While it’s no Arnold in Commando, MJW holds his own in this action ripper also starring Mickey Rourke.
It goes without saying that as an action fan, I am a huge fan of Michael Jai White. That being said, when I heard he was starring in a new action vehicle, I got excited. The Commando adequately shows White’s skills, although it does leave one craving a bit more.
Synopsis: A DEA agent with PTSD returns home after a botched mission and must now protect his family from a home invasion after a recently freed convict and his henchmen come after their stash of millions inside of the agent’s home.
White stars as James Baker, a DEA agent who suffers from PTSD after a mission he was on goes awry and he attempts to save his family life. Also starring in the film is Mickey Rourke who stars as Johnny, a former military man recently released from prison and finds Baker living in his old home.
The conflict comes in the form of Bakers daughters finding money hidden throughout the house by Johnny before his imprisonment. Johnny invades the home to try and recover it, taking Bakers daughters and their friends hostage.
In terms of the action, the beginning and the end are the highlights. To begin the film, we have Michael as Mr. Baker leading a team of DEA agents on a raid where we see loads of bullets fly and even a few punches and kicks. The finale shows Baker going John Wick on the intruders to rescue his daughters. He even has a small scuffle with Mickey Rourke’s Johnny, which leaves more to be desired.
All in all, The Commando is a solid effort if you remember that it was shot in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Minimal locations and a simple story help center the focus of the film but hurt the action pieces. If you’re a fan of Michael Jai White, I would add I to your watch list.
I’d personally give it a 3 out of 5 stars. The story and acting performances are solid, but the action suffers a tad. For die hard fans, I’d give it a watch, otherwise you wouldn’t be missing anything. Keep it loaded right here on UAMC for all things action and martial arts film related!!!
A look back at one of the wildest action bangers from B-movie master Albert Pyun.
In the realm of low-budget genre films, director Albert Pyun stands out. No matter what you think of his work, he always brought something fresh to each movie he made in the 1980s and 1990s. Pyun became the uncrowned king of cyborg B-actioners with his classics Cyborg and Nemesis.
But there is another cyborg-themed film in his oeuvre that is absolutely on par with those two, and it’s Knights. After he dumped his crew and himself in the desert of Utah for a few weeks in 1993, they returned with a terrific action extravaganza!
Time had Long Emptied the World and in its Wake Came the Cyborgs
In a distant future, humans roam the desert in nomadic tribes. A cyborg army led by the lunatic Job is amassing power by draining people’s blood as fuel for their bodies. Nea is rescued by the rogue cyborg Gabriel during a raid on her village. He teaches her secret martial arts techniques to become the only human that can kill the a cyborg and save humanity.
Knights? No, it’s vampire cyborgs! But they also ride horses and wear medieval-style weapons and armor, so what they really are is vampire cyborg knights! Computer scientists in our world and countless movie androids (= cyborgs in Pyun terminology) since Blade Runner have been agonizing over how to create artificial consciousness. Pyun comes to the rescue and creates a metaphor that is brute and beautiful at the same time: inject yourself with human blood!
You Have Been Programmed With a Lot of Confidence Chips!
And if that premise wasn’t outlandish enough already, Pyun mixes it up with a serious Western vibe! Apart from casting Western specialist Kris Kristofferson in the role of Gabriel, and featuring a lot of close-ups shot with wide angle-lenses akin to Sergio Leone’s classic Spaghetti Westerns, the real attraction is the shooting location, the plains and mesas of Monument Valley.
Cinematographer and long-time Pyun crew member George Mooradian created spectacular takes with the characters often dwarfed against the panoramic backdrop. No matter what you are filming, everything looks awesome in this landscape. You could have someone sit at a table eating a cake, and it would look epic!
Kristofferson is rugged and charming as always, and his character Gabriel is always eager to share one-liners of deep wisdom. On the evil cyborg team, Lance Henriksen gives one of the most memorable performances of his career. His character Job impresses with an eccentric fashion sense and spacey sunglasses. He also carries a parrot with him at all times, has a giant robot arm with a claw, and starts to moan and drool uncontrolled whenever he gets irritated. Movie villain of the year 1993!
Five-times world kickboxing champion Kathy Long takes it up for the humans with her character Nea. Being trained by Gabriel to become a cyborg killer (the secret: putting stakes into their head), she hammers whole squads of cyborgs and their human minions into the ground. Even though she’s not a professional actor, she gives a spirited and charming performance. Long pulls off some awesome moves, and it would have been great to see her as action heroine in more films, but her career in the movie business never took off, unfortunately.
And her performance is just part of the awesome fights sequences orchestrated by Pyun, which, to say it right off the bat, are some of the best you’ll find in a DTV flick from the 1990s. Knights is one of the first US movies that made an effort to capture a martial arts fight as fluently as possible, as opposed to the choppy editing of the time where sometimes a single kick was butchered up into three takes. There’s even some wirework which was not done at the time anywhere else than in Hong Kong. It’s not at the same level at the Wuxia classics, but it all looks pretty neat, and Pyun’s effort to pioneer it in the US absolutely needs to be applauded.
The films also pokes fun at the sometimes funky naming of Wuxia attack patterns, when Gabriel and another cyborg discuss their fighting styles while battling to the death (”Your Mont Blanc offense is exquisite, but my Valhalla attack is quite dazzling!”). And all the superhuman jumping and flipping actually makes sense here, because they’re cyborgs! It’s all exciting stuff, and the action keeps coming almost non-stop, every five minutes someone is getting thrashed. Gary Daniels is part of the cast as master henchman to Job, and gets to do a couple of nice fights. And the great Chad Stahelski started his career as a stuntman with Knights!
The action, quirky visuals and splendid atmosphere are the film’s biggest assets, and that is more than enough to forgive the flaws in other departments. The low budget is clearly an issue, maybe the producers realized they had nothing left to shoot the film with after the paychecks for Kristofferson and Henriksen went out. There are almost no props, all sets are either just in the middle of nature, or feature a couple of tents at the most. That severely limits the world-building, which is done only through dialogues hinting at a fascinating world we can only imagine. As for acting and dialogues, you may find them (choose one): A: trashy, B: hammy, or C: it’s alright, they are cyborgs.
As so often, Pyun created an eccentric and beautifully filmed action flick out of almost nothing, The ending of Knights opened the door for a follow-up film that never happened, but his sequel to Nemesis two years later at least had a very similar vibe and setting. In order to be able to fully enjoy Knights, you need to take a bit of a benevolent stance towards its obvious flaws. But if you can open yourself up for it, it will bring out your inner child, and I’ll always be grateful to Albert Pyun for being able to do that.
Lessons in action filmmaking from the ultimate master: Michael Mann.
Michael Mann has left an undeniable mark on the crime and action genres. From producing and writing hit TV crime shows like Starsky and Hutch, Crime Story, and Miami Vice to directing the Miami Vice movie along with unforgettably pulse-pounding films like Heat and Collateral, Mann’s contributions to screens both big and small span four decades. His first feature film, Thief (1981), expertly blends gritty character-driven drama, a healthy amount of street lights reflecting off of wet streets, and jaw-dropping action sequences. As action fans, we can’t get enough of that machine-gun shootout in Heat but many of the same fans may not be aware of Thief’s equally bombastic final act.
Before I break down Thief’s exemplary action, you need a quick background on the plot. The action hits harder when you have a solid narrative behind it. The legendary badass, James Caan, plays Frank, a career safecracker who spent half of his life in and out of jail. He’s a hardened survivor but he has a profound desire to have a normal life and make up for lost time. He wants to save up enough money from a few scores to settle down with a great woman, maybe have a kid or two. He’s well on his way with a new wife and an adopted kid until his new mob boss employer, who’s given him everything, threatens to take it all away unless he keeps doing jobs.
Keep busting or bust free? It doesn’t take Frank too long to decide what needs to be done, even if it means destroying everything he’s built: a career, businesses, a new family, and his very humanity. He’s pushed into a corner and Frank’s vengeful wrath is the only way out.
What comes next is the ultimate “fuck you, I’m out” ever put to film. He sends his wife and child away with as much money as he can scrounge up then he goes to work. Frank is going out of business and everything must go.
First, he blows up his house. There’s no peeling apart the layers of an onion here, he strikes right at the core of his being. Destroying everything that he cared about with high explosive incendiary devices. Next he goes for his businesses. The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge gets blown to kingdom come in a blaze of neon fury. Next, his car dealership gets torched, car by car, with several canisters of gasoline. The night sky is set ablaze in a fiery glow of exploding cars and greenish-blue street lights.
Now, it’s time to go after the head honcho. Frank picks the lock to the boss’s house and the hunt begins. He pistol-whips the bodyguard knocking him unconscious. It’s not long before he gets to the boss. No showdown, no exchanging of words, just a few taps that blow the guy back to a blood-splattered wall. The injured bodyguard recovers and runs out of the house with Frank coolly following to finish the job. A young Dennis Farina shotgun blasts out of the bushes but Frank gets at least one shot in him as he delivers the coup de gras to the bodyguard. Farina has enough strength to pump a few shots into Frank. Frank musters a double-tap that dispatches Farina. Frank checks his bloody vest under his shirt, he gets up, and walks down a dark street.
By the way, this sequence is accompanied by a phenomenal track that absolutely shreds through the credits. Tangerine Dream lays down the soundtrack and Craig Safan delivers the final track that features a pounding beat matched with a screaming guitar, which is in sync with the gritty 70s vibe and 80s aesthetic.
From his characters to his grimy urban set pieces, Michael Mann strives for authenticity as Thief’s third act demonstrates. Mann hired a few “retired” safecrackers and former Chicago cops as technical advisors. In fact, Dennis Farina was a Chicago police officer before he started his acting career and he was wearing both hats during production. That insight pays off when Frank breaks into the mob boss’ house where he systematically clears each room using semi-circle movements. He also uses the appropriate ready position and properly handles his weapon as he sweeps the house. When he sees his target, he puts two in the chest and one in the head.
The editing and shot composition in this sequence enhance the tension and reinforce Frank’s methodical approach to total destruction. Static wide and medium shots immerse you in the neon, rain-soaked environment. Slow pans follow Frank’s trail of firebombs and bullets, which make it all seem like he’s going out to the corner store for a pack of gum. Close-ups highlight emotional beats and the use of high frame rates relish in the flying timber and chest wounds.
The third act’s bombastic action and thrilling suspense are all in service to Frank’s hard reboot. They reflect his inner ruination as he regresses to his nihilistic origins. Emotionally and physically, everything must be cast off to protect the ones he loves and that he’ll never see again. This is what makes Thief’s ending so engrossing and Mann uses it to great effect throughout his subsequent work. The Last of the Mohicans features a similar sequence at the end where Daniel Day-Lewis and Chingachgook make a play to rescue Uncas and the Munro sisters. The intense scene seals the fate of the remaining characters in violent and emotionally draining ways.
Michael Mann movies may not feature the traditional high-octane action that we love in other 80s and 90s productions from Bruckheimer, Simpson, McTiernan, and Woo, but his use of action to tell a story commands respect. Thief and James Caan’s performance set a standard for the tragic man of action anti-hero. He does what he has to do according to his own moral code even as the forces of fatalism enclose upon him. Even battling to the bitter end requires a cool head and a plan of action. The last 20 minutes of Thief embody that fighting spirit and solidified Michael Mann’s captivating style that carries on to this day.
From The Raid to Ong-Bak, we rank the best Asian action movies of the modern era.
Many Asian countries have a long tradition for creating kick-ass action films, and have garnered worldwide recognition and a huge fan base. The Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and John Woo classics from the 20th Century can never be dethroned, but the 2000s also had their share of films worthy to be inducted into the action hall of fame.
In this article, we’ll make the attempt to list the 20 best action films to come out of Asia in the 2000s. All films on this list deliver relentless spectacle and excitement, but of course there’s a ton more awesome action films from the Asian continent. If you believe we skipped your favorite movie, let us know!
Director Adrian Teh and actor/martial artist Hairul Azreen put Malaysia on the action movie map with the follow-up to their 2018 military actioner Paskal. Ex-soldier Hassan returns to his father and sister, only to find out that they have gotten into trouble with the local mafia. He sets out to set things straight for them, and cracks a few skulls in the process. The simple story is told in atmospheric images from a rough neighborhood, and paves the way for a massive martial arts fest. Azreen and Fify Azmi form a great brother-and-sister tag team and deliver some pretty spectacular fights, that are brutal but always retain a sense of realism. And the clash between Azreen and the intimidating Yayan Ruhian is a jaw-dropping finale. Wira is a terrific genre entry, and Azreen a rising star of martial arts cinema!
Today’s recipe for a cult classic: Yakuza vs. zombies! A chase between an escaped prisoner and a Yakuza gang turns into a fight for the very existence of humanity when a portal to hell is opened and spits out an army of zombies. Versus kicked off the careers of director Ryuhei Kitamura and actor Tak Sakaguchi, and showed us their vision of a kick-ass action flick. Kitamura created an awesome blend of Slapstick splatter humor a la Dead Alive, Tarantino-esque coolness, and Matrix-inspired fashion. The shootouts and sword fights keep coming almost non-stop, and the super-low budget is almost rendered invisible due to the sheer intensity and excitement the film radiates. Versus is and will always be wild and goofy fun.
A rapidly spreading virus causes all infected to become murderous zombies. Seok-Woo is traveling with his daughter Soo-An as the catastrophe unfolds, and together with the other passengers they embark on a journey of terror. Fast and bloodthirsty zombies, a claustrophobic setting, with every station where the train stops feeling like the entrance to hell, this turbo-charged zombie flick will leave you exhausted and maybe even in tears. The film brings a strong emotional depth to the table that will make you root for the characters, and the action hits so many times harder because of this. Train to Busan has stellar production values, delivers nerve-wrecking and visceral action, it’s simply the best modern zombie film!
Battle Royale was not the first film with a Last Man Standing premise, but arguably it’s one of the most gripping. In near-future Japan, the Battle Royale event is held each year to combat the lack of youth discipline. A class is brought to a deserted island, and the students are forced to kill each other within three days. The film caused a lot of controversy when it came out, and some scenes are rather disturbing also to this day. You can read a lot into it, and it’s a clever flick on several levels, but on top of that it’s also a thrilling action film! The worst traits are brought out in teenagers at the brink of death, which results in murder lurking behind every tree, desperate fights and numerous bloody deaths. Disturbing, energetic and exciting all the at the same time, if you find A Clockwork Orange too timid, Battle Royale is your go-to film!
Takashi Miike has established himself as one of the most unique filmmakers of our times, often with a taste for the bizarre. He also knows how to create kick-ass action flicks, and Blade of the Immortal is another highlight of his long career. Manji, an immortal Samurai, takes on a mission to protect a girl and to avenge the death of her parents by a clan of assassins. So far so simple, and the film is pretty much the most violent road trip you’ll ever see. Manji is not a noble knight, but a badass samurai, slashing mercilessly through hordes of enemies. It’s a fairytale written in blood with possibly the most people killed in melee combat by a single character ever in a movie. On top of that, the film looks terrific, and the fight choreography is superb. Blade of the Immortal is a sword-fighting spectacle of the highest caliber.
Japanese exploitation flicks are an acquired taste for sure, but if you’ve built up a tolerance (or even have an affinity) for their grotesque imagery, they can be a lot of fun. A chainsaw melee fight would be a highlight in every action movie, but the opening sequence of Tokyo Gore Police is just the overture for the crusade of police officer Ruka against a genetically engineered mutant race called the Engineers. The film has a low-budget look, yet succeeds in creating a pervasive creepy atmosphere and an overkill of bizarre creature effects. The action sequences are also well done, with slick editing and countless ultra-gory killings as Ruka drives her Katana through hordes of mutant enemies and their deformed bodies. Tokyo Gore Police delivers non-stop hysteric and campy horror action with a serious disgust factor. I dare you to check it out, but you have been warned!
If you’re attempting a remake of Sergio Leone’s eternal masterpiece The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, you better make sure that you can deliver! And what director and co-writer Kim-Jee Won puts on display is a fireworks of thrills, humor and action! Just like in Leone’s classic, the hunt for a hidden treasure turns into a violent cat-and-mouse game with many double-crossings abound. The first and only Korean Spaghetti Western also features some of the best action sequences you’ll ever find a Western. Filmed masterfully, the plot moves at breakneck pace with a train heist, gun duels and a frenzied and chaotic finale that will leave you breathless. Wild and charming, The Good, the Bad, the Weird is great entertainment from the first to the last minute.
Martial Arts legend Sammo Hung and rising star Donnie Yen clashed in this awesome mix of a hard-boiled cop thriller and martial arts spectacle. Police detectives Chan and Ma are trying to bring crime boss Wong to justice. Chan, who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor, has nothing to lose and resorts to drastic measures to take down Wang. SPL: Kill Zone (aka Saat Po Long) tells an archetypal action film story about both good and bad guys with a cause. The film impresses with neo-noir aesthetics similar to the John Woo classics of 1980s and 1990s, a stylish car chase and a couple of intense shootouts. But the fights delivered by Yen and Hung push the film into ultimate awesomeness territory, with bone-shattering and masterfully choreographed hand-to-hand combat that will knock you off your seat. SPL: Kill Zone showed everyone that Hong Kong martial arts cinema is still alive and kicking in the 21st Century!
Stephen Show made his first huge mark in the action genre with this terrific action comedy about a band of former Shaolin monks who have given up the old ways, and live in poverty and misery. When a former soccer star wants to form a new team, they can put their skills to good use. With Shaolin Soccer, Chow created a truly unique branch of action cinema that evoked the spirit of past Kung fu classics, and infused it with charming slapstick humor and CGI-enhanced fighting sequences that go completely over the top. The soccer pitch transforms into a Kung Fu battlefield, and every tackle becomes a duel between martial arts masters with soccer balls becoming missiles fired at hyper-speed. Shaolin Soccer was Chow’s first masterpiece, and he was even able to trump it a few years later with Kung Fu Hustle.
Takashi Miike’s re-imagining of the classic Samurai period pieces gave us an atmospheric action spectacle with mesmerizing images. A sadistic lord and his henchmen have it coming big time, when a secret plot is devised to have him assassinated by the 13 best Samurai the country has to offer. The first half of the film sets the stage and introduces us to the political machinations and the mighty warriors chosen for what seems a hopeless endeavor. The second part is a single action set piece with ferocious skirmishes in the streets, houses and rooftops of a booby-trapped village. The sheer scale and choreography of the action sequences are unsurpassed in the Samurai movie genre, and Miike’s crowning achievement as an action director. 13 Assassins excels at combining old-school storytelling with epic sword battles, and is pretty much cinematic perfection.
Re: Born, the ultimate knife fight film! Former special ops member Toshiro is brought back from retirement when his niece is abducted by his former teammates. A traumatized main protagonist, bleak visuals and an overall fatalistic mood, Re:Born is not exactly an uplifting film. There’s all sorts of goofy secret assassin stuff happening, though, to remind us that this is not a family drama, but a weird action fairy tale. Tak Sakaguchi gives another stellar performance as brooding anti-hero, and handles his blades with an uncanny speed and precision. The first half already has a couple of nice fights, but the last 50 minutes are a single showdown with an almost trance-like mood as Toshiro slashes his way through a forest full of enemies. Re: Born is a knife-fight inferno, and an absolute highlight of Japanese martial arts cinema!
Two years before their masterpiece The Night Comes for Us, director and writer Timo Tjahjanto and Iko Uwais joined forces for their first collaboration. Headshot it is a lot more than just a warm-up, but an action classic in its own right! A man’s search for his identity after waking up in a hospital with amnesia becomes a violent crusade against a crime syndicate and its psychotic kingpin. The unlikely plot strongly benefits from its surprisingly well fleshed-out characters. Most of the time, though, it takes a backseat to ferocious action sequences with with bones breaking, blood spurting, and the fighters using everything their surroundings offer as weapons. Headshot is another testimony to Uwais’ incredible martial arts skills, and only adds to the impression that Indonesia has taken the throne from Hong Kong as the new epicenter for Asian action cinema.
Ong-Bak was the breakthrough film for Tony Jaa, and the best advertisement for the Muay Thai fighting style on celluloid ever! The story of Ting who goes to Bangkok to find the head of the Buddha statue that was stolen from his village’s temple is a simple, but efficient hook for many incredible action sequences. Jaa’s elbows and knees are almost the main protagonists of the film, shattering bones and hammering people into the ground. Jaa delivers some pretty raw fights with jumps and flips everywhere, but there’s enough physical and slapstick humor to lighten up the mood. A chase on motorized rickshaws also provides a great parody of the typical US-American car action sequences. Ong-Bak was the starting point for a wave of action classics to come out of Southeast Asia in the 2000s, and it’s still one of the best entries to the genre!
I apologize for lumping all parts of the Ip Man saga into one entry on this list, but all four of them deserve to be in our Top 20, and we need to leave some room for the other entries. I think for many people the names Donnie Yen and Ip Man have become almost synonymous with each other, so convincing and commanding is Yen’s portrayal of this legendary Chinese martial arts grandmaster. The films follow Ip Man’s life through the hardships of Japanese occupation, and to building a new life in Hong Kong, all the while living a life of honor. The films take a lot of liberties with Ip Man’s biography, but this results in an epic historical drama with plenty of breath-taking martial arts sequences thanks to Yen’s incredible physical skills. The Ip Man films demonstrate that modern martial arts cinema does not need to rely on extreme brutality to be compelling.
A sequel in name only to Donnie Yen’s classic, the second SPL packs even more of a punch than its predecessor. Instead of Yen, Tony Jaa and Jing Wu take over the fighting duties, with additional support by Hong Kong star actor Simon Yam. The fates of two Hong Kong police agents and a Thai prison warden and his daughter become violently entwined during their attempts to take down an organ-trafficking ring. We’re presented an unusually complex and compelling story for a martial arts action film with properly fleshed out characters. There’s no mercy in the action sequences though, with both Jaa and Wu delivering fights from another dimension with a manic intensity. SPL 2: A Time For Consequences is an action opera of the most epic kind, another slam dunk in the franchise that was followed up with the third (and also pretty awesome) installment Paradox.
The infernal trio of Gareth Evans, Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian reunited for the sequel to the The Raid: Redemption, and The Raid 2 is every bit as awesome as it’s predecessor! Cop Rama is back, and goes undercover to infiltrate a crime syndicate after his brother is killer by the clan boss. The film leaves the confinement of a single apartment building and takes the action outside, there’s a whole world to wreak havoc on after all! Evans packs a ton of killer action sequences into a runtime of 150 minutes with classic set pieces such as a mass prison fight, a kitchen fight, and an insane car chase, but every single of them has already become a classic. The story takes enough turns to keep things interesting, Uwais and Ruhian again are at the top of their game, and The Raid 2 became another instant action masterpiece!
If you think John Wick goes batshit crazy when his dog is killed, then you haven’t seen what Kham (Tony Jaa) is willing to do in The Protector (aka Tom-Yum-Goong) to get back two sacred elephants that were stolen from his village. Just as in Ong-Bak, the plot is a single line of text, but the combination of goofy humor and gravity-defying action is another winner! Jaa delivers body-shattering blows, and the action is allowed to unfold in long takes, with a several minutes long fight sequence shot in a single take as the centerpiece of the film. You will not believe what you see as Kham fights his way up a long winding staircase with enemies flying left and right through windows and off balconies. Tony Jaa said that no one was seriously injured during shooting which is nothing short of a miracle if you look at the insane acrobatic work delivered by the stunt team and himself, that is unsurpassed in the action genre.
The film that popularized action made in Indonesia has the simplest of premises: An apartment building filled to the brim with gangsters, and an assault team with the ungrateful task to make it to the top floor to arrest a drug lord. The confined setting with enemies lurking around every corner creates a constant tension that regularly explodes into frantic fire fights and martial arts battles. Director Gareth Evans puts the focus fully on the skills of his actors, and what Joe Taslim, Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian put on display will give you an adrenaline overdose! The fights are brutal, but not sadistic, spectacular, but not comically over the top, it all sits perfectly in the sweet spot for no-nonsense martial arts action. With a by comparison bargain budget of just a little over 1 million USD, The Raid: Redemption became one of the best action films of all time.
Stephen Chow held the martial arts banner high for Hong Kong action cinema in the 2000s, and with Kung Fu Hustle created one of the best action films to come out of Hong Kong ever! The Axe gang terrorizes the people Shanghai, and small time gangster Sing wants to be a part of it. Too bad that he’s completely untalented, but after he takes a massive beating he is transformed into a Kung Fu luminary for the forces of good. Slapstick humor that always hits its mark is combined with action sequences that mix classic Wuxia with Looney Toon physics. And on the top of all the Kung fu madness, Chow creates an immersive setting of 1940s Shanghai and an engaging story with charming characters. Kung Fu Hustle is a testimony to spectacle cinema of divine caliber, a splendid action film and a piece of art.
The Night Comes for Us: the action movie to end all action movies. Joe Taslim as triad hitman who discovers his conscience, and Iko Uwais who is tasked by the cartel to take him down, duke it out with a brutality unseen before in the action world. The film tells a grim story that is filmed beautifully in a gloomy neo-noir setting. The action is of an intimating intensity and often outright painful to watch. The fight sequences are visceral, with fighters who should have died five times already from their wounds and blood loss, but just keep going. The Night Comes for Us is ultimate action movie perfection from director Timo Tjahjanto, his stars Uwais and Taslim, and the hole stunt team. I have to warn you, it may be hard to appreciate most other action films after you’ve seen this masterpiece, a genre benchmark where I have difficulties imagining how it can ever be surpassed.
The iconic 80s star combines forces with the new face of action.
Anyone who knows me also knows that I am a huge fan of Scott Adkins. Having been keeping up with his career since the release of 2009’s Ninja, I haven’t missed a release since and with the added bonus of social media, I can also keep updated while filming. One particular film I have been anticipating since the beginning was Castle Falls which has Adkins starring alongside and being directed by legendary action alum Dolph Lundgren.
In Castle Falls, Adkins plays Mike Wade, an aging fighter who is working temp work as part of a demolition crew at the old Castle Heights hospital. While there, he stumbles upon $3 million cash belonging to Deacon Glass. Lundgren plays Correctional Officer Ericson, who was also told about the cash and forms an unlikely alliance with Scott, fighting off thugs from Deacon Glass’s gang.
While it takes about half of the film’s 90-minute runtime to get to the action, the action itself delivers wholeheartedly. Scott Adkins does what he is best known for, but maintaining a level of realism, giving a sense of this is what it would look like if this character were to really be fighting for his life with his skillset. Tim Man choreographed most of the sequences but was unable to return after the COVID-19 shut down. However, Scott was trusted behind the monitor in terms of the action direction. Lundgren also has a few opportunities to show off his fighting expertise as well in the film.
All in all, this film is a solid addition to the Scott Adkins filmography. He delivers a believable performance as a fighter down on his luck and an even more believable performance as a very skilled fighter. He once again proves why he is the epitome of DTV action. With a number of films to come out next year, we will be in no shortage of new Adkins content. Keep it locked and loaded here on UAMC for all things related to Scott Adkins and Action Films!!!
Article by: Braden D. White — a 2nd degree black belt martial artist and filmmaker. A self proclaimed action movie expert, Braden loves all things action and martial arts film related. You can follow Braden on Twitter here.
How Deep Cover reminds us to never stop confronting present injustices, so that we can challenge for a more ultimate future.
Article by Alex Nguyen.
Russell Stevens Jr. (Laurence Fishburne) is a Cleveland cop who is assigned to go undercover as a drug dealer named John Hull. He is tasked to infiltrate the Los Angeles drug syndicate whose chief importer is the nephew of a prominent Latin American politician.
However, before Russell was a cop, he was a young boy who witnessed his addict father (Glynn Turman) shot down while robbing a liquor store. Russell is weighed down by this memory throughout his life, and he swears to never be like his father.
Deep Cover takes many elements from film noir and subverts them to examine how black communities are affected by American society. Film noir is a genre from the post-war 1940s that rose from a heightened anxiety towards evolving societal perceptions of racial, gender, and class dynamics. It portrays detectives shot with voiceover narration and chiaroscuro lighting to depict an inherently corrupt world mired in moral ambiguity. The detective would often clash with politicians, the upper class, and their respective institutions. However, where classic film noirs only hint at contradictions between what our institutions promise and what they actually do, Deep Cover goes a step further and explicitly shows them enacting violence against black communities. It directly engages with the war on drugs in American cities and its connections to Latin America, U.S. politics, and the disproportionate criminalization and death of African Americans.
Russell’s trauma over his father’s death imbues him with a sense of virtuousness. He becomes a police officer with the idealistic intention to help his community by taking crack off the streets. While undercover, Russell transforms into John and rapidly ascends the drug ring. Russell teams up with David Jason (Jeff Goldblum), a lawyer also looking to climb the ladder to make a lucrative business developing new designer drugs. Director Bill Duke immerses the audience in an infectious atmosphere, almost willing them to want Russell to succeed in his ascension. However, there is a sudden tone shift when Russell is forced by the rules of the street to kill a rival (James T. Morris). Cinematographer Bojan Bazelli shrouds Russell in blood red light as a warning for the world of violence Russell has entered. Despite his intentions, Russell becomes a tool for the state against the very people he was trying to save. “I had killed a man. A man who looked like me. Whose mother and father looked like my mother and father. Nothing happened.” His idealism begins to crumble, and he struggles with his complicity as a black man and a pawn within the police system.
As Russell grows his business, he descends further into darkness. He becomes partners with David, and he begins to live the part. He gets a new apartment, a new car, and a new girlfriend. Russell and David’s relationship comments on American racial dynamics. Deep Cover highlights the complexities in these dynamics such as when David, a Jewish man, prefers to sleep with black women and is called out by Russell for enjoying the dominant aspect of a projected racial hierarchy. The film also provides some sharp political commentary about the relationship between the police, crime, and government. A corrupt police officer begs Felix (Gregory Sierra), a mid-level supplier, to give him a drug bust to alleviate suspicions. Felix offers Russell and David. “Politicians like the dark faces so they can scare the suburbs into voting Republican.” The film portrays everyone as complicit in the system that allows drugs to enter the country, the police to imprison African Americans and other minority groups, and the politicians to make profit and continue the cycle.
Deep Cover was inspired by Michael Levine’s book of the same name. It is an account of how, in the 1980s, the DEA conducted undercover operations involving Latin American drug trafficking into the United States. The film specifically names Manuel Noriega, a Panamanian politician that was the country’s de facto ruler from 1983-1989. He had long ties with U.S. intelligence agencies and acted as a conduit for illicit weapons, military equipment, and cash for U.S.-backed groups throughout Latin America, including Contra rebels in Nicaragua and the authoritarian government in El Salvador. The film’s acknowledgment of Noriega and his relationship with George H. W. Bush was particularly incendiary as it was released in the same year as the 1992 U.S. presidential election. It also highlighted the alleged involvement of the CIA and resulting profit through the Nicaraguan Contras’ cocaine trafficking into the United States. Through the illegal drug trade, the U.S. exchanges black lives for monetary profit, political gain, and greater world influence.
The same societal problems that Deep Cover examines are still very much present today. Just last year, there were Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others. It was also characterized by police violence in retaliation to these same protests. Social media feeds were filled with videos of togetherness and solidarity as well as the police brutality that threatened to tear it all down. It would be easy to be overwhelmed by all of it and tune it out. To a certain extent this is necessary, but the film urges us to confront our own relationship and complicity with a system that directs violence against black communities, or else the system will continue ad infinitum.
Towards the end of the film, Russell learns that the U.S. State Department is pulling their project as they want Hector Guzmán, the Latin American politician, to be a political asset in the future. This breaks Russell as all the work he has done and concessions he has made were for nothing. He abandons his undercover status and decides to take down Guzmán alone. Despite the film’s weariness over this endless cycle, it subverts the noir genre one last time. Instead of ending with the protagonist either dying or facing tragedy, the film ends with Russell prevailing. While he was unable to change the entire system from the inside, he was able to at least create a disturbance by recording Guzmán’s involvement in drug trafficking, thus ending his lucrative political career. Deep Cover defies classical film noir conventions to contemplate how the U.S. silences black people as they hope to change their own stories to not be repetitions of their pasts. In doing so, Deep Cover reminds us to never stop confronting present injustices, so that we can challenge for a better future.
Alex Nguyen is an entertainment writer passionate about films, TV, and music. You can follow him on his Medium page here: https://medium.com/@alex-nguyen
Ranking the best – and most ultimate – German action movies!
Sky Sharks (2020)
Germany is not known for action films, and the main reason is that there are not that many! The market for German-language productions is small compared to English-language films, but the real cause is that almost all German film studios rely on government subsidies for partial financing of their productions. And the films that are green-lighted are mostly art-house films, historical dramas or comedies, but not genre flicks.
And yet every once in a while a brave independent film-maker demonstrates that action made in Germany is possible. In this list we’ll present you the 10 best action flicks to ever come out of Germany. This list is one of the few good reasons to learn German, another big one is being able to understand Arnold Schwarzenegger when he speaks in his native language. Achtung, Action!
A German cop show that featured some of the best car stunts and crashes you’ll ever see in a TV series, and that would make the masters of explosive vehicle action PM Entertainment very proud! Check out the video below for a best-of compilation, with cars being catapulted tens of meters high through the air, and stuntmen running for their lives as cars are flying left and right of them!
Genre veterans Mark Dacascos and Matthias Hues are the big names that carry this indie actioner. Gus is captain of a team of special ops agents. He and his team are called back to action by their former Commander to find his kidnapped daughter. They embark on a deadly journey ripe with betrayal and intrigues. Ultimate Justice is an ultra-low budget version of The Expendables, but it’s nice to see it filmed against the backdrop of German cities and countryside, as opposed to the usual Bulgarian setting for a change.
If you were never bothered by the absurd plot logic of your typical Cannon flick, you’ll find yourselves at home immediately, and especially the plot resolution is totally bonkers. But it’s not really a problem, as the action keeps coming at good rate and is staged pretty neatly. All shootouts and fights are choreographed rather well, even though there rarely are any surprises. One exception is German martial arts prodigy Mike Moeller who steals the show from pretty much everyone, and delivers some bad-ass fights. Despite rather bland visuals and wooden acting, Ultimate Justice provides enough excitement to be a commendable effort.
A large part of the German Autobahn, the country’s highway system, has no speed limit, and Autobahnraser (aka A2 Racer) paid a rather dubious homage to this fact. The premise of the film is almost identical to that of the first part of the Fast & Furious series. A group of illegal racers is infiltrated by an undercover cop who soon embraces their lifestyle and becomes one of them. The story backbone is all that Autobahnraser shares with its peer, as it is essentially a teen comedy mixed up with some car action.
For German standards, the film is a big-budget production with flashy visuals and pretty solid car action sequences. They do not disappoint and feature plenty of crashes and jumps, even though they are not even close to being on the same level as the Fast & Furious franchise. The film is also a feast for German car fetishists, with the full spectrum from vintage classics to high-end sports cars on display. Featuring actors from German soap operas speaking dialogues on the level of a porn movie, and cracking sex jokes even 14-year old’s wouldn’t laugh at, it’s best to deposit your brain in the glove compartment if you want to have some fun with this total no-brainer.
Under Siege – Vatican Commando could have been an alternate title for Lasko: Death Train. The film is centered around Lasko, a traumatized ex-soldier with serious martial arts skills who became a Catholic monk to find inner peace. A group of terrorists steals a deadly virus and tries to make its escape on a train with hundreds of pilgrims en route to a religious festival. When they are threatening to release the virus and kill everyone on board, Lasko becomes their only hope. Mathis Landwehr, who plays Lasko, has become a prominent figure in the German action genre since the early 2000s. He’s an excellent martial artist showing off some serious moves in his role as stoic but resolute monk.
On the action front we get everything a genre fan could wish for: fights, car chases, and a couple of huge explosions. The film moves at a good pace with the occasional cheesy dialogue thrown in for good measure. Lasko: Death Train is the best advertisement for the Catholic Church in action movie form ever, and should be compulsory viewing for Sunday school! The film was followed by the TV show Lasko: The Fist of God (aka Lasko: Die Faust Gottes) for everyone who can’t get enough of our Catholic Kung Fu monk!
An action film with social commentary is always an honorable attempt in my book, and Immigration Game effectively utilizes the backdrop of the 2015 European migration crisis. In the near future, Germany has closed its borders for refugees. The only chance to obtain a residence permit is to take part in the TV show “Immigration Game”, where every German citizen is allowed to kill the “participants” while they are running for their life through the streets of Berlin. Joe rescues a refugee from a gang of “players”. He is captured, and forced to sign up for the game. The film’s premise is inspired by movies like The Purge and The Hunger Games with some added media satire elements.
German martial arts star Mathis Landwehr takes the lead role, and delivers a pretty solid performance both on the acting and physical front. The urban jungle of Germany’s capital becomes the stage for a murderous chase, and some pretty brutal fights. The heavy use of the shaky over-the-shoulder cam is actually alright for a movie that follows terrified people desperately running for their life. Apart from a slightly annoying plot twist at the every end, Immigration Game is a thrilling piece of independent genre cinema.
Based on a rather forgettable TV series, Der Clown (aka The Clown: Payday), drops most of the drama baggage and becomes a festival of car crashes and explosions instead. After his girlfriend Claudia was killed in a shootout with the gangster Zorbek, Max retired from his calling as masked vigilante The Clown, and works as a security guard in a shopping mall. When Claudia’s sister is abducted by Zorbek during a heist, Max picks up his trail, and an explosive hunt begins.
Der Clown radiates a very coarse charm as soap-opera characters clash with high-octane sequences. The plot is as thin as the acting is wooden, and is only held together by its spectacular set pieces. From the cast, you may recognize ex-Bond villain Götz Otto as sleazy criminal who always carries a stack of hand grenades with him, you know, just in case. But the real stars of this film are the special effects and stunt teams. Trucks, cars, helicopters, even a plane, nothing is safe from being blown up by the German pyrotechnicians. It all looks pretty spectacular, and Der Clown will make old-school action fans drool!
No list of German movies can be complete without Nazi zombies. But this time they come with flying cyborg sharks! Scientists discover an old Nazi battleship in the melting polar ice. Flying sharks are unleashed with undead riders that bring terror to the sky and threaten to unleash a new world war.
Sky Sharks feels like the completely bananas baby of Iron Sky and Sharknado. And it’s chock-full of awesome action sequences, with bloodthirsty cyborg zombies and their weaponized mounts chewing up airplanes just because they can! Their attacks are not for the squeamish, as zombies and sharks are not known to kill with subtlety.
Some fun is also to be had through with the trashy dialogues. All the German actors speak English with a heavy accent, which really adds to the charm. The CGI sharks look great, as do the practical effects, and lots of neon lights and a wacky Space Synth soundtrack give us a nice throwback to 1980s aesthetics. Even though the outcome is a bit uneven, it’s clear that a ton of creativity and hard work went into this film. Sky Sharks is modern Grindhouse action at its best, and we’re hinted at a possible sequel: Sky Frogs!
A German kung fu flick, that sounds about as credible as a Swedish comedy, but make no mistake, The Challenge (aka Kampfansage: Der Letzte Schüler) is the real deal! A global war has devastated the world, and human society is reset to medieval times. Fire weapons are not functional anymore, and tyrant Bosco rules over the land with his army of martial arts warriors. Only Jonas, who carries with him the secret of an ancient fighting school, can stand up to him. The Challenge cleverly utilized the idea of a world without fire weapons to put as much as fighting action on the screen as possible, and preceded the awesome TV series Into The Badlands that used the same premise by about 10 years.
Decaying buildings, overgrown streets, and a couple of nice CGI backgrounds of crumbling skylines are all director and writer Johannes Jaeger need to create an immersive setting at low cost. Martial arts specialist Mathis Landwehr takes the lead role, and together with all other fighters in the film delivers some spectacular action sequences with lots of spinning kicks against the post-apocalyptic backdrop. The Challenge is an atmospheric and action-packed journey, and another fine example of German indie action film making.
Der Letzte Bulle (aka The Last Cop) is Germany’s answer to Demolition Man. In 1994, police detective Mick Brisgau is injured during a shootout, and falls into a coma from which he awakes 25 years later. He gets gets reinstated and is assigned a new partner who does not approve of his archaic investigation methods and macho attitude. Together they manage to pick up the trail of the shooter who caused Nick’s ordeal. The film is an adaptation of a successful German TV series. A manly cop wakes up in a world he does not understand with different societal norms and unknown technology.
Testosterone is out, sensitive and caring men are in. The film is far from being a harsh critique of our 21st Century society, though, but treats all its characters with respect, and manages to present inter-generational conflicts in a darn funny way. German bodybuilder Ralph Moeller has a supporting role and delivers what may be the best performance of his life as Brisgau’s friend and aging gym owner Ralf, that echoes his own career in a charming and slightly melancholic way. A buddy cop movie with a terrific sense of humor, Der letzte Bulle shows that masculinity is not toxic if your heart is at the right place.
A decade before action movie parodies saw a revival by Kung Fury and the likes, a most awesome predecessor was made in Germany! Jackson is a decorated Vietnam veteran, but 25 years later his skills are not in demand anymore. He makes a modest living as a bounty hunter by killing the ninjas of his archenemy and former squad mate Atlas. The disco Dance Sensation that is located right at the American-Iraqi border becomes a base for Atlas and his associates to facilitate illegal weapons deals. When Jackson and Atlas both show up on the dance floor to for a dance contest, it’s killing time!
Operation Dance Sensation achieves the impossible: mixing Grease with all your favorite 1980s action flicks against the backdrop of a German small-town drabness. The film is a self-aware zero-budget masterpiece with charming caricatures of classic action heroes and villains. Jokes are delivered every tens seconds, and most of them hit bull’s eye. The action is awesome too, with one absurd sequence after another, with rockets that fly through the screen attached to strings, a children’s birthday ruined by ninjas, and barrels of fake blood being thrown around. Operation Dance Sensation is the perfect party film for action enthusiasts!
Another German martial arts banger is the winner of our ranking, a non-stop action spectacle with a great sense of humor. The three young stuntmen Phong, Can and Cha are invited to an audition but turn up at the wrong address, a shack full of gangsters. They are tasked with finding a secret safe somewhere in the city while their manager is held hostage. Their search takes them to different places with no one giving the hints away without a fight. It’s a simple plot, a scavenger hunt with lots of adversaries to beat up at every new location. Our involuntary heroes are battling gangbangers, graveyard cultists, and are seriously getting their ass kicked by a brothel madam (played by American stuntwoman Heidi Moneymaker).
The fights are of a level that rival those of the best American and Asian martial arts flicks, with awesome moves, and a perfect choreography that is captured by the camera with sharp editing. The three main protagonists have a great on-screen chemistry, and have since moved on to Hollywood to work as stunt actors in big-studio productions. Let’s hope they will join forces again at some time and deliver another masterpiece such as Plan B, a passionate and charming love letter to genre cinema and the best action film to ever come out of Germany so far!
TKO Productions lost a huge part of its team in late November. 6th degree Black Belt Taekwondo Master Louie “Dragonfly” Cruz lost his nearly month-long battle with COVID-19 on November 21st, leaving a gap in the hearts of scores of people.
Born on March 30, 1965 in Hempstead, New York, He and his family relocated to Hollywood, Florida at the age of 7. It was here where his love for martial arts began. After many years of training, he opened his own martial arts school called “Dragonfly Dojo” in 1994 where he trained many students, all of whom he loved dearly.
As of recently, he had begun to make a name for himself as and actor and stunt/fight coordinator in local indie film projects. He was also slated to portray the lead villain of “Rodriguez” in TKO Productions’ own Double Cross as well as serve as the main fight choreographer. We still plan on making the film and we will also be dedicating it in his memory.
Article by: Braden D. White — a 2nd degree black belt martial artist and filmmaker. A self proclaimed action movie expert, Braden loves all things action and martial arts film related. You can follow Braden on Twitter here.
A look back at Neil Marshall’s critically under-appreciated Doomsday (2008).
Neil Marshall established himself as an expert for creating nerve-wrecking horror-action hybrids with his first two films Dog Soldiers and The Descent. For his third opus he must have gotten inspired by all the classics from his youth, and created a brute medley of Escape from New York,The Road Warrior, Excalibur and Dawn of the Dead. And if you wonder how on earth could someone throw all these things into a single film and get away with it, let’s find out and take a leap into the maniacal world of Doomsday!
After the outbreak of a deadly virus in Scotland, the entire region is quarantined. Sealed off from the rest of Britain by a giant wall, everyone is left to die. A few decades later, the virus makes a comeback in London. Surveillance data from the quarantine zone shows that some people are alive, and presumably cured. Police major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) is tasked with leading a team to recover information about the cure, but their road through Scotland is paved with terror and destruction.
We’re off to a grim start, when desperate civilians trying to storm the fence between Scotland and England are mowed down by machine guns. But what begins as an alternate reality pandemic scenario quickly transforms into a festival of madness and non-stop action! The plot is all over the place with holes so big Scottish icon Nessie could easily swim through. But it’s clear from the beginning that Marshall is not interested in telling a coherent story, but just wants to throw as much mayhem onto the screen as possible.
He inserts enough references to fill several B-movie bingo cards, but those to The Road Warrior and Escape from New York stick out the most, and not only because two members of Sinclair’s squad are named Carpenter and Miller. The script blends a dystopian semi-fascist society, and a cordoned-off region that turned into an anarchic society, with a post-apocalyptic wasteland and its murderous inhabitants, who are sporting the latest savage punk fashion. And out of nowhere the film turns into Excalibur with with medieval-style knights, castle dwellers, and Malcolm McDowell as their king!
Production-wise Doomsday looks pretty much perfect for a film of its budget (~ 30 million USD). Sinclair and her team are chasing from one location to another, and Marshall created an incredible number of diverse sets, with great attention to detail and spot-on atmosphere for each sequence. Nothing looks really special, but it all sets the proper mood with familiar elements such as rotting bodies, burnt-out cars, and crumbling cityscapes.
Rhona Mitra as squad leader Sinclair gets to kick some serious ass, and occasionally even wears the Snake Plissken memorial eye patch. But just like almost every other character inside the zone she remains rather bland, and lacks the charisma an action hero needs. The subplot that is taking place in London features Bob Hoskins as upstanding police commissioner and David O’Hara as ruthless politician, and both of them are pretty awesome in their roles.
After some initial world-building, Doomsday becomes an action-packed roller coaster ride that never lets up until the very end. There’s street fights, arena fights, castle fights, and a ton of anachronistic clashes as over-weaponized elite soldiers are assaulted by savage marauders, and a Bentley takes it up against against a war rig crew. The only major point of criticism is that the loathed staccato editing, which became popular in early 2000s action flicks, is unnecessarily chopping up several of the action sequences.
The violence in Doomsday is completely off the scale. Every human body part is severed at least once in this film, there’s shooting, stabbing, decapitations, and a few other unpleasant deaths. Marshall pushes things completely over the top in a gross sequence where a captured squad member is roasted alive, and feasted on by a raging crowd. A locked up Sinclair is served her prison meal shortly after: “If you’re hungry, why not try a piece for your friend?”
Doomsday is Neil Marshall unleashed, and it seems he had the creative freedom to do whatever he wanted. Sure, it’s highly derivative but there’s so much excitement and energy to be found in this film, I loved every single minute of it. It’s a terrific homage to 1980s action cinema, when escapism for adults was all about senseless violence and hard-hitting action. If you’re craving for a flashback of this kind, what are you waiting for? R-rated popcorn entertainment can’t get much better than Doomsday!
Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most recognizable names in action films. From The Terminator to The Expendables, he has been a major part of several action franchises in the last 3 decades. However, there is one film that is a bit unusual as he portrays a different kind of character: Kindergarten Cop.
In Kindergarten Cop, Arnold plays Detective John Kimble who is working undercover as a kindergarten teacher to apprehend a notorious drug kingpin before he can reach his former wife and son, all while discovering a passion for teaching that he never knew he had.
The film shows a lot of heart and actually gives some depth to Arnold’s character, actually giving him a chance to show off his acting chops a bit. He is believable in the role, and you can genuinely see the care he has for the children in the movie.
A highlight in the film shows Arnold taking on an abusive parent after one of the kids is dropped off with bruises on hid back. Showing no mercy, Arnold’s Detective Kimble punch the kid’s father with the brilliant line of, “you hit the kid, I hit you”
The fighting in this film matches that of which we expect from Arnold, as he is not a martial artist but a body builder by trade. He throws wild John Wayne-esque punches and never throws any kicks, but he truly delivers some hard-hitting blows.
Overall, Kindergarten Cop is a film that the whole family can enjoy. It has the action, family, humor, and heart. It is available to watch on various different streaming platforms.
Article by: Braden D. White — a 2nd degree black belt martial artist and filmmaker. A self proclaimed action movie expert, Braden loves all things action and martial arts film related. You can follow Braden on Twitter here.
