Review: The Warrior’s Way

South Korean actor Dong-Gung Jang plays an assassin in the Sad Flute Clan who refuses to kill the last member of an opposing clan, an infant girl. He and the girl (who is adorable, by the way) high tail it to the Wild West (!) and a town full of travelling circus folk. Apparently he was hoping to live in peace, and also to see an old friend, who he soon discovers has died. His quest for a peaceful existence is shattered upon the arrival of badass Colonel (Danny Huston, 100% pure evil) and his men. Meanwhile, his comrades (led by the legendary Ti Lung) have also come looking for him and the task he failed to carry out. Kate Bosworth plays a tough rootin’ tooterer (she’s not shootin’, though, she throws knives) with revenge on her mind, Geoffrey Rush is the town drunk, who also narrates the film (incongruously).
 
Better than “Sukiyaki: Western Django”, this 2010 Asian Western/martial arts hybrid from newbie writer-director Sngmoo Lee has its moments (and Lee proves a visual stylist at least), but plays like a 90 minute trailer instead of a real, flesh & blood movie. I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did (Ninja vs. cowboys! Sounds epic!), but I felt like the characters were caricatures and that we were only getting a cliff notes version of character relations. Filmed mostly with a green-screen, it’s bloody impressive-looking, the stylised action is cool when we get it (kinda like “Ninja Assassin” or “Versus”), and Danny Huston walks off with the entire film. He seems to be going for somewhere in between Jack Palance and his own dad John, and is effortlessly menacing. The guy makes mince meat out of the scenery in the best way possible, and he deserves his own damn movie (or at least to be in a better one than this).
 
Unfortunately, there’s not enough action, Geoffrey Rush plays a role beneath him (It’s the old Thomas Mitchell/Edmond O’Brien/Jack Elam town drunk role), Kate Bosworth is terrible and miscast (as a Yosemite Samantha type, even saying ‘tarnations!’ at one point), and the ‘townies’ are so caricatured that we even get the town ‘midget’ played by “Bad Santa” co-star Tony Cox. Bosworth is so bad, she seems to be basing her performance off Jessie the Cowgirl in the “Toy Story” films. Embarrassing.
 
It’s weird, never really comes off, and looks like ¼ of it was directed by Terry Gilliam, as the travelling circus thing never really feels organic to the rest. Terrific music score, though with Morricone influences, and the cinematography is so eye-popping, you’d swear it was in 3D. It’s washed out, but still visually arresting, with especially fine shot composition.
 
Unfortunately, it’s all so empty and the East/West marriage is an extremely lumpy one. Meanwhile, at times I wasn’t sure if what I was seeing was a real town or just a travelling circus, it never quite came off. Flashy, occasionally interesting (when Huston’s around), but not very filling. It’s weird enough to be watchable, though.
 
Rating: C+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more