Tag: John Woo

Geekscape Roundtable: Geekscape’s Favourite Action Movies!

by GeekscapeStaff

The Expendables 2 is out this Friday and we are already getting details about a third installment in the franchise. So, right now we here at Geekscape are on an adrenaline high and what better time than now to tell you guys what our favorite action flicks are. So lets get into it!

Andy Breeding – I cannot resist Rush Hour 2. The comedic chemistry between Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan is amazing on how well it works. Every joke is well delivered and makes me laugh every time. With Jackie Chan, you know you are getting awesome fight choreography right from the start. For someone in his condition, he still took the risks that most people would make a stunt person do while they would sit off in their trailer eating a ham sandwich.

 

Thrill Murray – I considered abstaining from this activity because the parameters are obscenely vague. IMDB lists 23,103 films as residing within the action genre. Fortunately, 23,102 of those movies are irrelevant because DIE HARD.

 

Allisonnnnn – Chronicles Of Riddick. We have an underground jail on a planet whose sunrise is akin to a nuclear explosion inside an EZ-Bake Oven, a cult of ass-kicking fanatics in H.R. Giger inspired armor, and Vin Diesel constantly flexing those manly arms of his as he lays waste to his enemies. Oh, and Karl Urban: Sex God Extraordinaire, being hotter than any mortal man has a right to be. Seriously, in the Director’s Cut, the things he gets up to with Thandie Newton… I’ll be fanning myself for weeks.

 

UncannyShawnMadden – This is a hard one to decide on. I narrowed it down to a list of five movies (three of which starred Jean-Claude Van Damme) but when it came down to it I had to join Jack Burton on the Pork Chop Express. Big Trouble In Little China had everything you could possibly want out of an action flick. Okay. You people sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning. And if we’re not back by dawn… call the president.

 

Shane O’Hare – My favorite action movie has to be Shoot ‘Em Up. Not only is the entire plot given to you in the title it can easily describe half the movies out there in the Action genre! From the very beginning it is in your face crazy fun. The term “creative kills” is perfect for this film, when one of the first deaths is caused by a carrot!

 

Scott Alminiana – My favorite action movie has got to be Lethal Weapon 2. It took everything great about the first one and cranked it to 11. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover have perfect chemistry as Riggs and Murtaugh. The addition of Joe Pesci’s Leo Getz is fantastic. He’s got some of the best lines in the entire movie “They FUCK YOU at the drive-thru, okay? They FUCK YOU at the drive-thru!” and he steals every scene he’s in. Anytime Lethal Weapon 2 is on I will sit and watch it waiting for bad guy Arjen Rudd (Joss Ackland) to say “diplomatic immunity” so that I can crack my neck along with Murtaugh and say “it’s just been revoked!”

Molly Mahan – Kill Bill, to me, is the greatest love story of my generation, and a truly amazing action film that happens to be led by a woman (hell yeah!). Tarantino—love him or hate him—knows how to make a film. It’s a classic revenge story, which I am a sucker for, with amazing fight sequences—the 30-minute ballet between the Bride and the Crazy 88s at the climax of volume 1 and the battle between the two blonde assassins in volume 2 shine particularly bright in my mind—and the characters have depth, not just of purpose but emotional awareness that isn’t always apparent in the genre. When we come to the end of The Bride’s journey and see her interact with Bill, there is always a part of me that wishes they can get back together and work it out (no matter how foolish or big of a let down it would be after four hours of watching her roaring rampage of revenge). But despite the basic premise, their relationship isn’t the only one that we see on display. The love she has for her daughter, the disdain and respect each of her opponents and former colleagues have for her are all evident. The layers that every character has is pretty remarkable. You could see each of them headlining their own film if they had to, or a comic book run. In the end, Kill Bill doesn’t force me to change my knickers as often as the trailer for Expendables 2 does, but it makes my heart sing. And that is something remarkable.

 

Jonathan – I think anyone who reads this site is expecting me to put a Van Damme movie here but I’m going to take the opportunity to share my love for another action film, probably one of the most revered in the genre: John Woo’s 1989 film The Killer, starring Chow Yun Fat, Danny Lee and Sally Yeh. This was the only movie poster that I had in my room all 4 years of college and not a week went by that I didn’t watch at least a few scenes from it. I could still watch it every week today. The plot is simple and has been done before. A conscientious hitman (Chow Yun Fat), pained by a hit gone wrong and blinding an innocent woman (Sally Yeh), swears to retire. But he takes one last job in order to pay to make things right. And in a classic modern-noir fashion, that was one job too many. Not only are his ex-employers on his tail to wipe him out but so is a driven cop (Danny Lee), intent on bringing him to justice. Some prefer Woo’s Hollywood calling cards of Hard Boiled and A Better Tomorrow 2 or the more gray area’d A Better Tomorrow but The Killer is where Woo really put his stamp on the genre, complete with slow motion doves, antagonists finding a common respect in a ballet of bloodshed and a dangerous men with moral codes. This movie influenced a wave of 90s action filmmakers, from Rodriguez to Tarantino, and forever reinvigorated a genre that had been exhausted by the end of the 80s. Throw any action film you want at it, The Killer still stands towards the top. And if it’s any consolation, John Woo did end up making a Van Damme film, 1993’s Hard Target.

Geekscape Movie Reviews: Warriors Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale

by ThrillMurray

Touted as the most expensive Taiwanese film to date, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale was actually created for a rather reasonable $25 million. Produced by John Woo, the film stars Lin Ching-Tai, Da Ching, and a plethora of other actors you’ve never heard of. The only star power can be found in Masanobu Ando, who you may (or may not if you’re lucky) have seen in Sukiyaki Western Django. With these limited resources, Writer and Director Wei Te-Sheng struggles to tell a very large and very significant story in Taiwanese history with mixed results.

The film is reported to be a factual representation of the Wushe Incident, an uprising of Taiwanese natives against Japanese invaders which took place in 1930. The film follows the story of Mouna Rudo, a proud warrior who rises to the responsibility of chief of the Seediq tribe at the turn of the 20th century. It is a tumultuous time, as Taiwan has been ceded from China to Japan. Mouna, the Seediq, and other once proud and warring tribes have become domesticated under Japanese oppression. Then, in 1930, Mouna leads the natives in a violent and frantic uprising. You probably don’t have to have a degree in Taiwanese history to figure out how it all ends, but suffice to say that this is not the feel-good movie of the year.

That Taiwanese history degree may come in handy in deciphering what the hell is going on from time to time. The different tribes wear similar clothing and sport identical facial tattoos, and it becomes a challenge to keep track of what tribe is being shown at any given time, and whether they are allies or foes to the Seediq. I’ll be damned if I didn’t wish Ando had brought some of those oh-so-convenient to distinguish costumes from Django. Then the film jumps ahead 35 years and all bets are off. New actors are used in every role, and the majority do not have a young counterpart to introduce them in the first place. You’re left scrambling to understand who characters are, let alone their motivations and connections to other characters.

None of these actors stand out, and none are asked to. This is a story about an entire people, not really just one man or woman. Actors appear to be are serviceable in their roles, although it is difficult to tell in a subtitled film. Lin Ching-Tai’s Mouna is the main protagonist of the story, and he does an adequate job in his one dimensional role. The story itself is easily identifiable to everyone; noble natives rebel against evil foreign invaders.  Te-Sheng does an admirable job of presenting both sides in shades of grey instead of the usual black and white terms of good vs. evil, which I found refreshing and more realistic.

Everything about the film screams gritty realistic historical accuracy, until Mouna’s father shows up to sing a round with him Return of the Jedi style halfway through the film. In the face of everything before (and even afterward) this is unexpected, unnecessary, and jarring. The poor Lucasian influences don’t end there either, as often questionable CGI is used heavily. This is the type of film that one is likely to champion as ripe with scenic beauty, if it weren’t for the low quality green screen sets mixed in for good measure. Where CGI use excels is in the film’s decapitation budget. Never before have I seen so many heads get lopped off, and yet each one was as awesome and visceral as the last.

To recap: the film is worth a spot on your Netflix Instant Queue in a month or two, nothing more. I watched the bloated 140 minute US version, and am skeptical as to whether the 270 minute international monstrosity would fare better. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale is an ambitious effort to bring to life a defining chapter in Taiwanese history. Yes, it is clear that Te-Sheng bit off more than his budget, cast, and abilities could chew. But that does not mean that what was made was anything to laugh at, either. The decapitation stuffed third act alone warrants a watch; and at the end of the day if that is enough to get you to see a movie, you probably don’t care about the rest of my gripes. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale is available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital August 7th.