All Film Reviews

Hollywood had fifteen years to learn from their mistakes and yet somehow they still managed to make another bad ‘Street Fighter’ movie.

A knockabout punch-up of a movie, ‘Street Mobster’ flamboyantly bloodies the audience’s nose with its raw brutality and antisocial behaviour.

A fantastic mix of drama and action, ‘Stuntman’ is at once an ode to the action giants of yesteryear and how the modern movie-making world has changed drastically since their heyday, and a touching family drama about redemption.

To say ‘Suicide Club’ is a trip, is an understatement. It’s been a while since I‘ve watched a film that has equally repulsed and mesmerized me.

This is ‘Spaghetti Western’ done Miike style, and one of his strengths is his ability to construct a world that you can’t find anywhere else and that you don’t want to leave.

While ‘Summer Holiday’ has no major weaknesses, it is a traditionally clichéd romantic comedy that doesn’t attempt to throw anything more challenging into the blend.

Its gritty, truthful tone and flawless cast manage to take a sub-genre fraught with cliché and melodrama and give it a provocative resonance that is so very precious.

I can’t say enough about how fresh, fun and vibrant this film feels. It takes the staples of the time travel genre and spins them in unexpected, humorous and at times even sad directions.

Ultimately viewer satisfaction with ‘Summons to Death’ will arguably be measured by one’s affinity for both the Sean Connery-period Bond films or sixties era sensibilities and filmmaking stylings.

Imbued with that understated eccentricity that many Japanese comedies have used so effectively, Masayuki Suo’s homage to his country’s unique culture proves to be a winning effort.

Go into ‘Sunny’ with the right mind-set and its as enjoyable a piece of commercial film-making as you’re likely to get – just don’t be too surprised if you encounter feelings of narrative deja-vu.

The great on-screen chemistry of the two leads help this stylish and hugely enjoyable caper move along at a leisurely, but absorbing pace.

There is little to redeem this movie, with drama non existent, plot structure meandering all over the place and awful comedy at inappropriate moments.

‘Super Model’ is, for the majority, a superior comedy that bursts forth with copious amounts of energy and imagination.

While it’s about as textbook as late 70s early 80s kung fu flicks can get, ‘Super Power’ is a slick fight action flick.

Probably the hardest to find of Seasonal’s American produced pictures, ‘Superfights’ is great fun despite the super cheese factor and worth seeing for the awesome martial arts.

The humour is never forced and the drama never over-cooked, meaning that as a whole, the film hits its targets with remarkable accuracy.

If you just remember to bring a sense of humour, and wonder, you’ll be rewarded with what is easily one of the best Japanese films of the year.

‘Suspect X’ plays with the usual hero/villain dynamic before settling into a denouement that reveals the complexity the audience was hitherto unaware of.

Once again, Japan has given us the cinematic equivalent of an antique porcelain swan – something so beautiful, delicate and sublimely crafted that it’s hard not to be impressed.

With a wonderful, toe-tapping soundtrack, a gallery of amiable characters and a gutsy energy, ‘Swing Girls’ is a resounding success.

In a relatively short time Yee creates a fascinating martial world every bit as involving as the visions that Chor Yuen used to put together years before.

‘Sword of the Assassin’ is a noble effort from some talented Vietnamese filmmakers which is beautifully shot, buoyed by engaging characters and features a satisfying amount of high flying martial arts combat.

‘Swordsman’ is not as strong as its superior sequel and the aforementioned difficulties are all apparent, but it is still an ultimately rewarding film.