Genre: Thriller

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 die-hard of Steven Seagal fans would struggle 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.

A well-scripted, superbly executed thriller with a formidable triumvirate at the centre, this could well be one of the best genre films to have come from Asia in the past few years.

While ‘Overheard’ was an excellent homage to the great American conspiracy films of the 70s, the in-name-only sequel is a more routine two hours with a far less incisive denouement.