Genre: Thriller

‘Mission: Impossible II’ certainly offers the world a clear glimpse of what Woo is capable of when it comes to action, but it also lacks his usual quota of emotional drama and camaraderie.

‘Monster’ has a few elements that could make for a decent thriller, but the overall picture is sadly spoiled by a number of idiotic characters making even more idiotic decisions.

Bookended by two outstanding train-based action sequences, ‘Moscow Mission’ starts with a bang before settling into a more standard, yet still entertaining, police procedural.

This is certainly not a flick for mainstream critics and while it could have eased up on the over stylisation of the action, ‘Ninja Assassin’ is still a big, bloody hoot.

No doubt those who need oodles of story/plot/narrative to justify enjoying a film will grumble (yawn!) but on the whole this is a superior sequel and a super-charged martial arts film.

Definitely not to everyone’s taste, but ink black humour and Choi’s powerhouse performance prevent ‘Oldboy’ from becoming unendurable.

‘On The Run’ is a superb effort from Biao and a welcome change of pace for an actor who is so often seen as just the “little brother” of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.

‘Once A Black Sheep’ is solid fare though its relative anonymity should tell you much about its place in Hong Kong cinema.

It’s bloody, down and dirty, and the highlight is the stalk and slash sequence of Adkins making his way through various buildings taking out bad guys with a knife.

It’s big, it’s brash and in several sequences surprisingly gory but ‘Operation Red Sea’ is big screen, blockbusting action done well.

Unless you’re looking to poke fun at it, I’d imagine even the most dedicated Steven Seagal fans will find it hard to recommend ‘Out of Reach’.

Often exciting, action packed and reminiscent of something one would happily rent during the 90s heyday of never-ending-video-store-action-film-releases.