Thai Martial Arts Movie RAGING PHOENIX Rises in US

A violent gang is abducting and killing women around Thailand. Sanim and his friends, having had loved ones abducted, have joined together to break the gang of kidnappers. In the latest kidnap attempt by the gang, Deu (Jija Yanin) is saved by Sanim's crew. Deu is inducted into Sanim's crew, and is trained their unique martial arts style, then prepares to lure the gang into an epic battle to save the women across Thailand.

Jija Yanim returns from her stunning debut in CHOCOLATE for this hyper-stylized Thai martial arts movie produced by Panna Rittikrai and Prachya Pinkaew. The film is set for release on DVD in the United States this Tuesday, September 14th.

Check out the flashy trailer below, which promises "real fights", "real injuries" and for the first time ever Drunken Chinese Fist versus Drunken Muay Thai.

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THE EXPENDABLES Movie Review

THE EXPENDABLES (2010)

A team of mercenaries lead by Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) who dub themselves “expendable” and take on the jobs that no one else will touch have been offered their latest assignment – take out one General Garza who has overthrown small South American island and placed it under military dictatorship. The job seems easy enough, until Ross realizes that Garza is only a puppet for a corrupt CIA agent setting up a drug distribution empire. The team, including Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) are ready to walk away, but a revelation from Ross’ friend Tool (Mickey Rourke) open him the idea that this not just a fight, this is something worth fighting for.

Armed to the teeth and prepared to stop at nothing, The Expendables ready themselves to free the island of Vilena and for Ross to save his dying soul. But before they can put a bullet through the eyes of General Garza and James Monroe (Eric Roberts), they’ll have to get through ex-teammate Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) who has betrayed them, the silent Paine (Steve Austin) and several hundred soldiers in a suicide run to end all suicide runs!

Exploding like a movie you’d find in the “Super Action” section of your local video store circa 1988 or maybe you’d find collecting dust in your dad’s DVD collection, THE EXPENDABLES seeks to finally reignite the flame of the unstoppable musclemen action genre that has been fanned by 2008’s RAMBO and to a lesser extent 2007’s LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. Collecting an ensemble cast of that era’s biggest names and a few modern faces from both screen and fighting ring, director and co-writer Sylvester Stallone delivers exactly what the trailers and promotions have promised to the fans: a not very good movie featuring an uneven script with little character development that delivers all the gratuitous violence and posturing your could hope for.

Outside the ensemble cast, the action sequences appear as their own character, something to root for as the carnage unleashes on the screen. THE EXPENDABLES features four key sequences that basically hit on everything an action fan could ask for. In the opening sequence, our mercenary protagonists deal with Somali pirates aboard a freighter. Next up is an extended chase sequence as Stallone and Jason Statham attempt to escape the island of Vilena. A third sequence begins with a car chase and ends with a Toho-esque monster battle as Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren go one-on-one in a fight choreographed by Hong Kong martial arts veteran Cory Yuen. The final sequence is the against-all-odds assault on Vilena which is part THE DIRTY DOZEN and part COMMANDO both in execution and explosive flair.

While the explosions are grand, and the set pieces to demolish are even more so, Stallone’s directing leaves a bit to be desired in the “what just happening” and “who is fighting who” department. Once the action starts the camera violently shakes to-and-fro hardly stopping once to let the viewer get perspective on where everything is, and the editing is becomes speed metal fast. This is especially true in the final sequence, which takes place in the dark and has the entire cast on screen wearing black. There’s something to be said for quick pacing to get the blood pumping, but it wouldn’t hurt just to have a stationary camera roll for a few seconds to let the viewer know where and who all the players are.

When things aren’t exploding, we get to enjoy the ensemble cast quipping back and forth as they chew up a script that serves to move characters from one place to the next. In the protagonist’s corner, Stallone and Statham share the majority of the screen time, with Jet Li, and Mickey Rourke coming in close behind. All four find exactly what their characters need and spit it out fine fashion. In the antagonist’s corner, Eric Roberts and David Zayas (Angel Batista on “Dexter”) shine like they were born to be baddies commanding an army of cannon fodder. The plot may be a dozen times old, and the soliloquy about soldiers losing their soul when they stop fighting “for” something and just fight for fighting sake are about as subtle as a brick to the face, but be certain this is not parody of a bygone era but an honest attempt to add at least one more film to the unstoppable musclemen action genre.

Speaking of musclemen, the short scene that sets up the main plot and brings Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger on screen for the first time ever is a testosterone filled dream-come-true, despite the fact that this has shallow publicity angle written all over it and Schwarzenegger looks a little he’s seen better days.

Since first hearing about THE EXPENDABLES in late 2008, the film has been set up to bring action fans a non-stop tour de force romp of explosions, fist fights and familiar faces that is part nostalgia and part modern adrenaline. Stallone does deliver on those promises and even a bit more, presenting a thoroughly entertaining 100 minutes that should quickly be added to anyone’s top list of go-to flicks for unadulterated and unapologetic violence. That is until the sequel arrives, and yes, a sequel is already being talked about.

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SHOGUN ASSASSIN Movie Review

SHOGUN ASSASSIN (1980)

When the shogun's head assassin Ogami defies an order to commit seppuku, and then kills the shogun's son in a duel, both he and his son are marked for death. Ogami and his young son Daigoro wander the countryside, hiring themselves out as hired killers and always, always on the lookout for ninjas. They could be anywhere or anyone. For the pair's latest hiring, they have been asked to murder the shogun's brother. Ogami accepts, but before he can kill his target, he must first face off against the three Masters Of Death!

It is impossible to keep a body count and impossible not to enjoy this purely guilty pleasure that has been keeping samurai fans squealing with delight for decades. SHOGUN ASSASSIN is a strange hybrid unlike anything else in cinema. "Director" and writer Robert Houston took footage from the first two LONE WOLF AND CUB films from the early seventies, which were film adaptations of an extremely popular manga, and spliced them into one film. Next, he wrote the English dialogue that would be dubbed by American actors. Finally, through musician W. Michael Lewis, he added in a completely new score that thumps and bumps with lo-fi electronica and jazzy grooves, leaving just a bit of the original score.

While the original six-part Japanese films series was filled to the brim with a historically accurate account of the Japanese Edo period, it is now remembered much more so for the relentless bloodbath action sequences that came with Toho's attempt to give Japanese audiences a reason to go to the cinema, and give them thrills and excitement that couldn't be found on television. Today, these movies still championed for their almost-comical decapitations and dismembering of limbs, and the geysers of blood to follow. These are the parts that Houston knew his audience would want, and in the creation of SHOGUN ASSASSIN has stripped out most of the political and slower portions of the film to get to Ogami's masterful way with a sword and dispatching ninja after ninja.

And boy does Ogami know how to dispatch ninjas! Ogami is not just content with using his sword to slice and dice with more precision than a ginzu knife, but also uses a staff with blades on both ends to remove his enemy of their heads! Even little Daigoro gets involved, with his baby cart filled with hidden weapons. With just the simplest hit of secret panels, blades pop out of the wheels, spears fly through the air, and knives pop out of the handles. However, the lone wolf and his cub are not the only ones who know how to take a life. Among those who would attempt to stop Ogami are a band of female ninjas that work like a school of piranha removing bits and pieces of their target until there is nothing left but the stump of a torso, and the three Masters Of Death. This trio, who wear oversized straw hats, are each trained in one specific weapon - nail covered gloves, a deadly studded club, and a giant metal claw! Their accuracy with these weapons is matched only by their cruelty when they use them.

Although I will be the first to denounce the unnecessary dubbing of any foreign film, for SHOGUN ASSASSIN I will not only accept the dub (there, in fact, is no Japanese version of this movie) but applaud Houston for his approach to the dub. The actors approach the material with a serious yet soft tone, almost completely opposite of what you would think of for most kung fu dubs, and are able to act with their voices. Sure, there is the standard over enunciation and maniacal laughter, but it is relegated to the scenes where it works. Of standout here is Gibran Evans, in his only credited performance, who dubs Daigoro and tells most of the movie's story via the character's voice over. His voice is sweet and innocent, with just a hint of fear, and flows like a little brook through a bloody battlefield.

SHOGUN ASSASSIN has had its share of infamy and praise over the years. In the early eighties, it was marked as one of the "video nasties" in the UK when the Video Recordings Act of 1984 was passed. It has since been passed by the BFCC and for a long time was the only place to get an official release of the movie. The soundtrack was sampled for GZA's 1995 hip-hop album "Liquid Swords". The movie surged back into pop culture earlier this decade when Quentin Tarantino mimicked the insane bloodletting during the House Of Blue Leaves sequence in KILL BILL Vol. 1 and named dropped it at the end of KILL BILL Vol. 2.

For years and years in the US, this film was only available on murky multi-generation VHS and poorly-transferred DVD bootlegs. US company AnimEigo has since released a restored and reconstructed version of the movie, using the remastered prints from the LONE WOLF AND CUB series. The film has never looked better!

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HUMAN LANTERNS Movie and DVD Review

HUMAN LANTERNS (1982)

Rivals Lung and Tan have been at each other for years, trying to best the other in everything from martial arts skills to festival competitions. When Tan invites Lung to his home, only to show off what will be his entry in this year’s lantern competition, Lung is jealous and humbled. But when Tan brings out a local prostitute in front of Lung and his wife, who Lung has been secretly seeing, Lung is humiliated. Vowing revenge, Lung turns to a master lantern craftsman (Shaw Brothers legend Lo Lieh) to construct a lantern guaranteed to win the competition.

Meanwhile, a psychotic madman with a mastery over monkey-style kung fu has vowed to take away everything that is precious to Tan and Lung. Dressed in black and donning a skull mask, the madman begins to kidnap women including Tan’s sister and Lung’s wife. Tan and Lung at once begin to suspect each other, and bring in the local police to place blame on one another. The police begin to search for clues, hoping to find the women still alive, unaware the kidnapped victims have already been skinned alive to be used as material for the madman’s dazzling lanterns.

Mixing the expected incredible martial arts choreography that the Shaw Brothers are known for with the rising desire for macabre subject matter of the early eighties, director Sun Chung (THE SEXY KILLER, THE AVENGING EAGLE) along with co-writer Ni Kuang, who has written pretty much every worthwhile Shaw Brothers title since the mid 1960s, created what would become one of the studio’s most sought after cult films.

Starting with the shocking and seductive title, which also goes by the slight more descriptive Human Skin Lanterns, the film proceeds to deliver the goods with several jaw-dropping sequences in which the still living women are turned into raw material for lanterns while strung up in a fog-drenched torture chamber and workshop. Using clever camera angles, along with latex, flesh-toned fabrics and copious amounts of bright red food coloring, these sequences may even bring a grimace to those with a penchant for gore and horror. While the grotesque skinning is shown as much as it can, just enough is left not seen in order for a vivid imagination to fill in the blanks.

But for its alluring title and gory sequences, the film is much more in line with putting another notch in the Shaw Brothers’ martial arts belt than experimenting and expanding into horror. Lung and Tan, played by Liu Yung and Chen Kuan-Tai respectively, provide several fun one-on-one martial arts duels using classic Shaw Brothers choreography techniques. But it is the fight sequences that focus on the mystery madman that are surely the highlight of the film. His style, which emulates the movements of a wild monkey, is made all the more unreal by altering the film speed of the camera. By either slowing down or speeding up the movements, his attacks seem impossible to overcome, and merely toys with his kidnap victims and opponents until he is through having his fun.

Individually, the macabre horror and martial arts scenes are well done and left on their own provide great entertainment. But this is clearly a case where the parts are greater than their sum. Sun Chung often has difficulty switching between the vastly different styles, and the jarring editing at times feel like two entirely different films were used to create one. That being said, it is certainly nowhere close to ruining the picture, but perhaps a more thought out singular feel would have made the editing flow better and given fans and even greater movie.

Helping to give HUMAN LANTERNS its rise in cult status and infamy is due to the unavailability of an uncut print on any commercial format. Originally released in its entirety for its 1982 theatrical run in Hong Kong, subsequent VHS releases had much of the gore and nudity cut out. Even for its remastered release on DVD in 2003 by Celestial Pictures in Hong Kong, some of the most noticeable cuts remained and left fans more than a bit disappointed. But now, with the help of Image Entertainment through their Eastern Masters banner, the hunt is a thing of the past. Sporting extended footage of the these infamous scenes, this release is exactly what the fans have been waiting for.

Using Celestial Pictures remastered print, Image provides an anamorphic widescreen transfer with the original Mandarin soundtrack along with English and Spanish subtitles. The DVD features an interview with actress Shaw Yin-Yin, who recalls her days at Shaw Brothers and her time on the set of HUMAN LANTERNS. Also included is one of the skin peeling scenes with alternate footage cut in, as well as a selection of production stills. Finishing out the disc are a large assortment of classic martial arts and action movie trailers from Hong Kong.

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Selection of Still Shots from THE EXPENDABLES

Check out this fantastic selection of photos from the upcoming film THE EXPENDABLES, which promises a last stand of unapologetic violence and a love letter (in the most hetero way possible of course) to the bygone era of blow-everything-up 80's action.

SYNOPSIS: Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) is a man with nothing to lose. He is a true cynic who describes what he does as "removing those hard to get at stains". The team behind him is made up of Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), former SAS and a savant with anything that has a blade; Yin Yang (Jet Li), a master at close-quarter combat; Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), who has known Barney for ten years and is a long-barrel weapons specialist; Toll Road (Randy Couture), a skilled demolitions expert and considered the intellect of the group; and Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), a combat veteran and an expert in precision sniping who struggles with his own demons.

This group of mercenaries have been hired to infiltrate a South American country and overthrow its ruthless dictator. Once the mission begins, the men realize things aren't quite as they appear, finding themselves caught in a dangerous web of deceit and betrayal. With their mission thwarted and an innocent life in danger the men struggle with an even tougher challenge, one that threatens to destroy this band of brothers.















THE EXPENDABLES opens in US theaters August 13th 2010.

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MACHETE No Longer Faux; Here's The Official Trailer

Once upon a time in a grindhouse not so far away, MACHETE was just a fun faux movie trailer sandwiched between PLANET TERROR and DEATH PROOF. But then something wonderful happened... Robert Rodriguez decided to make it a really real movie, and on September 3rd, that movie becomes reality!

In the official trailer above, you'll see that the fake film scratches, jumps cuts and audio glitches seen in the original trailer have been removed in favor of a little gloss. But all the style, mayhem, grin-inducing dialogue and 100% ass-kicking still remain.

MACHETE stars Danny Trejo as a double-crossed, left for dead, and now very, very pissed off Mexican looking to even the score. The cast is rounded out by a nigh-jaw dropping list including Steven Seagal, Cheech Marin, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Jeff Fahey, Don Johnson and Robert DeNiro and is co-written/directed by Robert Rodriguez.

The MACHETE trailer should be seen this weekend on the big screen in front of PREDATORS.

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Red Band Trailer for Neil Marshall's CENTURION

Writer/Director Neil Marshall, responsible for modern day favorites DOG SOLDIERS, THE DESCENT and DOOMSDAY returns with CENTURION, a gripping survival thriller set against a background of conquest and invasion.

AD 117. The Roman Empire stretches from Egypt to Spain, and East as far as the Black Sea. But in northern Britain, the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy: the savage and terrifying tribes known as the Picts.

Quintus, sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus’ legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the earth and destroy their leader Gorlacon.

But when the legion is ambushed on unfamiliar ground, and Virilus taken captive, Quintus faces a desperate struggle to keep his small platoon alive behind enemy lines, evading remorseless Pict pursuers over harsh terrain, as the band of soldiers race to rescue their General, and to reach the safety of the Roman frontier.

CENTURION opens in theaters August 27, 2010.

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City Of Violence Review

CITY OF VIOLENCE (2007)

When retired gang leader Wang-Jae is murdered, detective Tae-Soo returns to his hometown for the first time in ten years after leaving to become a detective in Seoul. Tae-Soo reunites with his old high school friends to say farewell to Wang-Jae, but feels that something is not right about his death. With his fists and temper at his side, Tae-Soo uses the power of the law to stir up a few hornet nests trying to figure out just what happened. For his troubles, Tae-Soo is beset by multiple gangs, all trying to keep Tae-Soo from finding out too much. But with his friend Seok-Hwan at his side, whose fists are just as merciless, Tae-Soo starts tearing through the lies, deceptions, and criminal activity setting up shop in the tourist district. And when he finally gets someone to talk, he learns that it may just be their mutual friend Pil-Ho behind the murder.

Ryoo Seung-Wan, who both directs and stars as Seok-Hwan, may not be pushing any boundaries with this 2006 action-drama from South Korea, but his style and enthusiasm more than make up for treading in safe waters. Ryoo, who has previously brought fan favorites NO BLOOD NO TEARS, ARAHAN and CRYING FIST to the screen, once again dives head first into a world of brotherhood, betrayal, and sacrifice, which are themes that should be more than familiar to those who have swam in the waters of South East Asian cinema. Using a series of flashbacks and storytelling, Ryoo gets all of the characters and their relationships set up quite quickly, but by no means skimps on their depth. Even given the film’s short time devoted to the character build-up, Ryoo shows his strength at giving the audience all the information they need to understand what is going on.

Beyond the characters, Ryoo shows once again his talent at bringing brutal street fighting to the screen with finesse and style. Though Ryoo and Jung Doo-Hong, who stars as Tae-Soo, are able to show off their tae kwon-do training, a majority of the fights are pure and simple brawls, with just enough choreography so the stunt team doesn’t kill each other. Ryoo explains in the audio commentary that they would just set up multiple cameras, have everyone fight in one huge take, and then edit the sequence later. This style allows for Ryoo’s nigh-trademark film speed adjustments and quick editing, while keeping all the characters and their actions easy to follow, and the tone of the fight consistent.

The two major fight sequences are simply jaw-dropping, and even if you may be slightly turned off by melodramatic friendships and betrayal, they are worth a rental at the very least to see. The first features Tae-Soo, in a possible homage to THE WARRIORS, as he fights solo against five gangs — including a breakdancing gang, a BMX gang, a gang of schoolgirls, a gang of schoolboys, and a baseball team with face paint — that each have their own unique uniform and fight style. The second sequence takes up the final twenty minutes of the ninety minute running time, which features Tae-Soo and Seok-Hwan fighting their way through stage after stage of fighters a la GAME OF DEAT or a martial arts video game in order to get to the “final boss.” Each stage features different fighting styles, different weapons and different enemies, with Ryoo changing up the accompanying music and camera work to keep your interest for every minute!

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