Tag: Art of Action

John Woo’s third US film, his strongest to date, has FBI agent John Travolta switching faces with villain Nic Cage – part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

When screenwriters Mike Werb and Michael Colleary collaborated on original screenplay Face/Off, they had in mind such classic films as post-war gangster tale White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949)and identity change outing Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966). Only after completing an initial draft did Colleary see a John Woo movie – The Killer (1989) – at which point he immediately knew the pair had found the perfect director for their material.

This was clearly reciprocal – if Woo had already astounded Hong Kong audiences with A Better Tomorrow (1986) and crossed over internationally with The Killer and Hard Boiled (1992), he had yet to win comparable critical acclaim in America, even though his modest budget American debut Hard Target (1993) had had its admirers and his first blockbusting actioner Broken Arrow (1996) had impressed Hollywood with its box office.

These films both felt like the work of a director for hire not an auteur, and while Woo, like numerous Hollywood immigrants before him, could probably have continued in similar vein, the Face/Off script contained exactly the elements the director needed to take up in Hollywood where he’d left off in Hong Kong.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Broken Arrow
(1996)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 24 November 2024
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(1996)
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Director – John Woo – 1996 – US – Cert. 15 – 108m

***

Woo’s second US outing pits Christian Slater against nuclear stealth bomber co-pilot turned bad John Travolta in the Arizona desert – part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

The first project to see the light of day from WCG Entertainment, whose initials stand for Woo Chang Godsick. This triumvirate of names belongs to respectively the director of A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), and Hard Boiled (1992), his longstanding Hong Kong producer Terence Chang, and former agent Christopher Godsick – whose William Morris client list had included Woo himself and the director’s onscreen alter-ego Chow Yun‑fat.

Like his earlier successful action blockbuster Speed (Jan de Bont, 1991), Graham Yost’s script was initially written for producer Mark Gordon. After Woo’s more modestly budgeted US debut Hard Target (1993) was followed by disappointing setbacks on other American projects; Yost’s screenplay was exactly the entry into the US blockbuster market Woo needed. While the resultant film may be ultimately less satisfying than Woo’s best work, it quickly established him as a top Hollywood A-list director.… Read the rest

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Hard Target

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 24 November 2024
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Director – John Woo – 1993 – US – Cert. 18 – 100m (UK version), 86m (US version)

****

John Woo’s US debut is a New Orleans remake of The Most Dangerous Game with action star Jean-Claude Van Damme – part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

Essentially the first of two remakes of The Most Dangerous Game / The Hounds Of Zaroff (Ernest B. Schoedsack, Irving Pichel, 1932, shot using the same cast, crew and jungle sets as King Kong, (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933) – the second being Surviving The Game (Ernest R. Dickinson, 1994) – this updates the original’s remote island to the urban jungle of and countryside surrounding New Orleans, making its mad game hunter (Lance Henriksen taking on the role originally played by Leslie Banks) prey not on lost seafarers but unemployed down and outs on dry land.

In true New Right nineties spirit, the hunter of humans has now graduated from being merely a gratifying personal sport for deranged psychopaths to a lucrative business attracting high rolling, thrill-seeking clients who get to pull the trigger themselves.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Point Break
(1991)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 7 November 2024
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(1991)
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Director – Kathryn Bigelow – 1991 – US – Cert. 15 – 122m

*****

A rookie FBI man goes undercover with a group of surfers, believing them to be a gang of bank robbers who disguise themselves as former US Presidents – milestone action movie is out in a 4K Restoration in UK cinemas on Friday, November 8th as part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

At a cursory glance, there’s nothing particularly remarkable about Point Break, a crime movie about bank robbers, surfers and undercover cops, except perhaps the juxtaposition of surfers on the one hand with cops and robbers on the other except as a route into making a film about cops undercover. Certainly, that juxtaposition pervades the film, with fresh out of training school, undercover FBI man Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) coming up against accomplished surfer Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) and his new age-y philosophy of life, which is all about living in the moment and experiencing the biggest rush. Those two concepts happen to embody elements that could potentially make a great action film. Point Break does exactly that. Even though it’s a 35-year-old film, it feels as fresh today as it did on initial release.… Read the rest

Tags action, action hero, adrenaline rush. Physical, agent, Art of Action, Australia, backs, bank robber, beach, briefing, bromance, car, car chase, cars, chase, circle in the air, computer, confrontation, cop, cops and robbers, crash through glass, crime, death of parents, entering people’s houses, Ex-Presidents, FBI, fight, fights, freak weather, game of Chicken, gardens, Gary Busey, glass door, hand ball games, holding hands, impotence, John McGinley, jump from a plane, Kathryn Bigelow, Keanu Reeves, keep going, living in the moment, loose cannon, Lori Petty, male, male bonding, mayhem, new age, night and day, office, on foot, parachute, party, Patrick Swayze, philosophy, physicality, President masks, pursuer and pursued, pursuit, raid, ripcord, run-in, running, rush, sea, sedentary, separate existences, shoulders, sitting, skydiving, stakeout, storm, stunts, surfer, surfing, surfing season, takeaways, testosterone, throw a dog, training school, undercover, US, wave, withering put-downs, without a parachute

Features Live Action Movies

Red Cliff
(Chì Bì,
赤壁);
Red Cliff II
(Chì Bì
Jue Zhan Tian Xia,
赤壁（下）)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 2 November 2024
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(Chì Bì,
赤壁);
Red Cliff II
(Chì Bì
Jue Zhan Tian Xia,
赤壁（下）)
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Director – John Woo – 2008, 2009 – China, Hong Kong – Cert. 15 – 139m + 135m

*****

As a warlord seeks to crush opposition in Southern China, its two kingdoms join forces to defeat him, with the deciding battle taking place at Red Cliff – plays as part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

China, 208 A.D., around the end of the Han Dynasty. With the puppet Emperor more interested in talking to birds than the nitty-gritty of ruling his kingdom, his Prime Minister Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) talks him into a commission to subdue the rival Southern warlords Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen).

After a battle against the former’s forces in which his a loyal soldier is unable to prevent Liu’s wife getting killed but manages to get their baby to safety by strapping it on his back prior to single-handed combat, Liu’s advisor Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) sets out to persuade Sun Qian to join them in an alliance against the aggressor.

Despite unanimous opposition from his ministers, who would prefer to surrender to keep the peace, Sun agrees to fight along with his frontline commander Zhou Yu (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and, because she insists on joining them, his tomboy sister the Princess Sun Shangxian (Zhao Wei).… Read the rest

Tags 208 A.D., a man without friends, ablaze, action, admiral, advance party, advisor Takeshi Kaneshiro, aggressor, alliance, anchored ships, ankles, arguments, Art of Action, bagua, battlefield, bolted together, burning ships, Cao Cao, carrier pigeon, cast of thousands, casualties, CG, chains, Chang Chen, China, Chinese history, combat, commander, conquer, corpse, crush opposition, cujo, deciding battle, disguise, draw enemy fire, encampment, enemy camp, enlist, fleet promotion, foot level, forecasted wind, fortress, game, Han Dynasty, history, Hong Kong, impale, infection, intel, join forces, keep the peace, kingdom, kingdoms, Liu Bei, loyalty, mauled, mayhem, messages, military formation, military tactics, minister, plague, planning, pregnant, prime minister, princess, protection, prows ablaze, puppet Emperor, pyrotechnics, Red Cliff, romance of three kingdoms, shields, soccer, Southern China, spears, spiked cylinders, spy, straw men, stunts, Sun Quan, Sun Shangxian, surrender, talking to birds, tiger hunt, Tong Dawei, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, tortoise, tragedy, troop formation, Typhoid, warlord, water, wind, wind direction, You Yong, Zhang Fengyi, Zhao Wei

Features Live Action Movies

The Woman King

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 6 October 2022
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Director – Gina Prince-Bythewood – 2022 – US – Cert. 15 – 135m

****

The warrior women of Dahomey defend their people against capture by neighbouring nations for the white foreigners’ slave trade – plays as part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

Outside of the Greek myth of the Amazons, we don’t really think of armies as being made up of women rather than men prior to the last few decades, yet historically this actually occurred in a West African country, the Kingdom of Dahomey (further info: National Geographic; wikipedia) between the middle of the seventeenth and the end of the nineteenth centuries. These warrior women are the subject of this film which takes place in 1823.

A prologue shows a small unit of the women in action under their General Nansica (an unforgettable Viola Davis) as they attack and slaughter a unit of (male) soldiers from the neighbouring Oyo kingdom who have invaded one of their villages. These women are fearsome indeed and fly in the face of the representational norms of female or military.

After this compelling, action-packed opening, the narrative shifts to follow rebellious, young Dahomey girl Nawi (Thusu Mbedo) whose traditionalist father attempts to marry her off to an older man.… Read the rest

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Terminator 2
Judgement Day

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 26 October 2024
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Judgement Day
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Director – James Cameron – 1991 – US – Cert. 15 – 127m

*****

A second Terminator is sent from the future to kill the future leader of the war against the machines – plays as part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024

In the 1984 original, a Terminator robot (Arnold Schwarznegger) is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother-to-be of the leader of the war in the future against the machines, who are exterminating humanity.

This sequel sees a more advanced T-1000 robot (Robert Patrick) sent back in time to kill Sarah’s now-ten-year-old son John (Ed Furlong). Another Terminator (Schwarzengger) is also running around in the present (i.e. 1991).

Sarah’s recurring nightmare pictures the coming apocalypse when the machines unleash nuclear missiles on humanity. That aside, this is basically an essay on mothers and sons – and fathers and sons – wrapped up in the best chase movie you’ve ever seen.

What makes the film work is the mother and son element. Sarah is a believer in Terminators, the coming war against the machines, and humanity’s fightback in a world where such beliefs are dismissed as delusions.… Read the rest

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Yes, Madam!
(Huang Jia Shi Jie,
皇家师姐)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 12 December 2022
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(Huang Jia Shi Jie,
皇家师姐)
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Director – Corey Yuen – 1985 – Hong Kong – Cert. 18 – 93m

***1/2

Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock’s star debut, in which they play two plain-clothes, kickboxing Hong Kong cops – on Blu-ray from Monday, December 12th 2002 and now part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK from Monday, October 21st through November 2024

Michelle Yeoh, here credited as Michelle Kheng (in her early Hong Kong films she was often credited as Michelle Khan, and her birth nameis Yeoh Choo Kheng) plays Inspector Ng, a no-nonsense police officer who always gets her man (and, interestingly, all the criminals here are men), as illustrated in the opening scene when a flasher accosts her in a convenience store, and she promptly arrests him.

Her mentor Richard Nornen (Michael Harry, later seen in An Angel at my Table, Jane Campion, 1990) is visited in his hotel room by professional assassin Mr. Dik (Dick Wei) who shoots him point-blank through an apple in Nornen’s mouth in order to obtain a two-frame film clip of a legal contract for his gangster boss Tin Wai-keung (James Tien).… Read the rest

Tags action, action heroines, armoured car, Arne Venema, Art of Action, assassin, balcony, ballet, Barry Wong, bike chase, Billy Lau, boss, breaking glass, cold-blooded, convenience store, cop, cop on the beat, cops and robbers, Corey Yuen, counterfeit documents, Cynthia Rothrock, Dick Wei, Dickson Poon, England, evidence, fake weaponry, fence, flasher, gangster, genre bender, grenade, handgun, Hong Kong, hotel, injury, James Tien, John Sham, justice, kickboxing, knockabout comedy, lawyer, legal contract, lowlife, Malaysia, Mang Hoi, mansion, martial arts, mentor, Michael Harry, Michelle Khan, Michelle Kheng, Michelle Yeoh, Mike Leeder, motorbike chase, murder, ornamental glass display, Panadol, parked cars, parking ticket, passport, piece of film, pile of rubbish, point-blank, police chief, police inspector, police officer, safe keeping, Sammo Hung, Scotland Yard, Strepsil, stunt, stunt glass, stunt performers, sugar glass, thieves Aspirin, traffic warden, Tsui Hark, unarmed combat, US, wallet, Wu Ma

Features Live Action Movies

Seven Samurai
(Shichinin
no Samurai,
七人の侍)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 1 June 2020
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(Shichinin
no Samurai,
七人の侍)
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Director – Akira Kurosawa – 1954 – Japan – Cert. PG – 207m 207m + 5m intermission – Oscar nominated

Seven samurai must defend a poor village of farmers from bandits in one of the greatest action movies ever made – – both released in cinemas in a brand-new, 70th anniversary, 4k restoration from Thursday, September 26th; and currently streaming on BFI Player alongside other Kurosawa films together with a much wider selection of Japanese movies; the film is also part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK from Monday, October 21st through November 2024

Seven Samurai opens with a group of horsemen on a horizon. Notwithstanding the Japanese titles on the screen, you could be watching a Hollywood Western. Although what follows is a tale of samurai, bandits and farmers, it’s so close to ideas in a Western that Hollywood replaced sword with guns and retooled it as the hugely successful The Magnificent Seven (1960).

The plot concerns a small farming village threatened by bandits, who attack at harvest time and take all the crops. The farmers find a group of samurai prepared to defend them against the bandits in return for food and lodging.… Read the rest

Tags action, Akira Kurosawa, Art of Action, bandits, battle, BFI Japan, BFI Japan 2020, BFI Japan 2021, epic, farmer, historical, horses, Japan, Japan 2020, Japan 2021, Toshiro Mifune