News »
Cross Fire (2000) Movie Review
“Cross Fire” was produced by the Japanese Toho studios, best known for the classic, enduring “Godzilla” series. This attempt at trying something a little different with the horror genre, as opposed to simply churning
Read More »
The Untold Story 2 (1998) Movie Review
Given the success and influence of “The Untold Story”, a sequel was inevitable; the only surprise being that it actually took five years for it to appear. Although “The Untold Story 2″ has no
Read More »The Untold Story (1992) Movie Review
“The Untold Story” is not only the greatest category III film ever made, but also one of the best of any kind to have come from Hong Kong. Gripping, horrific and uncompromising, this infamous
Read More »Blind Fury (1989) Movie Review
“Blind Fury” is one of those movies from the ’80s — the glory days of vacuous action movies and high school sex comedies — that I like even though I know it’s not a
Read More »The Quiet Family (1998) Movie Review
“The Quiet Family” is the debut film by Korean director Kim Ji-Woon, who has been attracting a considerable amount of attention recently with his complex and multi-layered “A Tale of Two Sisters”. The two
Read More »
Gozu (2004) Movie Review
“Gozu” is another recent effort from the apparently tireless Takashi Miike, bringing his total of films released over the last couple of years to a staggering 12, though it’s quite possible there are even
Read More »
Patlabor: The Movie 2 (1993) Movie Review
“Patlabor 2″, the sequel to 1990′s “Patlabor: The Movie”, examines the unique status of Japan in the modern world. The country is an economic world power, but due to the constitution drafted after World
Read More »
Secret Agents (2004) Movie Review
The French don’t generally do a lot of straight action movies, or if they do, you don’t hear a lot about them. “Crimson Rivers” (which starred “Secret Agents’” Vincent Cassel) was a stab at
Read More »The Shaolin Temple (1979) Movie Review
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Boy sees father killed by evil warlord. Boy escapes to Shaolin Temple to learn kung fu. Boy gets payback. Of course, there’s more to the plot
Read More »Wake of Death (2004) Movie Review
“Wake of Death”, the latest Jean-Claude Van Damme action flick, stars the Muscles from Brussels as a gangster out for revenge against fellow gangster Simon Yam. The film plays out as you might expect,
Read More »Friday Night Lights (2004) Movie Review
“Friday Night Lights” isn’t the kind of high school football movie you’d expect, and in fact it bears little resemblance to “Varsity Blues” and its ilk. It’s a sharply drawn portrait of a town
Read More »Zombie Planet (2004) Movie Review
The most interesting thing about “Zombie Planet” isn’t that it’s a shabby production utilizing low-rent actors who aren’t really actors, but that it’s shot on digital video and the filmmakers still didn’t use on-location
Read More »
Patlabor: The Movie (1990) Movie Review
In the late 20th century, highly advanced robots, known as Labors, were created for construction purposes. Other labors were developed to be used in the military, for undersea exploration and even recreational purposes. However,
Read More »
One Missed Call (2004) Movie Review
Takashi Miike is a master of wild, unpredictable cinema. The man regularly churns out multiple films each year which range from the ultra-violence of “Ichi the Killer” to wacky musicals like “Happiness of Katakuris”
Read More »The Witch Who Came From the Sea (1976) Movie Review
These days, the term ‘cult film’ is fairly redundant in American cinema. For ‘cult’, read ‘weird, but commercial’ — or worse still, ‘kooky’. Many films now come pre-packaged as cult hits and in general
Read More »
The Isle (2000) Movie Review
The films of South Korean director Ki-duk Kim tend to divide audiences. On one hand, they are nihilistic, violent and misogynistic, and are generally abstract pieces which are equal parts art house and dubious
Read More »Ladder 49 (2004) Movie Review
(Movie Review by Donnie Saxton) There were only two things I wanted to be as a 7-year old: an NBA basketball player and a firefighter. I was too young to care that either profession
Read More »Explosive City (2004) Movie Review
At this point, with the dearth of good action films coming out of Hong Kong, I’d watch any movie that didn’t star one of the Twins. Heck, right now I’ll settle for a movie
Read More »
Young Thugs: Innocent Blood (1997) Movie Review
Considering the sheer volume of his output, it may never be possible for any viewer, either in Japan or abroad, to take in the complete resume of director Takashi Miike. As of this writing,
Read More »
Young Thugs: Nostalgia (1998) Movie Review
“Nostalgia” revisits Riichi Nakaba in younger times, though by no means are they more innocent. Director Takashi Miike starts things off with a bang as he treats the audience to a merry little black-and-white
Read More »
