By | Published March 17, 2009

MAXIMUM IMPACT (2008)

British indie action auteur Ara Paiaya is out with a new self-produced action and martial arts feature on DVD in the U.S. MAXIMUM IMPACT is Paiaya’s follow up to DEATH LIST (2006) and his DUBBED AND DANGEROUS TRILOGY (2004) which we covered quite extensively on the site years ago.

Ara Paiaya stars as Agent X, racing to rescue a captured security defense expert from the hands of a rogue agent known as Pirani, a harsh man who will show no mercy to anyone. Agent X faces his most deadly adversaries while fleeing from assassins and fighting his way to the shocking truth.

Despite small budgets and being completely independent, Paiaya has made a name for himself internationally for starring in and directing his own feature films that capture the spirit of Hong Kong action cinema. It’s no easy feat to make a movie, especially when you’re also performing your own dangerous stunts that incorporate elements of martial arts, free running and Jackie Chan-style fight choreography. Even more impressive is that each film looks better then the last as Paiaya builds on his past projects and hones his craft.

This release does beg one question. How the heck did Ara manage to get the title “MAXIMUM IMPACT” before anyone else did? There are so many variations on that title within the action movie scene and it’s arguably the best one. You have MAXIMUM RISK, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, MAXIMUM FORCE, FULL IMPACT, SUDDEN IMPACT, and DOUBLE IMPACT. It’s hard to believe it went overlooked until now.

MAXIMUM IMPACT is now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

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  • Albert Valentin

    Hey Mark,
    I saw the movie thanks to Ara himself. I’ve known him for quite a while now and first saw him in Dubbed and Dangerous 1. This movie is definitely one of the best he has done. Good fight scenes that has him moving similar to Jackie Chan and even pulling a nice Cyril Raffaelli jump in the car window action. Great indie flick IMO :)

  • danmye

    He should be commended for the spirit of independence and drive he exhibits in achieving his works/love! Passion for what you have chosen as a path for your life’s journey is the key!

  • WTF?

    Ara's been making the same film from since 2001. Great action, good director's eye for the set piece…but the complete lack of originality and plot lets the whole thing down. Ara basically cobbles together a bunch of recreations of his favourite scenes from other films and hopes the whole thing makes sense – it doesn't. That was fair enough in his first few 20min movies but he's never progressed. With these longer features he should be trying to tie everything together into a slicker product but he's still stuck in his ways, making it up as he goes along, no script, no fore thought to the bigger picture, just lurching from one fight scene to the next in a senesless ramble through his home town. He even misses the novelty of that in this film pretending for some bizarre reason to be in Canada? Presumably because his holiday footage couldn't go to waste…and that's Ara's biggest failing: his child-like ADD doesn't let him see that what's most important is not his screen time but what he's putting on the screen. It gets harder and harder for the big name magazines and reviewers to keep being positive about Ara. When he first appeared the mere fact of getting his 'vision' to film and his undoubted martial arts skills/stunts was reason to praise enough, but the bigger, better things this promised never materialised. This is a stupid, pointless film, of no interest to anyone not local or in it.

  • ReviewKing

    I think the film establishes Ara Paiaya as a proper action star. He’s a very good screen fighter with some outstanding moves, especially his kicks. He also makes for a charismatic lead with good screen presence. Ara is clearly a fan of Jackie Chan and does a good job of emulating some of his style, especially a fight scene in and around a parked car which reminded me of a similar fight in Jackie’s Accidental Spy.

    Overall the fights and stunt-work were of a high standard. The fight scene in a car wrecking yard actually looked dangerous, with the crusher/crane throwing crushed cars around. As far as indie films goes this is well above average.

  • Quote

    'Paiaya delivers a fast pasted, action packed, martial arts flavoured adventure that despite its limitations sticks to what it does best and delivers heaps of well done, high impact action.' Far East Films Review.