REVIEW: Silver Hawk (2004)
October 31, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Michelle Yeoh, 42 and still kicking butt… big time. She may have stumbled with her first self-produced action film, The Touch, but has saved considerable face with the follow up. I’m happy to report that Silver Hawk [...]
REVIEW: Last Eve, The (2005)
October 26, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »The Last Eve is an ambitious and challenging independent production that attempts to bring together three interpretations of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, diverse martial arts action, and Korean and American culture, all while set [...]
REVIEW: Zatoichi 23: Zatoichi at Large (1972)
October 24, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »No matter how many times Zatoichi defends women and children from unscrupulous yakuza with his cane sword and humbly takes a beating from friend and foe alike in the process, it never gets old. For the twenty-third [...]
REVIEW: King Eagle (1971)
October 17, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Stoic martial arts movie star Ti Lung ably steps into the role of a fiercely independent swordsman reluctantly drawn into clan infighting after falling in love with a swordswoman. While romance is not typical fare for director [...]
REVIEW: Zatoichi 20: Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970)
October 11, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Expectations for this movie must have been especially high upon its initial release. Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo brings together beloved series star Shintaru Katsu and superstar Toshiro Mifune to face off in the roles that made each internationally [...]
REVIEW: Killer from Above (1977)
October 10, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »A stellar cast of old school kung fu screen fighters, led by the late great Lo Lieh, join Invincible Kung Fu Trio director Law Chi for this frenzied kung fu free for all that’s jam-packed with quality [...]
REVIEW: Sword Stained with Royal Blood, The (1981)
October 5, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »One of the world’s greatest martial arts film directors tackles the literary work of one of the world’s greatest wuxia novelists and comes up with one of the world’s greatest martial arts classics featuring the Venoms crew. [...]
REVIEW: Pedicab Driver (1989)
September 16, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Arguably Sammo Hung’s finest work since Warriors Two and one of the best martial arts movies of the ’80s is this intense near-masterpiece that sees Sammo Hung and many of Hong Kong’s finest stunt actors deliver unparalleled [...]
REVIEW: Tales of a Eunuch (1983)
September 15, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Screwball black humor, imperial court intrigue and moderate doses of spitfire kung fu action collide in this fast-talking comedy actioner guaranteed to make even Hong Kong movie aficionados’ heads spin.
REVIEW: Transporter 2 (2005)
September 13, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | 1 Comment »Luc Besson and company do it again. Like its predecessor, Transporter 2 dropkicks its audience into a double dose of high-adrenaline and highly-stylized action, this time by way of a constant stream of car and boat chases, [...]
REVIEW: Hidden Blade, The (2004)
September 5, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Veteran director Yoji Yamada makes his second foray into the the samurai film genre, after Twilight Samurai, with this finely-crafted and beautifully shot period drama that draws together several stories from writer Shuhei Fujisawa. Like its predecessor, [...]
REVIEW: Avenging Eagle, The (1978)
August 23, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | 3 Comments »My first impression of THE AVENGING EAGLE was not a favorable one. This swordplay classic from Shaw Brothers starring Ti Lung and Alexander Fu Sheng appeared on a budget DVD cropped to full screen, badly dubbed into [...]
REVIEW: Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
August 22, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Stephen Chow has always dabbled with kung fu influences in his previous movies but with KUNG FU HUSTLE he literally squashes the narrative pretense with his foot and leaps wholeheartedly into a Looney Tunes-inspired martial arts comedy [...]
REVIEW: Pit Fighter (2004)
August 1, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Action films with martial arts brawling and gunplay that promise hard-boiled violence rarely deliver without resorting to mindless atrocities of gore-ridden masochism or over-stylized and smarmy odes to bygone trends. More often, increasing effort to draw in [...]
REVIEW: Legendary Strike, The (1978)
July 28, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »The selling off of a priceless pearl relic from Shaolin Temple to the Japanese becomes the driving force for a fierce and involved scramble by Qing officials, Shaolin monks, Korean special agents, and Ming loyalists to gain [...]
REVIEW: Swords of Vengeance (1978)
July 26, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | 1 Comment »Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale), master of hardboiled yakuza thrillers, and Sonny Chiba, master of martial arts action, continue their long-running collaboration with their take on the popular “47 Ronin” incident. Compared with other available films on the [...]
REVIEW: Kill and Kill Again (1981)
July 20, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Kill and Kill Again is the type of movie I live for as a martial arts movie critic and fan. It’s the goofball sequel to an equally goodball martial arts actioner from South Africa entitled Kill or [...]
REVIEW: Hitman (1998)
July 18, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Hitman was Jet Li’s last Hong Kong production before he made the migration to Hollywood in Lethal Weapon IV. It’s one of his lesser known films that follow the unfortunate trend of mixing light comedy with Li’s [...]
REVIEW: Peculiar Boxing Tricks and the Master (1978)
→ Buy it at Amazon → Buy it at HKFlix → Find info at IMDb Following the release of the hugely popular Drunken Master, starring Jackie Chan, there was seemingly no end to the exploitation of its [...]
REVIEW: Million Dollar Baby (2004)
July 14, 2005 | Posted in Film and TV Reviews by Mark Pollard | No Comments »Clint Eastwood ought to be lounging in Boca Raton, enjoying a well-deserved rest after thirty years of filmmaking and fifty years of acting in some of Hollywood’s most critical and crowd pleasing hits. Instead, at the tender [...]
