doesn’t necessarily rise above being an entertaining action flick, but it doesn’t have to because it’s just so ridiculously entertaining. Win, lose, or draw, Iron Angels 2 is a blast to watch and it damn near matches the original in that category.

One Armed Boxer, The (1971)

Director: Jimmy Wang Yu

Notable Cast: Jimmy Wang Yu, Yu Tien Lung, Yeh Tien, Hsin Tang, Hsiao Yu, Fei Lung

“Hell sent me back. It was too early.”

Recently, I have found myself looking back much more thoroughly at Jimmy Wang Yu’s career and revisiting a lot of the classics I initially threw to the side. It has been quite refreshing. However, there are still a handful of his films that don’t necessarily hit the mark with me like they do for so many other people. One of those films is his iconic classic The One Armed Boxer. Made for Golden Harvest in the early 70s when Wang Yu was really make waves in the industry as a star, writer, and director, The One Armed Boxer is something of a unique blend of styles – at times feeling a bit more like Shaw Brothers production, yet obviously pushing the boundaries like Golden Harvest liked to do at the time. I respect the film and find many set pieces and moments enjoyable. The film as a whole though, it falls a bit flat. It’s entertaining sure, but really The One Armed Boxer is just a mash up for two far superior films he was in previously – The One-Armed Swordsman and The Chinese Boxer – and the resulting mash up isn’t nearly as cohesive or effective as either of those.  It’s good, but hardly as great as its cult status as made it become for fans.

Blair Witch (2016)

Director: Adam Wingard

Notable Cast: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Brandon Scott, Corbin Reid, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry

When the trailer for The Woods first showed up online, I had a friend of mine bring it up in one of our movie discussions. “It looks like a Blair Witch movie,” he said. “Nah. Adam Wingard wouldn’t touch that franchise and why would they bring it back now? The second one killed any kind of hopes for a series,” I replied. Turns out I was wrong. Dead wrong. Never underestimated Hollywood’s new need to capitalize on nostalgia, I guess. The Woods was then revealed a short time later to be a secret Blair Witch sequel, cleverly titled Blair Witch, and was meant to reboot the franchise and bring back ‘one of horror’s scariest movies’ just a few years short of 20 years from when the original Blair Witch Project capsized the box office. Still, the first two films don’t necessarily hook my attention and even the addition of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett didn’t perk my interest enough. Now that Blair Witch hit home video, the franchise whore in my just had to finish off my collection. Oddly enough, Blair Witch just might be my favorite one. It’s a bit tedious in the first half in its replication of the style and set up of the original, but when it finally picks up momentum it hits some of the potential this franchise has been missing. Who knew?

Top 30 Horror Films of 2016

It’s fascinating how cinema goes through cycles. In recent years, the cycles seem to be getting shorter as a particular style, look, or genre becomes popular and quickly dies out to be replaced with the next trend. In the realm of 2015 horror, it was the horror comedy that finally took a hold and delivered some knock out films that blended the humor and the horror in some fun ways. For 2016, however, it was the atmospheric horror film. Granted, if you look back at the various lists I’ve crafted for respective years you may already know that I have a soft spot for atmospheric horror. That means that this year was one that delivered a lot of films that hit the sweet spot for me as a horror fanatic. The style is not for everyone, but this year there was more than likely one for each kind of horror fan that could fall under the umbrella of being an atmospheric horror film. It was just that kind of year. There is other kinds of films that made the list, but if you’re a fan of this kind of horror it was definitely your year too.

Underworld: Blood Wars (2017)

Director: Anna Foerster

Notable Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Theo James, Tobias Menzies, Lara Pulver, James Faulkner, Charles Dance, Bradley James, Clementine Nicholson, Peter Andersson, Daisy Head

There were a lot of problems with Underworld: Awakening, the fourth film in a series that has seemingly found a cult audience that continually shows up to make sure it survives. The budget ballooned to $70 million, it lost sight of the world building aspect that made the series fun and layered, and despite some silly fun action it had little foundation for taking the series in a new direction that worked. So, for the most part, the fifth entry, Underworld: Blood Wars, attempts to fix all the things it fucked up. It’s an admirable approach. They cut the budget in half and refocused the storytelling to try and get it back to basics while using the plot and characters from the fourth one as little as possible. Blood Wars is hardly a great film (hell, not a single entry in this series is), but for what it’s worth I was thoroughly entertained by it and admired what they attempted to take the series. Flawed, yes, but it’s a step up over the fourth entry and gets the Underworld franchise back on track. I call it a success.

Devil Lives Here, The (2016)

Directors: Rodrigo Gasparini, Dante Vescio

Notable Cast: Pedro Carvalho, Diego Goullart, Mariana Cortines, Clara Verdier, Pedro Caetano, Felipe Frazão, Ivo Müller, Sidney Santiago

I can honestly say I’ve only seen a handful of Brazilian movies and none of them were horror. Then again, that’s the benefit of a company like Artsploitation who digs through so many foreign horror films to release them in the US. Some of their titles can be hit or miss, but I’m bound to be entertained by what they have found recently. This includes seeing my first Brazilian horror flick, The Devil Lives Here. With no expectations going into the film, to be perfectly honest I had never heard of it until Artsploitation announced its release, The Devil Lives Here is a fantastic little low budget horror flick that blends cult horror with haunted house, slasher, and possession pieces. Running at a brisk 76 minutes, it never over stays its welcome, it builds a solid mythology, and keeps things moving. I’m not sure what else one could ask for from a film like The Devil Lives Here.

Top 30 Action Films of 2016

If you go back through my “Best Action Films of the Year” lists for the last few years, you will see that I do have a slight bias towards Asian cinema in the genre. While many people have voiced their disagreements with me on including too many films from those countries, I truly believe that their industry has a better understanding of the art form of an action film. This year, however, those people that let me know I cater too much to that style are going to pissed. Simply put, the Asian countries dominated the genre this year. Europe and Hollywood most certainly dropped the ball when it comes to the better action films of the year – particularly when it comes to being the best of the best. So take that into considering when going into this list.

Outside of that note, 2016 had some great action films although none of them quite stood out against the pack like Mad Max: Fury Road or John Wick did in the last couple of years. There are plenty of mainstream goodies to be had here, but as always I love to throw in a few ‘black sheep’ entries that will surely get me some hate mail and snide comments from all over the interwebz. As that goes, here is my disclaimer that this list is purely based on my opinion of the best action films that came out this year and we are open to hear about what you guys think we missed or gave too high of a ranking for. This is 2016, I hold no delusions that the internet will voice its opinion over a list like this one. So feel free to shed some blood in the comments section, send us an email, post on our Facebook wall, or Tweet us.

Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)

Director: Toshiyuki Kuroda

Notable Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Junko Hitomi, Isao Kimura, Minoru Ohki

While the fifth entry marked the return of Kenji Misumi and an artistic quality to the Lone Wolf and Cub franchise, the sixth and final entry will see it hit the lowest point. Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell might be one of the most memorable films of the series particularly with its epic, snowy battle in the final act, but it’s also the one with the least amount of resonating effect after the film finishes. This is for a variety of reasons, including a new director in the fold and its writing, but in the end it’s a film that tries to survive purely on visuals and lacks any kind of emotional or artistic heartbeat underneath. It’s a fun movie and the visuals are strong. Yet, it just doesn’t have that knack for giving any of it depth beyond the basics leaving the final entry one that never wraps things up and never feels whole in itself.