All Film Reviews

The film takes a silly concept and knows how to have fun with it, making for an enjoyable action-packed outing that is easy on the brain.

All of the fun clashes with wacky opponents are noticeably absent, and the film feels like a much more run-of-the-mill low budget actioner.

Admittedly the acting isn’t great and you’ve seen it all done better elsewhere, but if you’re in the right mood then it can definitely provide a fun night off for your brain.

Wong Fei-Hung gets the revisionist upgrade that someone, somewhere asked for and the results, though mixed, are mostly positive.

‘River’ might not reach ‘Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes’ heights of loopy brilliance, but it’s another mixture of Japanese invention and wit that is sure to please those looking for an antidote to bloated Hollywood excess.

This isn’t a masterpiece of the genre by any stretch, but it’s a more than adequate drama with some well shot chase scenes.

The title bears no resemblance to the film it makes you think of and also bears little relevance to anything in this actual film, instead ‘Roaring Dragon, Bluffing Tiger’ is just a dull and lazy wannabe adventure flick.

Despite some wonderful Jackie moments it proves to be a movie where the need to be ‘cute’ is more important than the desire to entertain.

Utilising a premise that is tailor-made for technology-mad Japanese audiences, Yaguchi achieves a partial return to the superlative form of yesteryear.

‘RoboGeisha’ is likely to be the best film about a robot Geisha ever made, has midnight movie cult status written all over it and if you are in the mood for it, is an absolute hoot.

An extremely dated Category III exploitation flick that, a few nasty bits aside, is more camp than cool.

It is a confident film that merely allows the people involved to tell their story without the need for the makers to chime in unnecessarily.

The first of Toho’s monster movies to be released in colour, ‘Rodan’ ranks as one of the best Kaiju movies out there.

If you are looking for straight up, no frills, ninja-on-ninja action then you could do a lot worse than Seiji Chiba’s ‘Rogue Ninja’.

Slow burn and tense filled horror that relies more on a continuous and thick sense of dread rather than jump scares and oodles of gore, ‘Roh’ is serious horror that gets under the skin.

What this interesting little oddity lacks in thrills and spills it therefore makes up for in good ol’ 80s synth-pop, day-glo, bubble-permed fun.

‘Romantic Island’ has a charm that makes it much more appealing than just a picture-postcard sent to lift the spirits would be.

The idea behind ‘Romeo Must Die’ was an interesting one but the finished product winds up being distinctly average.

While ‘Rosa’ isn’t one of the best action-comedies to come out of Hong Kong in the 80’s, it is still a constantly watchable one.

‘Rose, Rose I Love You’ is less of a straight lampoon of 60s Hong Kong cinema and more of a genuine attempt to harness the spiritedness of the original.

It may be a routine swordplay flick that ambles along with little revolutionary, but ‘Roving Swordsman’ is nonetheless watchable enough to warrant a purchase.

Added to the humour is the furious action orchestrated by Ching Siu-Tung that makes this much more than the average comedy film.

Part two is lavish and colourful, but simply not as absorbing as it needed to be. A steadier hand at the helm may have rectified this.

Just scraping into the 4 star category, the ever-watchable Michelle Yeoh produces more classic 80’s action in a way only the battling babes can!