NINJA 2: SHADOW OF A TEAR!

NINJA 2: SHADOW OF A TEAR is an excellent example of how the direct-to-video market is the best place to see true action films.  I guess I could go on about how NINJA 2 contains more than enough perfectly filmed fight scenes to satisfy the most die hard action aficionado.  But I feel there is a lot more going on with this film and other works by one of the greatest action directors ever, Isaac Florentine.  What makes director Isaac Florentine so unique is his appreciation of all the elements that go into making a great action film.  NINJA 2 showcases all these elements in fine form.  What we get with this film is a solid story, a strong well acted protagonist, a dark and strange antagonist and uncompromisingly violent action scenes that deliver the goods.  All of these movie elements are of course put together and maintained by the director who knows how to use the camera to heighten every experience on screen for best dramatic effect whether it be a punch to the face or a emotion expressed by a character.

I think the most overlooked component of Florentine's films is the story.  We get too distracted by all the punching, kicking , flippi-dee-doo marital arts that we forget that we are invested emotionally into the characters of our story.  Two great examples of this our UNDISPUTED 1 & 2.  NINJA 2 is no exception.  Scott Adkins plays Casey a Ninjitsu master whose wife was murdered by another ninja named Goro.  The sequel to NINJA is a little more darker when it comes to the character of Casey.  We see that even though he is the master of the martial arts he does his best to avoid confrontation.  When he discovers his wife is murdered however, he has no problem killing anyone who may have had a hand in it.  That is different from the character he played in the first one where if he killed anyone it was because of the necessity of the situation.  The new Casey at one point kills a guy who he rendered defenseless in cold blood.  Being master-less of his emotions plays a big part of the story which is why NINJA 2's standard revenge formula stands out from almost all wannabe action films out there that complicate their plots in an attempt to make their movies seem smart.  NINJA 2's complexity is more subtle and can be easily overlooked but it is there.

All the fights scenes are great.  Scott Adkins is in top form demonstrating his athletic prowess as he kicks butt on his way to revenge.  Director Florentine shows all relying on the action in front of the camera rather than using shaky camera shenanigans and heavy editing.  There is a lot of martial arts and movie fighting on display.  One fight scene in particular our hero battles five guys in one long uninterrupted sequence.  Another thing I noticed with the fights and overall look of the film is the lack of computer generated graphics.  I don't recall a lot of C.G.I. blood and backgrounds that were more prevalent in the first NINJA.  There seems to be a more back to basics approach to the fight scenes and look to the film.  Everything appears real and on location.

If you are expecting Scott Adkins to run around in ninja pajamas the whole movie you will be sadly disappointed.  Mr. Adkins doesn't don the deadly sleepwear until he assaults the bad guys compound near the end of the film and even then it isn't long until his ninja face cover is removed so we can see his face.  I really didn't care either way but I am sure there are some ninja nerds out there that will cry foul.

This is a film that needs support.  We need more people in the industry to take notice of well made action films.  Big time studio action movies tend to be more concerned about big explosions, car chases and overly using their editing programs.  I hate fight scenes that cut to different angles with every thrown punch or kick.  It is too much of an eyesore.  Florentine gives us hope that there are directors out there that care about action cinema.  Every fight leaves an impact on the viewer.  I think most people who are into kung-fu movies would come out of this one with an eagerness to tell everyone they know to go see it.  It is definitely a film that evokes excitement from those who watch it.  Tell your friends about this one and be sure to buy it, rent it or watch it on THE NETFLIX while it is still available.  Together we can make a better tomorrow for action fans everywhere.

Jason

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING...This movie is on drugs!

Finally after following the production of this film for like two years I am able to watch DOR.  I don't have On-demand and it never played in any theaters near where I live so I had to wait for it on Blu.  It was worth the wait.  Now I really can't write about this film without spoiling a majority of what happens in the film so be warned.  Spoilers ahead.  I will say this.  DOR is one trippy action film.  This isn't your typical finger/toe chopping, bat bludgeoning, machete hacking shoot'em up.  This film will make your head hurt.  Beware the white flashes!

The awesome Scott Adkins stars as John whose family was murdered by Luc played by Jean-Claude Van Damme.  Since REGENERATION JCVD has escaped the government and has become Marlon Brando in APOCALYPSE NOW.  He has gone up river into hiding converting other Universal Soldiers who are hunting him down.  He has a mind freeing injection he gives soldiers who are programmed as sleeper agents for the government.  When given the injection their vision strobes to white flashes causing the soldier to see the truth and the audience member watching too long at the screen to convulse on the floor uncontrollably and evacuate their bowels into their pants in front of their friends.  At least that is what happened to me.  Word of warning.  Don't stare at the screen too long when the strobing happens.  It will hurt your head.  The piercing sound effects don't help either.  Can't imagine what that would have looked like in 3D.  Absolute hell, I imagine.  JCVD plans on creating his own clone army to fight the government that created the Universal Soldier program.  Fight fire with fire.  That sort of thing.  John is given the injection but it does not work.  His memories help him resist which lead to occasional bizarre episodes of John seeing Luc in mirrors and such messing with his mind.  John has to take the journey up river to find Luc and ultimately himself.  How deep.

Scott Adkins is the new JCVD.  The best way you can tell is that you don't even realize until the end that both JCVD and Dolph Lundgren are not in this film very much.  We haven't had a solid reliable star in the eighties style action film for awhile.  Scott fills their shoes perfectly.  In a way at the end there is sort of this passing of the torch so to speak with Scott defeating JCVD.  The two fights between Adkins and JCVD (who turns into a bloody looking clown from hell) and Dolph are the film's highlight.  All the action scenes are fluid and brutal with blood all over the place and a high body count.  It is exactly what you want to see.  You can tell what is going on and there isn't an abundance of quick stylish cuts and camera shakes.  I also appreciate that the car chase scene was more like two cars battling rather than a boring chase to see which vehicle can drive faster and turn corners better.

One of the best things about this DAY OF RECKONING is how it wasn't filmed in Bulgaria or Yugoslavia like so many other lower budgeted action films including REGENERATION.  They all look too similar with few standing out from the crowd.  DOR was filmed in Louisiana with a nice swamp setting which adds to the whole APOCALYPSE NOW vibe.  The movie takes a big risk focusing a big part of its run time to the psychological element of brain washing, cloning and the whole what-is-real and who-can-you-trust type of shenanigans that usually happen in thrillers and not action movies.  It does work well without being too convoluted.  Even though maybe the film doesn't fully explain itself I did feel satisfied with the whole story by the end. 

DAY OF RECKONING is a better film than REGENERATION.  In REGENERATION the film's main character was Luc but he was barely in it with the film depending on the supporting cast to drive the story.  They did a great job but I want to see my action star throughout the film.  I watch a JCVD film to see JCVD.  Scott Adkins is in DAY OF RECKONING throughout the story.  This is a Scott Adkins action movie.  The film rests on his badass appeal.  DOR is better because Adkins is the star.  He is better as the lead than a supporting character.  Every movie he is in from now on should have his face bigger than everyone else on the poster.  Make it so.  Besides the painful strobing scenes for which there are two of I think the only thing that kind of sucks is that there is not enough Dolph.  He really is fantastic in this film.  But what can I say.  I love the big guy.  Like Adkins he is way too under appreciated.  I would love to see a film where the two team up and take down some bad guy played by a former wrestler or something.  You can throw in Segal for good measure too.  Make it so too.

Jason

EXPENDABLES 2 IS THE BEST MOVIE OF 2012!!!....Prob-Probably.

I realize that I had some pretty low expectations for EXPENDABLES 2 so maybe this movie isn't as great as I think it is.  Maybe after a few more hundred viewings I will see the flaws and missed opportunities that usually come with an expensive high dollar action movie boasting such a wonderful cast.  Just to be safe I lowered the amount of exclamation points at the end of my title to this blog entry to just three instead of ten.  This movie does have a strange small controversy surrounding the original rating for the film.  Stallone himself did say that this was going to be a PG-13 style film but that Van Damme's performance was so awesome that no one would care.  That statement was later denied completely and pretended by Stallone himself to have never been said reassuring us that this was going to be an uncompromising violent film pushing the R rating.  I took that as they filmed for a PG-13 but panicked after nerd backlash (myself included) and pushed for R.  Thank goodness you can C.G.I. blood easily onto digitally filmed movies.  With all that said I can say that EXPENDABLES 2 was blast-tastic.  It was a bloody good time.  It was an action movie fans dream come true.  I really thought the whole movie was really really neat.


EXPENDABLES 2 is about Stallone's crew on the hunt for Van Damme and his personal military force known as the Sang.  What was originally a short mission retrieving plans from a crashed plane quickly turns personal when one of their own dies at the hands (or should I say feet, ha-ha?) of Van Damme.  After watching the trailers I was pretty sure I knew how this film story wise would play out.  I knew who would die and why there was a woman now a part of the crew.  Well thankfully EXPENDABLES 2 threw me a curve ball.  I was wrong.  Way wrong which in this case was a good thing.  The movie is a little unpredictable slightly in that respect.  Most of the time you can call it before it happens.  But that's no big deal.  They try to give you a little surprise at the beginning but you can see it coming a mile away.  But maybe that is just me.  Maybe I watch way too many movies gaining way too much knowledge on how films play on audiences expectations.  Maybe I should stop writing this nonsensical review and go outside and live life to it's fullest..........But there are spiders outside so on I go with this way too positive review.

This movie moves quickly.  In my head I remember it being one extremely long action sequence.  Really though there are some quiet moments here and there to reflect a little on these characters personalities.  The action is filmed fast and sometimes it looks really good but then other times because so much is going on at once it is kind of hard to tell who is doing what to who.  Once I thought I was watching Randy Couture beat the crap out of some guy in heavy shadow but it turned out once the fight moved into daylight that I was actually watching Terry Crewes.  The two were wearing the same hat making their dark silhouettes almost identical.  Overall though all the action scenes were great even if the majority of them were filmed in basic American Acton Movie Style.  Meaning we get shots of good guys firing guns cutting to reaction shots of bad guys who have a strange aversion to taking cover falling down dead.  At least the body count is high.  Very high.  Like probably in the hundreds high.  That's a good action movie, folks.  There are some moments where I think that they really were aiming for a PG-13.  There isn't that much blood for one thing.  It looks like it was all added in post which the first one was but you don't have a lot of guys getting blown into pieces or major decapitations by big knives and such.  At one point Jet Li grabs two frying pans and starts fighting a few guys because he lost his weapons or whatever.  Its a good moment yet I was reminded of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2: SECRET OF THE OOZE where the Turtles stopped using their weapons and started fighting with yo-yo's and other stupid toys to try and appeal to the too stupid to know what TMNT is all about demographic.  EXPENDABLES 2 doesn't go that crazy but it just made me wonder what they were originally shooting for.

Its really cool to see Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis and Chuck Norris fighting side by side.  Their appearances are a little more than simple one scene cameos.  Seeing these guys together is the best thing about this movie.  It is a moment that deserves some reflection.  Who would have ever thought such a movie could be made?  It is kind of a dangerous thing.  I am surprised the universe didn't implode somehow at the epic oddity of Chuck Norris saying a "CHUCK NORRIS FACT".  Just be careful, EXPENDABLES 2 is all I am saying.  I was afraid his acting would suck or be not as good as the others but Norris did a good job.  As soon as Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Willis are together the movie can't resist but start throwing out their classic one liners back and forth.  Thankfully the movie doesn't descend too far into the tongue-in-cheek territory.  They seem to do it to make fun of themselves and their past persona's.  I guess EXPENDABLES 2 isn't just an action movie but a post-modern action movie similar to ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  It is an action movie about these guys' past action movies.  That is kind of cool when you think about it.  Another bad thing about getting these three guys together is that the rest of the Expendables take a backseat to the film's focus.  Suddenly at the end the movie seems to be more about them than the core crew of the Expendables.  Yes, even Dolph Lundgren takes a backseat.  Speaking of Dolph I am so glad to see that he is in the entire film.  He is a lot of fun and I would have liked to see more of his interaction with Jet Li.  These two have a unique chemistry together.  I hope they explore it more in EXPENDABLES 3: NOW WE ARE JUST PUSHING IT.  I just hope in the next one if there is one that Segal at least makes an appearance and they bring back Scott Adkins as another character to represent the future of action stars. It is neat to see Adkins and his mentor Van Damme together fighting side by side.

I like that there is a solemn attitude towards death in this film even if it is highly hypocritical.  These guys encountered all kinds of horrors in battle and you can see it on their faces as they reflect on there past when Chris Hemsworth (who plays a young sniper new to the team) starts talking about his past experiences in the Afghanistan war.  Yet the Expendables have smiles on their faces and cracking jokes as they gun down hundreds of bad guys.  Gee, it sure looks like war is fun to them.  Why so glum, chum?  I think having this attitude or acknowledgement of the consequences of violence keeps the movie from becoming a light hearted action comedy.  We don't want another DOUBLE TEAM on our hands here.

For me EXPENDABLES 2 was better than the first one.  I was surprised, excited and relieved that the whole film didn't seem like a watered down bland mess.  It was a near perfect action movie accomplishing what it set out to do.  You can include this one in your conversation as to what are the greatest action movies of all time are.  This one belongs somewhere in the top ten.  Bring on BULLET TO THE HEAD and THE LAST STAND.


BTW:  Second best thing about EXPENDABLES 2?  No SHINEDOWN song to cast a stain on the whole film.


Jason