Director: Woo Ping Yuen Starring: Yuwn Siu-tien, Hwang Jang-lee, Linda Lin Ying, Yuen Shun-yi, Charlie Shek, Yen Shi-kwan Hong Kong. 1h 31m
Set after the cult classic Drunken Master, the aged fighting master Sam Seed (Yuen Siu-tien) returns home to his wife after many years to discover he has a new son! This outlandish Ku fu movie is one of my favorites for it’s equal measures of clever fighting and cheeky comedy which boils down to hell of a final movie for the legendary actor Yuen Siu-tien, as he passed from a stroke soon after filming. Not only is the humor and fighting well balanced but the characters conjured up are not easily matched, the cast includes the characters, Rubber Legs , Moneybags, Foggy and Sickness Master, who all sound like some Wish version of Wu Tang.
Director: Jesse V Johnson Starring: Scott Adkins, Craig Fairbass, Thomas Turgoose, Leo Gregory, Nick Moran. UK. 1h 30m
Scott Adkins breaks away from Boyka for a moment to seamlessly blend in with the leftover cast from the Rise of the Footsoldier series to take on a slightly different London Gangster/ Prison flick. Casting a few Kung fu kicks into the story of a young gym owner who finds himself slammed into an overly oppressed prisons situation but why?
AKA Mortal Kombat, The Return of the Five Deadly Venoms
Director: Chang Cheh Starring: Philip Kwok, Chen Kuan Tai, Chiang Sheng, Kuo Chui, Lo Mang, Lu Feng, Wang Lung Wei .Hong Kong. 1h 40m
Just when I was positive that the Five Deadly Venoms was the best 70’s martial arts film, it turns out that the (lose) sequel actually outdoes the cult classic. In a similar vein the film runs through a deadly storyline featuring a diabolical jaded kung fu master and a group of unlikely heroes.
When a brilliant wealthy fighter’s family is brutally attacked, his wife left slaine and his son now armless, the Tiger expert finds a way to restore his son’s arms with mechanical extensions but now with a blackened heart he bullies and terrifies his hometown. Finding pleasure in crippling those to cross his pat, Four of his latest victis form a bond and seek revenge, A hawer, who has been blinded, a blacksmith, made mude and deaf and a drifter whose legs are cut off all attempt to band together with a fighter who is known as tier “idiot friend”. While finding ingenious ways to overcome their disabilities they conjure a cunning plan to take on the evil gang and the four are tested time and time again and demonstrate strengths and abilities.
Director: Liam O’Donnell . Starring. Frank Grillo, Bojana Novakovic, Jonny Weston, Iko Uwais, Antionio Gargas USA. 1h 45m.
Skyline seems to be cursed, the original movie had a great idea and outstanding budget but the story was so basic that it only started to get into motion in the final few moments, after watching this tepid sequel, it seems both movies could have easily made one film, with the original being trimmed down to a mere introduction. Ultimately Skyline remains one of the worst sci fi movies in recent history, and only a little it really saved with this sequel.
Things pick up from the where the last movie left off, the world is under attack from a monstrous species of aliens who have weird mecha technology partially organic and looking quite similar to the machines from the Matrix series, they use lights to brainwash people into coming to them, like the blue lights in the deli are used to attract flies. In Skyline a hero was born in the finale moments, it seems the aliens are interested in our brains (fools!!) and while the hero was killed while trying to protect his pregnant girlfriend, his brain is placed into one of the alien “machines” which is a Guyver like suit, he managed to regain his consciousness and started the fight against the aliens, AS one of the aliens! Luckily you’ll know who this good buy is as he glows red while all the other aliens glow blue.. just putting that out there..Continue reading Beyond Skyline (2017)→
I’m not sure which came first, Golden Queen or Pink Force as they were both made in 1982(?) but these explosive action adventure Commando movies often have each other’s scenes spliced into one another. Personally I found Pink Force to be way more thrilling with its stronger western themes and total kookiness, but that doesn’t mean that this prison based flick is worse, but it has very different themes with an almost identical cast.
Golden Queen Commando opens with some Visual Kei gang leader playing cards with some street gangster types when a fight breaks out despite her fast shooting the police crash the party and she’s sent to prison, other short vignettes for other criminal women (Black Fox, Clack Cat, Dynamite, Sugar Plum, Amazon, Brandy and Quick Silver (our stunning card shark)), each with their own special skill and extreme costume all end with them being sent to the same nazi war prison.
Things being to heat up when one of the women starts to antagonise the others while getting a feeling for their strengths and weaknesses. And they slowly hatch a plan to escape and to kill the vile fat nazi warden and his henchmen and then head out to destroy a WWII nazi chemical lab. But not before they being total chaos and mayhem with their unique fighting skills, and all looking totally beautiful within the prison walls..
Control of tone is essential to any film but this is kicked into the wind and blasted to pieces, the film had no formula and that’s what makes it a marvellous and highly entertaining bonkers exploitations flick. The final act is highlighted with a soundtrack from Ennio Morricone which makes this a hash up of the Dirty Dozen (1967) / Magnificent 7 (1960)a la psychotronic style. Obviously there is a stunning finale and the scene which sees a spy outed is straight out of an X-Japan music video. All round fun and frolics that’s hard to ever forget.
Rating 5/10
R – Pink Force Commando (1982), Love Massacre (1981), L – A-Z of Taiwan Cinema Vol 1. A – Pink Cinema Vs – Pink Force Commando Vs Golden Queen Commando.
An amazing twitter buddy reminded me of this movie, if you’ve got any interest in B-Movies then check out @cjzisi <-twitter and/or the blog for a treasure trove of amazing reviews of rare and obscure films. I had seen this many years ago but I have to admit that somehow it was somewhat mostly forgotten, so I dug out the old VHS and re watched it.. Damn how the hell did I manage to forget any of this!?Continue reading Gong fen you xia / Pink Force Commando (1982)→
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