cityonfire.com | Movie News & Developments |
- Shadowguard | aka The Blood Bond (2011) Review
- ‘Furious 7′s’ James Wan to direct live-action ‘Robotech’?
- ‘SPECTRE’ set video reveals Jaguar vs. Aston Martin chase!
- Jun Ji-Hyun takes on the evil Japanese in ‘Assassination’
| Shadowguard | aka The Blood Bond (2011) Review Posted: 30 Apr 2015 12:01 AM PDT  "ShadowGuard" Chinese Theatrical Poster AKA: The Blood Bond By Paul Bramhall With the dawn of the DVD era, Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan quickly became known for his informative and knowledgeable audio commentaries, recorded for the Hong Kong Legends and Dragon Dynasty DVD labels. What he was less well known for was for his movie output, which consisted of being involved in misguided productions like Jackie Chan low point The Medallion, or just plain bad movies like Dragon Squad (aka Dragon Heat). In an interview shortly after leaving Dragon Dynasty, Bey admitted to his shortcomings, and revealed he was going to be concentrating on his production company. His plan was to put behind him the misfires of the past, and focus on making some solid HK action movies. ShadowGuard was to be the first. Taking a plot which is essentially identical to the 1991 Wong Jing movie The Last Blood, ShadowGuard sees a holy man, modeled after the Dalai Lama, visiting a South East Asian country in the grip of a civil war called Purma (because it would probably be too offensive to actually call it Burma I guess). Just like in The Last Blood the man is mortally wounded and needs a blood transfusion, but his rare blood type means there's only a very small number of potential candidates in the country. One such candidate is washed up Special Forces guy Michael Biehn, yes as in Kyle Reese from The Terminator and Dwayne Hicks from Aliens, so the bodyguard of his holiness, played by newcomer Phoenix Valen, decides to track him down and convince him to donate. It's worth noting that the movie has an interesting back-story. Having worked with Biehn previously on Danny Lee's 2005 atrocity Dragon Squad, Bey called Biehn to play the part of the washed up Special Forces guy, hoping he'd take the role. Not only did he take it, but Bey was so impressed with Biehn's enthusiasm, that he offered him his first opportunity at sitting in the director's chair. Biehn accepted, however once he got on set in China, things turned out to be not quite how he'd expected. Biehn still says he hasn't seen the final version, and in an interview shortly after it was released, he described the experience of working on ShadowGuard. Working with an inexperienced crew that didn't speak much English, he explained how he had to do almost everything himself, right down to painting the walls of newly built sets. ShadowGuard was so under funded that crew members were often asked to play characters in front of camera, despite it being an English language movie and them not being able to speak a lick of it (in one scene a character amusingly yells at Biehn, "Son of the bitch!"). In the end, perhaps sensing his frustration, Bey told Biehn not to worry about post-production and that he'd take care of everything. So ultimately, once filming was complete Bey took over, from editing it together to mixing the sound, and once the negative reviews came rolling in, Biehn spoke up and said he disowns the movie as his directorial debut. Amusingly it seems Bey wasn't too happy with it either, as he went on to write a novel of what he described the movie was meant to be, entitled The Blood Bond. The original title for the movie was in fact supposed to be ShadowGuard: The Blood Bond, the idea being that it would become an action franchise for lead actress Phoenix Valen, but perhaps sensing it never going to happen, it was finally released as just ShadowGuard. So, does the final product reflect all the problems that came about in the process of making it? The blunt answer is, yes. However there is entertainment to be had from ShadowGuard, although it comes with the warning that it's strictly of the so bad it’s good variety. Phoenix Valen can't act, this fact is inarguable, delivering every one of her lines in the same monotone lifeless manner from beginning to end. The editing doesn't help either. In one scene she checks on the holy man to see if he needs anything before going to sleep for the night. When he says all is ok, they exchange glances at each other, but instead of showing how close they are it makes the scene disturbingly creepy, as he lingeringly grins at her in the doorway from his bed. What's even more amusing though, is the intensity of Biehn's acting. The poor guy is obviously putting his heart and soul into the role, despite his lines being atrocious (he's partly to blame for that, being a co-writer of the script). In his many scenes with Valen, the composition of her lifeless line delivery next to his wide eyed yelling is frequently hilarious. It should also be noted that as he wasn't involved in post production, if any of his lines weren't adequately recorded on location, he's been over dubbed by someone who doesn't sound anything like him, giving things a slightly mid-2000's Seagal feel. Essentially for no other reason than being friends with Bey, Simon Yam shows up as the head of the military trying to off the holy man. His scenes either consist of him hamming it up in a way in which I'm sure he must have been self aware, compared to others in which he simply looks bored. The final moments of his fight with Biehn in the climax are a worthy highpoint of unintended entertainment. Also calling on the friendship card, Michael Wong shows up as a helicopter pilot (in what I presume is most likely his own helicopter, which is probably why Bey called him) for less than a minute, but he does dub his own lines which I guess is a plus, all three of them. The action was choreographed by Fan Siu Wong, who must be having a difficult time finding work to be reduced to working on a production like this. Surprisingly, some of it is quite entertaining. The shootouts are awful, especially the finale which sees a corridor shootout in a hospital a la Hard Boiled, only with CGI bullet damage and completely lifeless execution. However to his credit, he does a half decent job of making Valen's empty handed fight scenes passable. Using Tai Chi, there's clearly no power in her blows, and she wears an expression which belies that of the character she's playing, all too obviously showing her concentration on remembering the moves. Strip all that away though, and the choreography is competently executed, and it's nice to see Tai Chi being used effectively against opponents, a style which is rarely used in screen fighting. ShadowGuard barely scrapes in at just over 80 minutes, meaning it never becomes truly painful to watch, at least not in a way which has you reaching for the stop button. It's bad, but it's passably bad thanks to the complete incompetence of almost every aspect of it, which somehow translates to some morbid form of being watchable. Special mention goes to the Hong Kong Blu-ray, one of the few territories that it actually got a release, which comes with four equally cringe worthy cast interviews. Two have Bey interviewing Phoenix and Biehn respectively, and are interesting because in the interview with Phoenix she seems stoned, and in the interview with Biehn he's clearly in the process of giving up hope. The other two are with Simon Yam and Bey himself, both conducted by an interviewer who seems to struggle to think of questions to ask. Bey rather awkwardly explains how he met Phoenix in a nightclub, and after a movie she was working on fell through, invited her to stay with him in his apartment. He then goes to some lengths to justify that it was ok as their relationship is entirely platonic. It's all quite creepy, and had it been a UK or US DVD, I'm sure this part of the interview would have been cut. For the fact that it wasn't, I'm going to give the overall score an extra point. Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 4/10 |
| ‘Furious 7′s’ James Wan to direct live-action ‘Robotech’? Posted: 30 Apr 2015 12:00 AM PDT  "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross" Japanese DVD Cover After years of development hell, Warner Bros. is finally moving forward with their big screen, live-action adaptation of Robotech… wait a minute. We’ve heard this before, right? Does this mean third time’s the charm… According to Deadline, Andy Muschietti, who directed the 2013 Spanish-Canadian horror film, Mama, is being eyed to direct. Michael Gordon (G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra) is writing the screenplay, and Gianni Nunnari (The Departed) and Mark Canton (300) are producing. We first heard of the live-action Robotech movie back in 2008. At the time, Tobey Maguire was set to produce and Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) was brought on board to write. Then, Robotech disappeared. A few years later, news broke that Nic Mathieu (Spectral) was “officially” attached to helm the adaptation. Around this time, there were rumors flying around that Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street) was in talks to play one of the lead characters. Somewhere along the way, Maguire lost interest, Kasdan went on to scribe some flick called Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and the idea of a live-action Robotech was once again shelved indefinitely. Whatever the case was back then, the newest update – if it’s happening – is exciting news if you’re familiar with Robotech. If you’re not, here’s a brief history: 1985′s Robotech – which was basically mash up of three, unrelated Japanese cartoons by Tatsunoko Productions – was one of the first titles responsible for igniting anime fandom. On the surface, you can say that Robotech is about piloted, transforming robots that battle aliens (*cough* Pacific Rim); but what really made Robotech special was its edgy themes of love, death and war. It wasn’t your average happy-go-lucky G.I. Joe or Transformers episode. People got killed. Relationships were complicated. And the storytelling was fascinating. Simply put, if done right, a live-action Robotech could be epic. Updates: Deadline reports that Sony has acquired the rights to Robotech and are planning on developing it as a worldwide franchise. It’s unclear if Andy Muschietti (Mama) is still attached as director, but we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop as we hear more. Hopefully it’s not another 3 years from now. BREAKING NEWS: James Wan (The Conjuring, Furious 7) is in talks to direct the live-action Robotech. But just as Collider reports: With Warner courting him for Aquaman and the possibility of another Fast and Furious sequel on the horizon, we’ll be surprised to see if Wan accepts the job. Stay tuned! |
| ‘SPECTRE’ set video reveals Jaguar vs. Aston Martin chase! Posted: 30 Apr 2015 12:00 AM PDT  "SPECTRE" Teaser Poster THE MOVIE: Agent 007′s latest adventure, Skyfall, has gone on to become the most successful James Bond film of all time. With a final gross of over $1 billion worldwide, it’s no surprise that the Bond producers have asked Skyfall director Sam Mendes to return to helm Daniel Craig’s next outing as the super spy. Bond 24 is officially titled SPECTRE (which stands for “Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion”). Returning cast members include Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, and Rory Kinnear. New cast members are as followed: Christoph Waltz (who is playing Oberhauser, not Blofeld, as previously rumored), Lea Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Andrew Scott, Monica Bellucci and Stephanie Sigman. Also returning is Jesper Christensen, who played the Mr. White in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. SPECTRE hits theaters in the U.K. on October 23, 2015 and in the U.S. on November 6, 2015. Updates: Latino Review reported that John Logan (Gladiator), one of four credited writers on Skyfall, has already been hired to write the next two films in the franchise. | During a Charlie Rose interview (via Collider), director Sam Mendes explains why he finally decided to return to the director's chair for Bond 24: "I cast a new M, I cast a new Moneypenny, I cast a new Q, I cast a new Tanner… I felt there was a way to create the second part of a two-part story." The director also states that it will feel like a continuation of Skyfall. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar) is taking over duties for Roger Deakins (Skyfall). In addition, Mendes will be shooting Bond 24 on film, as opposed to digital. | New Bond car (Aston Martin DB10) and the teaser poster. | Candid footage of Craig riding in a boat along the River Thames, courtesy of Collider. | First set photo of Craig, Seydoux and Bautista. | 1st Behind-the-scenes featurette for SPECTRE. Also, here’s the first official image of Bond himself. | 2nd Behind-the-scenes featurette, featuring director Sam Mendes. New set videos ( 1 | 2 | 3 ), which hint a car chase in the streets of Rome. In addition, Collider reports that Stephanie Sigman (Miss Bala) has joined the cast as Estrella. | Teaser posters ( 1 | 2 ). | 1st teaser trailer for SPECTRE. BREAKING NEWS: Watch a new set video, which reveals a Jaguar vs. Aston Martin car chase! |
| Jun Ji-Hyun takes on the evil Japanese in ‘Assassination’ Posted: 29 Apr 2015 01:04 AM PDT  "Assassination" Theatrical Poster South Korean megastar Jun Ji-Hyun (My Sassy Girl, Blood: The Last Vampire) will be reuniting writer/director Choi Dong-hun (The Thieves) for Assassination, an upcoming action film that’s reminiscent of the “vs. Japanese Occupation” themed titles like Bruce Lee’s Fists of Fury, Jet Li’s Fist of Legend and Donnie Yen’s Legend of the Fist. Assassination is scheduled to hit theaters sometime in 2015. Assassination will have the actress leading a group of assassins charged by the Korean resistance to target key supporters of the Japanaese occupation. Co-starring are Lee Jung-Jae (Il Mare), Oh Dal-su (Old Boy), Ha Jung-Woo (The Yellow Sea), Cho Jin-woong (Once Upon a Time in High School) and Lee Kyoung-young (A Better Tomorrow). |
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