Great Dragons Conceal Their Power: Blades of the Guardians (2026) Review

Director: Yuen Woo-Ping

Notable Cast: Wu Jing, Yu Shi, Chen Lijun, Nicholas Tse, Sun Yizhou, Ci Sha, Li Yunxiao, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Max Zhang, Jet Li, Zhang Yi, Kara Wei, Liu Yaowen, Xioung Jinyi

 

Considering the substantial cast and having an icon like Yuen Woo-Ping sitting in the director’s chair for this one, I could start this review out by stating things how Blades of the Guardians is an action fan’s dream come true or that Yuen Woo-Ping has delivered his best film in decades - both of which are true - but I think I want to start this off with a bit more heat. 

 

Thank you, Chinese streaming movies. 

 

Sure, Blades of the Guardians is the big title being released for Lunar New Year, and it’s probably going to slaughter in the international box office. It’s the kind of grandiose combination of spectacle, A-list names, and entertaining action cinema that will appease fans and newbies alike. And yet, as the film played out, using its dusty setting, well-choreographed action set pieces, and broad-stroke classic wuxia characters was not a reaction to the success of low-budget wuxia films on streaming sites like iQIYI. 

 

While the Chinese box office has been dominated by big CGI-focused fantasy-driven wuxia films over the last 10 to 20 years (which is fine for films like Creation of the Gods, but feels unwieldy and bloated for films like Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants), there was something of a counter movement in the streaming sector that pulled away from that. Smaller stories, big characters played by charismatic actors (often names from action films versus fantasy ones), and a focus on strong intimate action featuring plenty of stylish wire-work sword play. Films like Eye for an Eye, Blade of Fury, or Butcher’s Blade have reignited my own love of the gritty wuxia film. 

 

And, dare I say, Blades of the Guardians has far more in common with those films than it does with the fantasy-driven wuxia, and it’s better for it. Yuen Woo-Ping and his team pull away from the bloat that weighed down some of his previous wuxia efforts (particularly The Thousand Faces of Dunjia) and instead drive home a film about heroes, villains, justice, and a whole lot of sword-slashin'. The monsters here are people driven by power lust, not creatures from folklore, and the plotting has far more in common with Mad Max: Fury Road than with the Shakespearean politics of a film like Creation of the Gods. Blades of the Guardians is old-fashioned, brilliant action, slathered in modern spectacle and driven by heartfelt characters. And yes, I will argue that it’s one of Yuen Woo-Ping’s best films. Period. 

 

Dino Crisis: Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

Director: Gareth Edwards

Notable Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain, Ed Skrein

 

Truthfully, I could go on for ages about how fascinatingly bizarre and laden with misfires the Jurassic World series has been. The entire Jurassic Park franchise, now with seven entries, has been a roller coaster, with ups and downs that have been both thrilling and perplexing. It’s one of the reasons why I love franchises. Yet, I’m pretty sure all the best and worst choices around Jurassic World can be dissected by looking at how Universal approached Jurassic World: Rebirth, the latest entry into the dinosaur mayhem franchise. 

 

The previous film, Jurassic World: Dominion, was bloated, filled with too many ideas, too many characters, too much nostalgia, and a wild approach that felt like it was simply trying to be both a legacy sequel and take the series into a new era. It didn’t work. Like, at all. Thus, Jurassic World: Rebirth aims to reignite the franchise by continuing the series as a sequel while moving away from the issues that have plagued Dominion and Fallen Kingdom. It also doesn’t work. Like, at all. 

 

Survive Yesterday: Back to the Past (2026) Review

Directors: Ng Yuen-Fai, Jack Lai

Notable Cast: Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Bai Baihe, Jessica Hsuan, Sonija Kwok Sin-Nae, Joyce Tang Lai-Ming, Michael Miu Kiu-Wai, Louis Cheung, Kevin Chu, Wu Yue, Timmy Hung Tin-Ming, Chris Collins, Liu Kai-Chi, John Tang Yat-Kwan, Michelle Saram

I suppose, deep down in my lizard brain, I knew this was coming, but the ‘legacy sequel’ trend that has exploded in Hollywood over the last decade or so is creeping over to Hong Kong and China. Not that they haven’t dabbled in it before, I certainly remember From Vegas to Macau, but I certainly didn’t expect there to be a movie sequel to the early 00s TV drama, A Step into the Past. Yet, here we are with Back to the Past, a strange combination of big-scale silver screen spectacle and made-for-TV movie melodrama that moves at breakneck speed and manages to entertain despite relying so heavily on its audience's memory of the original show. It’s the kind of love letter sequel that will have some viewers clamoring and others scratching their heads.

It’s been 20 years since Hong Siu-lung, played by the always reliable Louis Koo, was left stranded in the era of the Qin Dynasty. He’s raised a family, but he lives knowing that his protege, Chiu Poon, played by a very intensely scowly Ramond Lam, has become the Emperor and may come after him and his family at any time. When other future travelers come back in time to steal antiques to bring back to the future (time pirates?) Hong is forced to face off against Chiu once again - and possibly find a new path back to his time. 

Bullet Break Dancing: Baby Assassins 3 (2025)

Director: Yugo Sakamoto

Notable Cast: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Atomu Mizuishi, Tomo Nakai, Mondo Otani, Sosuke Ikematsu, Atsuko Maeda, Kaibashira, Karuma, Mr. Bunny, Satoshi Kibe

 

If there was ever an action franchise that I would watch for eternity, quality be damned, it’s definitely the Baby Assassins series. While I thoroughly enjoyed both of the first two entries into this strange mixture of slacker comedy and highly choreographed assassin action, this latest entry, Baby Assassins 3 (or Baby Assassins: Nice Days, as it was released in some markets), is perhaps the best of the lot. Not only does it continue to thread the needle with its two off-kilter genres mashed together, but there’s an extra layer of nuance and emotional payoff that lifts this above its predecessors. 

 

In preparation for this film, I rewatched the previous two entries over the course of a couple of weeks prior. It’s strange that for a series that has primarily been made by the same creatives, including writer/director Yugo Sakamoto (who also delivered the highly entertaining horror action hybrid Yellow Dragon’s Village), this one just feels so much more cinematic. Not only in its visual stylings, which grow more refined as the series goes on, but also in the writing. It’s a prime example of a case where the team behind this series is simply getting better at making these movies, despite never having had a misstep. 

Follow the Bloodline: Hell House LLC: Lineage (2025)

Director: Stephen Cognetti

Notable Cast: Elizabeth Vermilyea, Sierra Sawka, Mike Sutton, Joe Bandelli, Cayla Berejikian, Victoria Andrunik, Gideon Berger, Bridget Rose Perrotta, Destiny Leilani Brown

 

For a series that found its success for being an incredibly effective blend of documentary and found footage horror, it’s certainly baffling to some degree that director Stephen Cognetti would abandon the style for the “final” entry into the Hell House LLC series. He had already dabbled in narrative/traditional filmmaking with his first film outside of Hell House, the already-forgotten 825 Forest Road, so to come back to Hell House and NOT continue with the style that he found success in really does make one scratch their noggin. 

 

The fifth - and again supposedly final - entry, Hell House LLC: Lineage, has its audience return to the layers of lore established by the previous four entries as Vanessa (from Hell House LLC III) and Alicia (Hell House LLC Origins) tentatively team up to put together the entire story and find out what the hell is killing people in Abaddon and try and put an end to it. 

 

The Tragedy of Fate: Hunter in the Dark (1979) Review

Director: Hideo Gosha

Notable Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoshio Harada, Keiko Kishi, Ayumi Ishida, Makoto Fujita, Sonny Chiba, Isao Natsuyagi, Kayo Matsuo, Ai Kanzaki, Tatsuo Umemiya, Hajime Hana, Tetsuro Tamba, Koji Takusho

 

It’s a simple shot, towards the end of Hideo Gosha’s late-70s chanbara epic Hunter in the Dark, that really encapsulates the director's artistry and his take on various genres. A young woman sits leaning over a gravely injured lover. Not to spoil too much about the scene, but it’s a classic sequence where she begs him to get up, not to die, and he responds in the well-trodden “go, you need to go” kind of sacrificial statements. Truthfully, it’s not the best-written scene; it’s carried by two incredibly strong performances, but then Gosha does what Gosha does. He shoots it while slowly pulling the camera back, encircling the two characters in their square of light as the blackness around them grows, slowly shrinking the scene as it plays out until it's barely a fifth of the screen. By the end of it, it’s two characters, bared to the truth, both in denial about their respective places, and they are completely boxed in by the blackness around them.

I cried. Full on, tears down the face, cried. 

 

No Mistakes, Only Choices: Vicious (2025) Review

Director: Bryan Bertino

Notable Cast: Dakota Fanning, Kathryn Hunter, Mary McCormack, Rachel Blanchard, Devyn Nekoda, Klea Scott, Emily Mitchell

 

"There are no mistakes. Only choices. Right and wrong. You saw what you wanted. You gave what you wanted to give. But did you truly need it, Auntie P? Or did you truly need to give something easy? You must suffer not to suffer. Are you ready to play more? What do you love? What do you love? Think hard. Real hard." 

 

There's a lot of hate for Vicious out in the world right now. Far more than expected, possibly due to the film finding itself in the dredges of Paramount Plus, but Vicious is probably writer/director Byran Bertino being the most Bryan Bertino as possible. If you've seen any of his films before (The Strangers, The Dark and the Wicked, Monster), then you already know this man is nihilistic as fuck. And boy, howdy, Vicious lives up its title in terms of “feel good movie of the year.”  

 

Universes of Future Past - The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) Review

Director: Matt Shakman

Notable Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Niles

 

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is gorgeously designed to look like it's caught in a time vortex between "the future" and 1960s New York City. It's the kind of production design that ought to catch some Oscar buzz early next year, and it's a shining example of some of the intriguing aspects of this "first" film of the new phase of the MCU. Right away from the trailers, one could tell that there was going to be a little more thought and effort thrown into the mix for this latest adaptation of Marvel’s First Family. To be fair, there was no way it could be worse than Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four (2015).

 

However, First Steps is also a film that seems to be caught in a time vortex between moving the MCU forward in refreshing ways and maintaining the status quo. For every progressive choice it makes for the franchise, it seemingly takes a step or two back out of fear of moving too far away from the blueprint that has made the MCU a movie juggernaut. It's an unfortunate balancing act that never seemingly manages to find its momentum and leaves one wondering what First Steps might have been with just a smidge more courage.

 

Kickstart My Heart - Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc (2025) Review

Director: Tatsuya Yoshihara

Notable Cast: Kikunosuke Toya, Reina Ueda, Shiori Izawa, Tomori Kusunoki, Shogo Sakata, Fairouz Ai, Karin Takahashi, Natsuki Hanae, Yuuya Uchida, Maaya Uchida

 

The first season of the Chainsaw Man anime absolutely had me hook, line, and sinker. I was so taken by its strange tonal balances, cinematic moments, and the sheer lunacy of its violence and tragedies that I ended up purchasing every volume of the manga. And I purchase each new volume on day one of its release in the US. But the anime is now three years old, no season two has come, and the animation studio behind it seemed far more interested in other projects than continuing on with the sensational anime. 

 

Turns out, they were working on a theatrical film to continue the animated adaptation. Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc is perhaps a perfect distillation of everything fantastic about the Chainsaw Man anime. It’s a relatively tight package —a shorter story arc within the larger story — that distills all the tonal insanity, gory action, and emotional collateral damage of the series into an impressively crafted feature-length film that exemplifies the modern anime film. 

 

Spooktacular Tapes: V/H/S/Halloween (2025) Review

Directors: Bryan M. Ferguson, Anna Zlokovic, Paco Plaza, Casper Kelly, Alex Ross Perry, Micheline Pitt-Norman & R.H. Norman

 

It was once reasonably reliable, for at least a decade or so, that if it were the Halloween season, we would get one new entry into a major horror franchise. It was Saw for a while, then Paranormal Activity, and then there seemed to be a gap. That is, until Shudder decided to bring together a new V/H/S entry each October. Truthfully, I was a fan of the series from the first film, even when its quality ebbs and flows, so the decision to make this a yearly event was very welcome in my house. Last year, they started to morph the anthology series into more thematic entries, with the sci-fi slanted V/H/S/Beyond, so with bated breath we all awaited to find out what the 2025 edition would be. 

 

Turns out they called it V/H/S/Halloween. Oh. Perhaps not the most thrilling or unique choice for a theme, but here we are.