REVIEW: Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown (2011)
In 2008, the teen MMA film NEVER BACK DOWN was unleashed to audiences with mostly modest reviews. Does this sequel, marking the directorial debut of Michael Jai White, live up to the original? No. Instead, it ranks [...]
REVIEW: My Kingdom (2011)
Now in limited US screenings, the Peking Opera-flavored melodrama MY KINGDOM is notable for being one of the handful of recent Chinese films to get a day-and-date release in the US and Asia. That’s a trend I’d [...]
REVIEW: Street Warrior (2008)
After the release of RING OF DEATH, RHI Entertainment unleashes their second MMA film in this action packed film about a war veteran looking to find the fighter who maimed his brother. Iraqi war veteran Jack Campbell [...]
The Grandmasters (2012) – Teaser
Art house filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s take on Wing Chun master Yip Man, best known as Bruce Lee’s martial arts instructor. Dramatic actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai stars along with Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen. Action director is Yuen [...]
‘Badass action’ in Gareth Evans’ ‘The Raid’
Writer-director Gareth Evans, of MERANTAU fame, is back with a second martial arts-heavy action movie that has made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival and it’s creating substantial buzz. THE RAID sees the return of [...]
The Raid (2011) – Red Band Trailer
THE RAID sees the return of MERANTAU star Iko Uwais as a member of a SWAT team sent out to raid the headquarters of a drug kingpin in a tenement block in Jakarta. The raid ends up [...]
REVIEW: Ring of Death (2008)
The rising fad of mixed martial arts (MMA) has transitioned into films with mixed bags. There are some good, some bad. RHI Entertainment jumped on the bandwagon with RING OF DEATH, another prison fight film that capitalizes [...]
Ric Meyers in Ara Paiaya’s ‘The Suppressor’
Scottish indie action filmmaker and star Ara Paiaya, best known for his DUBBED AND DANGEROUS action comedy films, returns with a new actioner and this time he’s got kung fu movie guru Ric Meyers cast as one [...]
The Sword Identity (2011) – Teaser
Once upon a time in the Southern Chinese city of Guancheng, there lived four families, each of them faithful keepers of martial arts. Anyone who wanted to establish a new sect, or a new form of kung [...]
‘Shaolin Temple’ star Yu Chenghui in ‘The Sword Identity’
Yu Chenghui (second from right) in THE SWORD IDENTITY. (That beard is real.) Buzz is starting to build around THE SWORD IDENTITY, a new film by Xu Haofeng that somehow slipped under everyone’s radar until it was [...]
The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011) – Teaser
Director Tsui Hark puts a new spin on his wuxia classic DRAGON INN (1992), itself a remake of King Hu’s 1967 swordplay film. It will be the first wuxia film shot as a 3-D movie. Jet Li, [...]
The Lost Bladesman (2011) – UK Trailer
Epic martial arts film adaptation from a chapter in Luo Guanzhong’s historical novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” featuring Donnie Yen as star and action director. During the Warring States era in ancient China, General Cao Cao [...]
Chang Apana and Charlie Chan
Detective Chang Apana (1871-1933) of the Honolulu Police Department. I’ve always been a fan of vintage murder mysteries, but somehow I missed the ones featuring Charlie Chan, a Chinese-American detective on the Honolulu police force. I was vaguely [...]
‘Infinite Kung Fu’ comic revives grindhouse movie action
Fans of classic, ’70s-era kung fu movies and comic books are in luck. Top Shelf Productions has just published a beautifully illustrated, 464-page deluxe flexi-cover graphic novel called “Infinite Kung Fu” from talented writer-artist and kung fu [...]
Naked Soldier (2011) – Teaser
Interpol agent CK Long (Sammo Hung) busts a billion-dollar drug deal. In reprisal, a drug cartel hires an all-female assassination squad run by Madame Rose to kill Long’s entire family. Long survives but his daughter is kidnapped [...]
Home Video Report – September
Fans looking out for the latest action packed films can check out this list for upcoming home video releases in September 2011. Special thanks goes out to the crew at VideoETA.com for providing these upcoming releases. ASSASSINATION [...]
REVIEW: Bunraku (2010)
Ambitious fantasy martial arts film from writer-director Guy Moshe attempts to meld martial arts, samurai and Wild West genre conventions in a stylized comic book world of post-apocalyptic gang warfare and bitter vendettas. With its German impressionist-like [...]
Crump, Chupong, and Tang join ‘Tom Yum Goong 2′
On August 17, production on the new Tony Jaa-Panna Rittikrai collaboration that is TOM YUM GOONG 2, or THE PROTECTOR 2 as it will be known in the United States, had begun. However, aside from the already [...]
6th annual Films at the Gate in Boston
Summer is coming to an end, and if you live in the Boston area, what better way to enjoy these last few warm nights than enjoying classic kung fu movies while sitting under the stars? For the sixth [...]
Next up for ‘The Legend is Born’ crew is ‘Woman Knight of Mirror Lake’
The prolific Hong Kong director Herman Yau caught the attention of hard core kung fu movie fans last year with the Ip Man “prequel” THE LEGEND IS BORN (also known as IP MAN 3, and, confusingly, IP [...]
