Brick by Brick: Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024) Review

Director: Soi Cheang

Notable Cast: Raymond Lam, Louis Koo, Terrance Lau, Tony Wu, German Cheung, Philip Ng, Richie Jen, Sammo Hung, Kenny Wong Tak-Ban, Aaron Kwok, Fish Liew

 

Director Soi Cheang is on a roll.

After he dropped the long-awaited sequel SPL2: A Time for Consequences almost 10 years ago, renamed Killzone 2 for its US release, Soi Cheang took a wild detour to film two Monkey King movies. Although those films are entertaining, one must wonder if Soi Cheang’s career would be completely derailed by massive blockbuster fantasy.

Yet, he pulled a 180 from that for two films in a row by dropping the award-winning thrillers Limbo and Mad Fate over the last couple of years. It’s a shift that truly indicates just how talented he is as a director. Not only did he direct one of the best modern Hong Kong action films with SPL2, but Limbo was one of the best neo-noirs of recent memory. 

 

The Monkey King 3 (2018)

Director: Soi Cheang

Notable Cast: Aaron Kwok, William Feng, Zanilia Zhao, Xiao Shen-Yang, Him Lo, Lin Chi-Ling, Gigi Leung, Tamia Liu Tao, Kingdom Yuen, Cecilia So, Sire Ma Choi, Pan Bin-Long

For starters, it’s really hard to get excited for another Monkey King/Journey to the West film. The various films and franchises that have had bigger than life budgets and huge names attached to them to come out of China recently is starting to wear thin. Granted, the quality of the films are not necessarily waning, thanks to the clever reinterpretation of the character with Wu Kong or the continued fun that is brought to the table with Stephen Chow’s interpretation, but the saturation of the market doesn’t necessarily spell great things. Still, these films do some serious box office cash in the Chinese film market. With the upcoming Chinese New Year, that only means we are getting at least one more and it happens to be the third film is the box office busting Monkey King franchise. For a bit of context, this series has left me with a lot of mixed emotions. The first film was a CGI train wreck that had no idea how to properly use the talents in it, but the second film took a very different tone and went much darker and used a borderline horror approach to take a few steps in the right direction. One could only hope that The Monkey King 3 would continue that uphill sprint and improve on the material that came before it.

Did The Monkey King 3 accomplish this? Well, that’s a tricky question to answer.

Monkey King 2, The (2016)

Director: Soi Cheang

Notable Cast: Aaron Kwok, Gong Li, William Feng, Xiaoshenyang, Him Law, Fei Xiang, Kelly Chen, Lu Weu, Xi’er Qi, Miya Muqi

Having recently watched The Monkey King when it finally arrived on Netflix Streaming in the US, the announcement that Well Go USA was going to be releasing the second film, the aptly titled The Monkey King 2, in the US on VOD, DVD and Blu Ray came as something of a shock. While the first and second film in this fantasy action franchise did some serious cash in the Chinese box office in 2014 and 2016 respectively, the first film was wholly centered on very non-western concepts with story arcs and beyond that was a massive CGI fueled, family friendly train wreck. Was the second film going to improve on the quality and, if so, would a western audience in the US really be willing to dive into the culture of this tale? The second part of the question remains to be seen (The Monkey King 2 is currently available on VOD, but doesn’t hit physical media until early January), but the quality of the film and the approach would certainly indicate movement in the right direction. Does it match the quirky and artistic merits of many of the other cinematic spins on the Journey to the West story line? Hell no, but The Monkey King 2 does fix many of the issues that plagued the first entry and does provide a decently fun and entertaining fantasy flick…even if there are plenty of issues to address still.

The Blood Splatter: 2016 Action Vol. 2 [The Take, The Monkey King, Rabid Dogs]

THE TAKE (2016)

Director: James Watkins

Notable Cast: Idris Elba, Richard Madden, Charlotte Le Bon, Kelly Reilly, Jose Garcia, Anatol Yusef, Jorge Leon Martinez, Eriq Ebouaney, Daniel Westwood, Alex Fondj


When Bastille Day changed its name to The Take for international audiences, I was disappointed that the film would have such a forgettable and meaningless title. Yet, now that I've seen the film, it might be a fitting warning. While The Take is not a bad film by any means, it is a film that is wholly forgettable and rather meaningless despite a concept that should amount to so much more. Throughout the entire film, the script, characters, and concept would repeatedly give the audiences hints of a better film and still The Take tends to flat line when it’s needed. At times, it feels like a Luc Besson action production and when the film is on its A-game, it fits right up there with some of his underrated action gems. However, those moments are few and far between as The Take is missing any kind of chemistry or fun to be had. Sure, Elba takes a few hard ass wise cracks at his would-be spastic thief partner during the duration of the film, but none of the cast has enough on screen pizzazz to sell it. The plot is a decent one, turning current events into a kind of action mystery for our two leads to solve, but it never runs with its social commentary. A corrupt group of people using the heightened tensions of people versus the banking system to cover their tracks? This should have worked as action 101. Yet it just falls into generic action film traps. The biggest problem that arises is that the action is meant to be too Bourne like to capture the badassness that Elba is meant to extrude. It's not terrible like Greengrass or Megaton and his protégé, but it's meant to replicate that style and it undercuts much of the better action that is obviously there.

Cold War II (2016)

Directors: Longman Leung, Sunny Luk

Notable Cast: Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Chow Yun Fat, Charlie Young, Janice Man, Eddie Peng, Aarif Rahman, Tony Yang, Chang Kuo-chu

In preparation for the release of Cold War II, I recently went back and revisited the award winning first film. You can read my review HERE if you are so interested. The film holds up surprisingly well and it fueled a fire within me to see the box office crushing sequel. So it’s pleasing for me to be able to say that not only does Cold War II hold its own against its thrilling predecessor, but it might actually out maneuver it in a few ways. Considering how effective the original Cold War is as a thriller, the sequel has action that hits harder, conspiracies that run deeper, and performances even more layered. It’s not quite the same in many ways, but it certainly carries the same surefire intensity and writing depth that makes it one of the more unique thrillers one is likely to see anytime soon (outside of perhaps a third film, considering its worldwide box office success.) Hold on because the Cold War franchise is just getting warmed up with this latest thrill ride.