Writer: Edmond Wong

Everything is so over-the-top and forced while desperately trying to drag all of those ensemble hits of yesteryear kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The result is a bizarre mix.

This is a surprisingly exciting and often blackly comic thriller that borrows from ‘Prison on Fire’ but does so with real skill.

Don’t compare it to Yen and Yip’s ‘SPL’ or ‘Flashpoint’, just sit back and enjoy a good old fashioned comic book blockbuster with heaps of kung fu action.

If you’re an action fan you won’t be disappointed and for me, this is Donnie Yen’s best film to date from an acting perspective.

This fourth go around for Yen and director Yip with the Ip saga is as solid as ever from the duo but pales in comparison to the first two instalments.

Competently directed by the legendary Yuen Woo-Ping and utilising a decent budget, ‘Master Z’ is pleasingly straight-forward, action soaked entertainment.

Yu’s epic is often stunning to look at, is a lot less stuffy and longwinded than many a recent Chinese period epic, moves at a fair clip and delivers a surfeit of adrenaline surged spectacle.