Fear City (USA. 1984)
Director Abbel Ferrera phones in the story of a kung fu serial killer knocking off a bunch of strippers with a tiny little blade. There’s nothing particular wrong with the picture, but there’s nothing real notable about it either. The two lead pimps are pretty dull characters, the stripers get little development before their knocked off, and the serial killer’s martial art hook is barely played up and just ends up being goofily out of place. It’s as if Abel had to his ‘dirty New York film’ quota and pumped this one out till he jumped to the next thing.
Bloodmoon (USA. 1997)
Now that’s how you shoot an exciting martial arts film! You get a talented crew of athletes, a skilled director/action choreographer and you pack your film to the rafters with sequence after sequence of punch ups that feels fresher then the last. While the action in this film is damn exciting (Especially for an American production) the stiff acting, retarded script and merely okay direction (of the non-action bits) lowers everything else on the cinematic scale. Director Tony Leung has worked in Hong Kong for years and he ditches reality and give everything a wire assisted comic book feel. Star Gary Daniels (As the cop with a troubled past. Weighty) is the same stiff board he’s always been (but man can he kick ass!) and lead villain Darren Shalavi knows how to lay down the crazy kicks between his cringe worthy dialogue (“AND NOW THE END GAME HAS BEGUN!”) Make special note of “Should we find him annoying or slightly amusing?” comic relief black sidekick (Played by Chuck Jeffreys) who happens to be a magician? It's refreshing to see everyone do their own fighting, even if the actual dialogue and emoting suffer are gutted in the process.
CONSENSUS: Action! Boredom! Action! Action! Everything is lit like a Argento film! Neat!
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