cityonfire.com | Movie News & Developments |
- Contract to Kill (2016) Review
- 1st Poster for Yuen Woo-ping’s ‘Miracle Fighters’ remake
- The legend kills ’em all in the new Trailer for ‘John Wick 2’
- Harrison Ford is back in the 1st Trailer for ‘Blade Runner 2049’
- Deal on Fire! Ultimate Chuck Norris Bundle | Blu-ray | Only $40.49 – Expires soon!
| Contract to Kill (2016) Review Posted: 19 Dec 2016 01:59 AM PST  Contract to Kill | Blu-ray & DVD (Lionsgate) Director: Keoni Waxman By Paul Bramhall Steven Seagal. What can you say? In 1990 he was Hard to Kill, in 2003 he was Out for a Kill, in 2008 he flipped the Kill Switch, a year later he was Driven to Kill, he started off 2016 by Killing Salazar, and to round off the year, he received a Contract to Kill. Both of the 2016 movies mentioned were collaborations with who appears to have become Seagal's go-to director in recent years, Keoni Waxman. Quite how the pair came to form such a partnership is a mystery. With Seagal's reputation for being difficult to work with, Waxman has made more movies with Seagal than any other director he's worked with. Kicking off with 2009's The Keeper, up to and including Contract to Kill, Waxman has been the man in the director's chair for 9 of Seagal's features, as well as handling 8 episodes of the short lived TV series True Justice (many of which were paired up and further passed off as movies). It's incredible then, that out of the close to 20 productions they've worked on together, not one of them manages to be even slightly entertaining. For those that have done the math, you'll probably realise that during some years they must have cranked out more than one title. This is never truer than in the case of 2016, when apart from Contract to Kill and Killing Salazar, they also made End of a Gun together. But Seagal didn't stop there, in fact these productions represent less than half of his output for the year, with his hefty presence also gracing such titles as Sniper: Special Ops, Code of Honor, The Asian Connection, and The Perfect Weapon. You'd think that must make Seagal one of the hardest working actors out there today, until you actually see one of the productions, and realise just how little effort he seems to be putting into each one. Despite the above criticism, I confess to being a Seagal fan. I can't help it. It's rare that a studio would have that much faith in a martial artist, with zero acting experience, that they'd make him the star of a movie without bothering to test the waters with supporting or bit roles first. But that's exactly what happened with Seagal, when at 36 years old he appeared on the big screen out of nowhere as the main character in 1988's Above the Law (or indeed the title character for its UK release, re-titled Nico). What made him even more unique was that his selling point was his proficiency in Aikido, a defensive martial arts style from Japan, that many considered to be a fools task to try and make appear exciting onscreen. In fact the only notable movie to feature the style before Seagal's arrival was the 1975 Japanese movie, The Defensive Power of Aikido, which saw Sonny Chiba's younger brother Jirô Chiba in the title role. However Seagal was no fool, and throughout the 90's he proceeded to throw, break, and snap a countless number of thugs in a string of classic action movies. The 00's weren't so kind. Apart from a brief theatrical resurgence with the movies Exit Wounds and Half Past Dead (and an odd role in the Korean movie Clementine), the decade was mostly defined by his bloated weight, and omnipresent leather trench coat. His movies became bizarre, often being doubled by someone half his size, and even stranger was the frequent voice doubling, usually performed by someone 'trying' to sound like Seagal. If the 00's were all about the trench coats, then the post-2010 era will most likely become known as the era of the orange-tinted glasses. It's hard to tell exactly when the trench coats finished and the orange-tinted glasses started, however what I can say with confidence is that in Contract to Kill he isn't seen without them. Bear in mind he even has a sex scene, in which the girl gets naked and he remains fully clothed, which includes the glasses staying in place. Contract to Kill is truly bottom of the barrel filmmaking in every way. The plot, for what it's worth, has Seagal as a 're-activated' agent out to stop a group of Islamic terrorists from entering the U.S., which he does by putting together a kind of Z-grade version of Ethan Hunt's team from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Russell Wong, who'll be familiar to action fans as Jet Li's adversary in Romeo Must Die (and to a lesser extent, Tony Jaa-clone Mike B's 2009 movie The Sanctuary), plays a drone expert who joins Seagal's team, along with British actress Jemma Dallender. Apparently Dallender and Seagal's characters used to be in a relationship, hinted at by Seagal mumbling that he still wears the Rolex that she gave him, but what exactly her area of expertise is we never know. Seagal is just bringing her back into his team to "do what she does best." I imagine that's being the only actress available that agreed to get naked and felt up by Seagal. Speaking of his mumbling, it's a real problem here. In one scene he's interrogating a suspect, and switches from English to Spanish to Arabic. The problem is his tone is so incomprehensible it sometimes took me a few seconds to figure out he'd switched back to English again. Other times the end of his sentences seem to trail off, almost out of boredom, and sometimes the dialogue in the script runs for so long with no punctuation, that you can hear him running out of breath mid-sentence. For those who like to hear Seagal talk, they've certainly come to the right place, as the whole movie is ridiculously exposition heavy, with Seagal sometimes talking for what felt like minutes at a time, explaining everything that's going on to the most minute detail. When he isn't talking, an awful lot of time is spent on Wong and his drone. Well, let me rephrase that to just his drone. Waxman must have spent a significant portion of the budget on buying a drone, as a disproportionate amount of time is spent on shots of it. We watch it taking off, when it's in the air we're subjected to constant cut-away shots of it and its annoying whirring, and we always get to see it land as well. If the movie is ever re-titled, Steven Seagal and the Drones would be a suitable candidate, if he doesn't relaunch his music career first. Some of the drone scenes also contribute to Contract to Kill's complete lack of coherence, for example in one night scene Wong sets up the drone to spy into a meeting the terrorists are holding in a hotel. The drone is of course supposed to be an inconspicuous way of doing this, however as soon as it takes off it lights up like a Catherine wheel. Maybe the lights come as standard for night flying. My other favorite scene that makes no sense belongs to Dallender, who gets dressed up in an elegant and sexy cocktail dress to get up close to the terrorists in the hotel. The scene is set up just like Paula Patton's scene from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, complete with Seagal talking to her through an ear piece. However she then proceeds to enter the hotel reception, dressed to the nines, and just stands there watching the terrorists talk outside the elevator. That's it. I mean the way she's dressed makes her stand out even more than if she'd walked in wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Contract to Kill is full of nonsensical plot points and scenarios such as these, and that's not even mentioning the exploding plane, a previous act of terror that the extremists carried out, which is shown so many times in flashback I lost count. It's even inserted into the final scene, were it has no context whatsoever, other than to remind us that we've seen it several times before. When it comes to action Contact to Kill also sadly falls flat, almost as if Seagal is determined to undo all of his hard work at making Aikido look like a legitimate screen-fighting technique. We're subjected to the usual hand locks and wrist throws, and at the 85 minute mark, with just a few minutes left to go, we're given a brief dose of Seagal brutality, but it's all too little too late. I'll give credit for at least one moment of unintentional hilarity, which took place when Seagal offs the final bad guy, at which point Dallender laughs, hops over the corpse, and gives Seagal a hug. Seriously. With movies like A Good Man, Sniper: Special Ops, and Code of Honor, playing Special Ops agents seems to be Seagal's current flavour of the month. However even more so his never-ending stream of former CIA agents, his characters in these movies are completely bland and interchangeable, which also perfectly sums up the movies themselves. Contract to Kill is no different. Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 1/10 |
| 1st Poster for Yuen Woo-ping’s ‘Miracle Fighters’ remake Posted: 19 Dec 2016 01:00 AM PST  “The Thousand Faces of Dunjia” Chinese Teaser Poster Now that Yuen Woo-ping (True Legend) has finished duties on Ip Man 3 and Crouching Tiger, Hidden II, one of his next gigs is The Thousand Faces of Dunjia, a remake of Miracle Fighter, a supernatural kung fu film he directed in 1982. Lending a hand will be Tsui Hark (The Taking of Tiger Mountain), who is on board as producer and writer. The film will star Aarif Lee (Bruce Lee, My Brother), Ni Ni (Love Will Tear Us Apart), Da Peng (Jian Bing Man) and Zhou Dongyu (The Taking of Tiger Mountain). The original – which starred Leung Kar Yan (Five Shaolin Masters), Yuen Cheung-yan (Once Upon a Time in Shanghai) and Yuen Yat Chor (The Postman Srikes Back) – follows a kung fu master who learns special skills from a pair of priests to defeat an evil magician. According to FBA: Yuen says that aside from sharing the title of the film, the remake will tell an entirely new story. He said that if the original film was meant to present an alternative form of wuxia film, the new film intends to redefine it. The Thousand Faces of Dunjia is currently in production for a 2017 release. Updates: Check out the film’s first Teaser Poster, courtesy of AFS. |
| The legend kills ’em all in the new Trailer for ‘John Wick 2’ Posted: 19 Dec 2016 12:30 AM PST  “John Wick: Chapter Two” Theatrical Poster David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, the duo behind 2014’s action-packed sleeper hit, John Wick, are currently filming John Wick: Chapter Two, which will be hitting theaters on February 10th, 2017. This time around, Stahelski will be directing the film solo, while Leitch will stay on board as producer, so he can concentrate on his solo directorial project, The Coldest City. Keanu Reeves returns in the sequel to the 2014 hit as legendary hitman John Wick who is forced to back out of retirement by a former associate plotting to seize control of a shadowy international assassins' guild. Bound by a blood oath to help him, John travels to Rome where he squares off against some of the world's deadliest killers. Here’s what Stahelski had to say in a recent interview with Movies.com: "We have ideas for days and without blinking twice we know we can outdo the action from the original.” Joining Reeves for John Wick: Chapter Two is actor/rapper Common (Smokin’ Aces, American Gangster), Ruby Rose (Resident Evil: The Final Chapter), Riccardo Scamarcio (Burnt) and Peter Stormare (Fargo). Returning cast members from the original John Wick include: John Leguizamo (Carlito’s Way), Bridget Moynahan (I, Robot), Tom Sadowski (Wild), and Lance Reddick (The Wire). John Wick (read our review) opened to both commercial and critical success and was noted for its amazingly staged action sequences, which makes perfect sense, since the two were known for staging stunt work and fight choreography in films like 300 (2006), Tron: Legacy (2010) and Safe (2012) long before their directorial debut feature. | 1st Trailer. John Wick: Chapter Two hits theaters on February 10th, 2017. Updates: Watch the 2nd Trailer below: |
| Harrison Ford is back in the 1st Trailer for ‘Blade Runner 2049’ Posted: 19 Dec 2016 12:00 AM PST  “Blade Runner” Japanese Promotional Poster Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Sicario) will soon start shooting Blade Runner 2049 (aka Blade Runner 2), which has a theatrical release date set for October 6, 2017. This sequel to the ground-breaking 1982 science fiction classic, which will take place some years after the first film concluded, has Harrison Ford returning as Rick Deckard. Ryan Gosling (Drive), Dave Bautista (Kickboxer: Vengeance), Robin Wright (State of Grace), Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) and Jared Leto (Suicide Squad) will co-star. Ridley Scott, director of the original, is serving as one of the film’s producers and writers. Hampton Fancher, who also worked on the original, is back on board as screenwriter. Michael Green (Green Lantern) is co-writing. According to Scott (via Variety), Ford loves the screenplay: "I sent him this (script) and he said, 'Wow, this is the best thing I've ever read,' so it's very relevant to what happened (in) the first one." Scott continued: "I'm not just doing a sequel with lots of action and see how far we can go with the special effects because you can't really. Blade Runner kind of landed on a somehow very credible future. And it's very difficult to change that because it's been so influential with everything else." Updates: Watch the film’s first Teaser Trailer below: |
| Deal on Fire! Ultimate Chuck Norris Bundle | Blu-ray | Only $40.49 – Expires soon! Posted: 18 Dec 2016 12:00 AM PST  “Ultimate Chuck Norris Bundle” on Blu-ray Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray set for The Ultimate Chuck Norris Bundle. This creamy, The Cannon Group-filled Blu-ray package contains some of Norris’ best titles of the 80s: 1984’s Missing in Action, 1985’s Missing in Action 2, 1986’s The Delta Force, 1983’s Lone Wolf McQuade and 1985’s Code of Silence. Works out to be about $8 a movie – only thing on earth who can top this deal is Chuck Norris himself! |
| You are subscribed to email updates from cityonfire.com | Action Asian Cinema Reviews and News. 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