Vanguard (2021)

Director: Stanley Tong

Notable Cast: Jackie Chan, Yang Yang, Ai Lun, Miya Muqi, Yang Jian Ping, Zhu Zhengting, Jackson Lou, Xu Ruohan, Rahim Achabbakhe, Eyad Hourani

 

When Kung Fu Yoga came out in 2017, it quickly dispelled the notion that perhaps, just perhaps, the combination of director Stanley Tong and star Jackie Chan could recapture the lunacy of Supercop and First Strike. It was a mess of a film, but it made some impressive box office dollars, so why not have them team up again for another massive international action-adventure flick? This is why we have Vanguard, the latest hollow attempt at mass appeal riding on the coattails of past success. With over 10 minutes of credits at the end, the film is 90 more minutes of sheer outlandish action, punctuated by bright colors and patchy CGI, that aims to move so quickly from set piece to set piece that its audience might forget that there should be a movie underneath all of the glitz and glam. What’s left is a film that is about as effective as a long commercial in terms of storytelling quality. That presents a problem if its viewer wants more than just misguided style. 

 

No Franchise Fatigue Movie Podcast: I Bet Mathayas Is a Pisces (The Scorpion King Franchise Part 2)

The Scorpion King reminds me of the fable of the scorpion and the frog in a way…

-“Hey Mathayus, why did you lose the kingdom?”
-“You knew what I was when you kinged me…”

Regardless, today we finish the Scorpion King franchise! It brings to mind such questions as, if you had one codpiece joke, would it involve a knife? How serious is too serious for this franchise? How do you want to introduce ninjas? Flying kicks? Flying kicks to the crotch? Listen up as we finish off the series and announce our next franchise!

Featuring guest host Derrick Veurink of backlot605.com!

The Invisible Man Appears (1949) and The Invisible Man Vs the Human Fly (1957)

As someone who grew up on a heavy staple of Universal Monster Movies from all eras, following the various monsters as they leaped across studios in a perfect storm of remakes, reboots, and reinterpretations. While The Invisible Man was certainly the least ‘frightening’ of the monsters to me as a kid, the character and the story that started with H.G. Wells’ incredible novel is one that has oddly aged as some of the best in theme and concept. For further proof of that, feel free to read our very positive review of Leigh Whannell’s latest version of the character from last year’s The Invisible Man. Thus, it’s a character that can have almost an infinite number of new interpretations that allows it a lot of flexibility to reflect the time period and the culture crafting the interpretation. 

 

Color me very excited to check out the two wild (and mostly forgotten) Japanese versions of the character and concept in Arrow Video’s latest dual feature release of The Invisible Man Appears and The Invisible Man Vs the Human Fly.

 

Newly restored to the best possible shape, these two Daiei productions represent an entirely new perspective on the story from a cultural standpoint and from a time period standpoint. While the restorations are, in fact, a little rough around the edges - a point very well addressed at the beginning of the first film for the film collector’s ready to complain as if the context of these films even existing still wasn’t a Herculean feat, there is a lot to digest here from the vantage points of history and as a piece of entertainment. 

 

No Franchise Fatigue Movie Podcast: Sting Me to Life (The Scorpion King Franchise Part 1)

Now in our second reboot this year, we start NFF 3.0 with magical powder bang with the first part of the wildly uneven, but always entertaining Scorpion King franchise. Can our heroic hosts decipher the comedic tones? Will Universal try to franchise our podcast? Will Randy Couture hear this and hunt down Matt like the cowardly dog that he is? Remember, when you start this episode, you’re honor-bound to finish it…

Featuring guest host Derrick Veurink of backlot605.com!

Wrong Turn (2021)

Director: Mike P. Nelson

Notable Cast: Charlotte Vega, Matthew Modine, Adain Bradley, Bill Sage, Emma Dumont, Dylan McTee, Daisy Head

 

The Wrong Turn franchise has been something of a pleasure of mine. While the first two films in the long-running slasher series feature some creative and well-executed concepts, in two very different tones, the rest of the four sequels have de-evolved into low-brow slasher silliness. The ‘turn off your brain’ kind of entertainment one would expect from a direct-to-home-video slasher franchise. The latest installment of the series, a reboot with the clever title Wrong Turn (I hope you all can feel my eye roll as I type that), aims to not only bring a new life into a franchise treading water, but one that also aims for loftier goals of embedding a message into the material. That’s right, no longer is this just a series of films about inbred cannibals in West Virginia slaughtering people in questionable states of clothing, but it’s going to say something about it. 

 

Crazy Samurai 400 Vs 1 (2021)

Director: Yugi Shimomura

Notable Cast: Tak Sakaguchi

 

When Crazy Samurai 400 Vs 1 was originally announced, under the simplified title of Crazy Samurai Musashi, it was hard not to be excited. Mainly because cult favorite action icon, Tak, would be stepping into the shoes of the titular folk hero, Musashi, for the film. Of course, it would only get more exciting from there as the film was touting that it would feature a 77-minute, one-take action sequence that would have our badass ‘hero’ fending off 400 foes. 

 

Granted, once a person starts thinking of the logistics of such a feat, the excitement lends itself to wariness at the audacity of any film to attempt it. Could any film truly pull off this kind of incredulous notion? Could they defy the odds and make it work?

 

Thanks to our friends at Well Go USA, Crazy Samurai 400 Vs 1 is now available on both their streaming platform Hi-Yah! and via physical media. The results, while ultimately mixed, are worthy of a viewing just for the curious. At a strangely brisk 92 minutes in total, the 77-minute action set-piece constitutes over 83% of the film’s entire run time and the insanity of that statistic is felt on screen. 

 

Strike Back (2021)

Director: Vincent Zhao

Notable Cast: Vincent Zhao, Jiang Yiyi, Diego Dati, Lu Peng

Also known as: Counter Attack

 

After the success of Wolf Warrior II as a home-grown mega-blockbuster that didn’t need the help of the foreign box office to make it onto the list of highest-grossing films of all time, it’s a bit of a shock that more films weren’t immediately jumping on board to replicate the success. It was a film that took a popular actor, in this case, Wu Jing, and made him one of the biggest box office draws in the nation. Not to mention, the star directed the film and suddenly he was a hot commodity in that area too. That kind of ego boost for Wu Jing is impressive. Yet, there wasn't the boom of knock-offs that one might expect. However, speaking of an ego boost, please allow Vincent Zhao to enter this review. 

 

Shogun's Joy of Torture (1968)

Director: Teruo Ishii

Notable Cast: Teruo Yoshida, Masumi Tachibana, Fumio Watanabe, Reiko Mikasa, Miki Obana, Yukie Kagawa, Shinichiro Hayashi, Asao Koike, Kichijiro Ueda, Tamaki Sawa

 

One of the best things about many of the recent Arrow Video acquisitions is their intentions to dig up some of the missing cult classics from the King of Cult, Teruo Ishii. They’ve already released a handful of his filmography, an insane amount of films for those who want to attempt counting them, and their latest, Shogun’s Joy of Torture, brings back one of his most sought-after and acclaimed titles from his pinky violence era. Like many of the other films released by Arrow, this 1968 exploitation flick is an omnibus of three stories centered around the titular theme - old-school torture elements from Japan’s history. It’s not one of his best, but for those looking for a slab of interestingly made provocative cinema, it’s hard to go wrong with this one. 

 

A Writer's Odyssey (2021)

Director: Lu Yang

Notable Cast: Lei Jiayin, Yang Mi, Dong Zijian, Yu Hewei, Guo Jingfei

 

After a double-fisted punch of modern wuxia excellence with Brotherhood of Blades and its prequel, Lu Yang was a directorial name to watch. All eyes were on his third film as questions arose whether or not his style and balance between classic and modern influences would translate beyond the world he helped craft in the previously mentioned martial arts actioners. When the initial trailer dropped for his latest, A Writer’s Odyssey, a plethora of questions were left in its wake. With a dual narrative where ambitiously over-the-top fantasy action set pieces collided with a classic kidnapping thriller plot, the film looked almost too disjointed - even in the marketing. We all know that trailers are specifically meant to make a film look good and A Writer’s Odyssey, partnered with its odd title, felt a bit too egregious even for the vulgar auteur in me. 

 

The Swordsman (2021)

Director: Choi Jae-hoon

Notable Cast:Jang Hyuk, Kim Hyeon-soo, Joe Taslim, Jeong Man-sik

 

Far be it for me not to admit that, dammit, I love a blind swordsman flick. Whether it’s the couple of dozen Zatoichi films, the oft-overlooked Crimson Bat series, or standalone films like The Sword of Swords, if a film has a swordsman who happens to lose (or mostly lose) their eyesight, you can count me in. For the latest addition to this long-standing trope of martial arts cinema, the blandly titled The Swordsman, South Korea takes a swing at the trope with a fairly unique balance of modern revenge, historical placement, and classic chanbara foundations. The results, even within the formula, are highly enjoyable and the film’s attempts to ride a fine line between serious and camp are commendable throughout. It’s a slash-tastic time if one is willing to loosen up and run with the tried-and-true tropes that The Swordsman is drawing.