cityonfire.com | Movie News & Developments |
- Zero Tolerance | aka Angel (2015) Review
- ‘Universal Soldier’ director to resurrect cult film ‘Maniac Cop’
- Delta Force 2 | Blu-ray (Kino Lorber)
- The Kung Fu Fandom Forum is bigger, better and back online!
| Zero Tolerance | aka Angel (2015) Review Posted: 27 Sep 2015 11:03 AM PDT  "Zero Tolerance" Theatrical Poster Director: Wych Kaosayananda By Zach Nix Zero Tolerance is the latest actioner from director Wych Kaosayananda (Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever). However, one must familiarize them selves with the film's interesting production history in order to fully appreciate and understand it. Zero Tolerance was previously completed and released only in Vietnam under the title of Angels. The film was designed to be a slow burning drama with action scenes peppered throughout it. Unfortunately, Kaosayananda found it difficult to sell his film to distributors because Angels was more of a drama than an action film. Therefore, Kaosayananda decided to add action star Scott Adkins (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning) into the mix for marquee value and to reshoot and re-edit the entire film in order to craft more of a stream lined actioner that would interest buyers. This re-edited version, entitled Zero Tolerance, is the cut of the film that has been released to the rest of the world. Few action films undergo such re-editing and re-labeling as Kaosayananda's latest. Therefore, Zero Tolerance's drastic re-edit and added star power of Scott Adkins should be enough to pique action fans' interests. Unfortunately, action fans will find nothing but disappointment with this new Thai production. All of Zero Tolerance's post-release meddling has done nothing but waste an otherwise excellent cast comprised of Dustin Nguyen (The Rebel), Sahajak Boonthanakit (Only God Forgives), and Gary Daniels (City Hunter). When a female corpse is uncovered in the waters of Bangkok, Thailand, resident detective Peter (Sahajak Boonthanakit) identifies her as Angel, his goddaughter. Peter notifies her biological father, Johnny (Dustin Nguyen), of the unfortunate news and vows to help Johnny uncover her killer. The two tear their way through pimps and drug pushers in search of the truth, only to find their quest complicated by pushers Steven (Scott Adkins) and Sammy (Gary Daniels). Even though Zero Tolerance's plot sounds simplistic and straightforward, Kaosayananda's film is anything but. Zero Tolerance is an overly complicated and dull revenger thriller burdened by confounding editing choices and unnecessary characters. The film's notable re-edit has done nothing but harm what was otherwise a mostly dramatic actioner. It's a shame that Angels was re-edited, as it would be nice to see Kaosayananda's original cut of the film attached to a future DVD release of Zero Tolerance in order to compare and contrast the two. Nguyen is the protagonist of the picture. However, one will have difficulty figuring this out based on the film's editing and introduction of the character several scenes into the movie. It doesn't help that Nguyen's performance is extremely frustrating as well. Nguyen showcases intense emotion during some scenes, but otherwise acts emotionless and dull throughout the rest of the picture. When Nguyen is told that his daughter has died, he barely seems to care at all. Nguyen's search for his daughter's killer is in no way personal, believable, or engaging. He simply mumbles his way through dialog and than brutally murders people every once in awhile. The most confounding addition of Zero Tolerance comes in the form of action star Scott Adkins. It's clear that Adkins was added purely for marquee value. His character serves no true purpose within the film other than to add two extra action scenes to the mix and to draw in action fans expecting a film to star one of contemporary action cinema's greatest stars. Adkins must appear on screen for less than 10 minutes. He barely constitutes as a character and does nothing but overly complicate an already confounding revenge thriller. Boonthanakit gives the best performance of the film as Angel's loyal godfather. He plays co-lead to Nguyen and conveys a sense of determination in his quest that seems lacking in even Nguyen's scenes. It's a shame that Adkins is advertised as one of the film's stars while Boonthanakit, who plays a major role in the film, is reduced to purely a name on the film's poster. Gary Daniels also appears in a small dramatic role as a pimp previously involved in Angel's life. What remains of Daniels' scenes within this re-edit does not constitute much. Action fans should also not expect for Daniels to participate in any of the film's action, as his role is purely dramatic in nature. Kane Kosugi (Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge), also advertised on the film's poster, literally appears in one scene alongside Adkins. That Kosugi is advertised within the film at all is unbelievable. Zero Tolerance's few shootouts are particularly bloody and quite exciting, although few and far between. It's clear that Angels was envisioned as a mostly dramatic film peppered with action scenes. Therefore, only two major action sequences from Angels, along with two additional action sequences added from the reshoots, constitute the film's action quota. The most notable addition to Zero Tolerance, and arguably the biggest take away of the film's meandering experience, is a one on one showdown between Nguyen and Adkins. Even though their fight is entirely pointless, Nguyen and Adkin's final throw down will give action fans something to talk about. Zero Tolerance is a fascinating and sad reminder of the woes of distribution and marketing. While far from perfect, it's clear that Kaosayananda's originally envisioned Angels was a personal and dramatic actioner that was near to the director's heart. Unfortunately, Kaosayananda had to compromise his vision in order to get Angels sold to the rest of the world. Therefore, his mostly dramatic film was cut down to a mere hour and a half, retitled, and turned in to more of a streamlined action picture that would pique action fan's interest, especially with the inclusion of Adkins. The saddest truth of them all is that Zero Tolerance's post-production woes are more fascinating than the film itself. What remains of Kaosyananda's Angels is an extremely dissatisfying revenge thriller plagued by weak editing and poor direction. Zach Nix’s Rating: 3/10 |
| ‘Universal Soldier’ director to resurrect cult film ‘Maniac Cop’ Posted: 26 Sep 2015 03:48 PM PDT  "Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning" Japanese DVD Cover While it may not have set the box office on fire, 2012′s Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning was generally met with acclaim from fans and critics alike, who applauded director John Hyams’ infusion of arthouse horror into the venerable action series. The sequel was also notable for introducing martial arts superstar Scott Adkins to the Universal Soldier to the cast list, alongside returning icons Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. Unfortunately, all has been quiet on the Universal Soldier sequel front. In the meantime, Hyams recently directed eight episodes of the SyFy Network series Z Nation. Now, fresh out of Fantastic Fest comes word that John Hyams will direct a reboot of the Eighties cult classic series Maniac Cop. The movies featured recognizable B-movie icon Robert Z’Dar as a homicidal police officer who returns from the dead to wreck havoc on the living. Since Z’Dar sadly passed away earlier this year, the role is ripe for recasting – and one can easily see Universal Soldier’s Dolph Lundgren filling the lumbering shoes of the zombie cop. The remake is to be produced by Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn, another filmmaker well known for his hyper-violent style. Popular comics writer Ed Brubaker (Criminal, Daredevil) penned the screenplay, which John Hyams called “the follow up movie I’ve been waiting for.” Considering Hyams’ previous output, one can easily imagine that this Maniac Cop reboot will be less of a B-Movie guilty pleasure and more of a jaw-dropping, mind-altering splice of action and horror. |
| Delta Force 2 | Blu-ray (Kino Lorber) Posted: 26 Sep 2015 12:01 AM PDT  Delta Force 2 | Blu-ray (Kino Lorber) RELEASE DATE: December 8, 2015 Kino Lorber presents the Blu-ray for Aaron Norris’ 1990 action flick, Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection (aka Delta Force 2 Operation Stranglehold), starring Chuck Norris (Yellow Faced Tiger). When DEA agents are taken captive by a ruthless South American kingpin, the Delta Force (headed by Norris), is reunited to rescue them in this sequel to the 1986 film. Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection also stars Billy Drago (The Untouchables, China White) and John P. Ryan (Runaway Train). | Watch the trailer. Pre-order Delta Force 2 from Amazon.com today! |
| The Kung Fu Fandom Forum is bigger, better and back online! Posted: 26 Sep 2015 12:00 AM PDT  kungfucinema.com: 2003-2015 Many visitors to City on Fire will also no doubt be aware of kungfucinema.com, and are most likely asking the question of why the site has been offline since Sunday 11th July. Unfortunately it was confirmed by site owner Mark Pollard a couple of days ago that kungfucinema.com has been laid to rest, after 12 years online, due to personal reasons. For myself, as I'm sure for many others, the closure of the site marks the end of an era. Having started in 2003, for the next 6 years the site was run by Mark, providing in-depth and entertaining reviews on kung fu movies both new and old. Personally, many of my DVD purchases of years gone by were based on Mark's reviews. Having gotten into the genre in 1999, after purging myself on Hong Kong Legends and Eastern Heroes releases, kungfucinema came along at a time when sites like HKflix were just warming up, and Celestial had just began releasing remastered Shaw Brothers movies on DVD for the first time. The reviews and articles on kungfucinema were like an invaluable guide on what was worth picking up and what wasn't. In 2007, kungfucinema also gave me my very first writing gig. After having several e-mail exchanges with Mark, he took me on-board as a reviewer, and I took to sharpening my writing skills on a selection of Shaw Brothers movies. As fate would have it though, a few months later Mark became less and less active on the site, which was the end of an era in itself. In 2008 the reigns were handed over to Albert Valentin, whose arrival marked a noticeable shift of focus away from kung fu movies, and onto lesser known American martial arts B-movies from the 1990's. 2008 also marked another significant event in the history of kungfucinema, as the most well established forum for talking kung fu movies on the internet, Kung Fu Fandom, made the switch from its previous incarnation and began being hosted through kungfucinema. Now going under the title of the Kung Fu Cinema Forum, in its new guise the community went from strength to strength, quickly becoming the home for both people that were new to the genre, and those that had several encyclopaedias worth of knowledge stored under their belts. For many, the sudden disappearance of the forum is understandably the greatest cause for concern. Not only does it contain 10+ years' worth of discussion and information, but it also has the posts of forum members who have since passed on, their thoughts and opinions still able to live on in the written word. I became a forum moderator myself at the beginning of 2014, and like many other members of the community out there, the biggest question that's being addressed right now is to how we can transfer the content to a new home. Update: It’s back! The official launch of the Kung Fu Fandom Forum begins today at 5:00PM, North America, Eastern Time Zone. Expect the forum to be bigger, better, and more user friendly than ever! |
| You are subscribed to email updates from cityonfire.com | Movie News & Developments. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment