Member DiP Posted February 2, 2015 Member Share Posted February 2, 2015 Skimmed through the film's fighting scenes (haven't seen the complete film yet). If y'all have seen Yuen Kwai's latest works (Rise of a Legend being the most recent one) and ending up losing hope in him for the streak of disappointments he's been doing lately, rest assured, this film will bring that lost hope back. The best YK choreography I've seen in years --- I'm talking since mid 2000s. Yuen Kwai's creativity goes along real well with Statham's strong presence, build and demeanors. Intense, fast, brutal, gritty; all captured and emphasized intricately yet smoothly. When I say intricately smooth, I mean the action is edited a bit fast but you can still see every single beat of what's going on through your imagination. See Kiss of the Dragon and the first two Transporter films (everything in part 1, garage fight in part 2) to get the point. Few nitpicks though: Some things got imaginative to the point that it became laughable --- SPOILER ALERT!!!, SPOILER ALERT!!! , SPOILER ALERT!!! Throwing credit cards and coins at opponents?! Talk about crossing the line. Plus the slomo before the beatings during the fight scenes distracted the overall rhythm considerably. Stylistic choice but not suited for fast-paced fight scenes. Overall, I'm hugely impressed. Statham being pure bad-ass, YK redeeming himself. Keep it going, guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member rdenn Posted February 2, 2015 Member Share Posted February 2, 2015 action is good but I found this movie quite boring especially the gambling scenes no idea yuen kwai did the fights though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DiP Posted February 2, 2015 Author Member Share Posted February 2, 2015 Yuen Kwai is credited in the beginning of the film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member FrankBolte Posted February 2, 2015 Member Share Posted February 2, 2015 Good movie,typical Jason Statham..he plays the same character over and over but thats what he does best...the fighting was great I was really blown away..I also didnt see the Yuen kwai credit ....so great for YK to come back with something powerful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member kami Posted February 2, 2015 Member Share Posted February 2, 2015 The action might be good but the movie as a whole is a boring debacle. For everyone who is excited about the action: there are three action scenes and none of them can be described as long. So you have six, maybe seven minutes of fights out of 90 minutes runtime. Well, the rest is filled with brooding stares, lots of waiting, talking, often about unrelated matters, the whole subplot with the juvenile gambler seems to be taken from another movie. You've got the most basic of revenge plots, so basic it has to be stretched with said unrelated things to fill the time. The whole mess is based on a novel. I can't even imagine reading a story like that. But I am happy Yuen Kwai is back, first his great choreography in RISE OF A LEGEND and now this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DragonClaws Posted February 2, 2015 Member Share Posted February 2, 2015 This film is a re-make of the Burt Reynolds movie Heat (1986). Looking forward to seeing this wen its out on DVD.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted February 3, 2015 Moderator Share Posted February 3, 2015 The action might be good but the movie as a whole is a boring debacle. For everyone who is excited about the action: there are three action scenes and none of them can be described as long. So you have six, maybe seven minutes of fights out of 90 minutes runtime. Well, the rest is filled with brooding stares, lots of waiting, talking, often about unrelated matters, the whole subplot with the juvenile gambler seems to be taken from another movie. You've got the most basic of revenge plots, so basic it has to be stretched with said unrelated things to fill the time. The whole mess is based on a novel. I can't even imagine reading a story like that. ...& this is why it's dangerous to form an opinion on a movie just by skimming through the fight scenes. If it wasn't for rdenn and kami's comments I would have considered blind buying this! (insert sigh of relief here) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DiP Posted February 3, 2015 Author Member Share Posted February 3, 2015 It's also why it's safe to use brackets during a sentence to indicate that you're reviewing action scenes and not an entire film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted February 3, 2015 Moderator Share Posted February 3, 2015 It's also why it's safe to use brackets during a sentence to indicate that you're reviewing action scenes and not an entire film. Damn brackets...they get me every time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member SamSeed Posted March 23, 2015 Member Share Posted March 23, 2015 Just watched this and if I'm honest? II really enjoyed it. In fact, after the first hour I alsmost forgot was watching a Statham film, such was the story (as the script s by legendary writer William Goldman I wasn't surprised). And then the action... that casino fight is fantastic, great use of props and I felt each and every hit. I'm looking forward to see it again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DragonClaws Posted March 23, 2015 Member Share Posted March 23, 2015 An extended cut of the film has been released on VOD in the America. I'm guessing this might be included in the BR/DVD release?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted April 2, 2015 Member Share Posted April 2, 2015 I just saw this last night...not a bad film. It's not the greatest of Statham's films but still a wild (no pun intended) ride. Corey, along with stunt coordinators Brad Martin and Ron Yuan, did a great job with the film's action. This truly earned Corey redemption points for me after the very atrocious Badges of Fury. I think I'm going to check out the original novel Heat by William Goldman and it's cool that Goldman himself wrote the screenplay for this film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted June 1, 2015 Moderator Share Posted June 1, 2015 Just got through watching this one so thought I shared my thoughts. It's a strange movie, mostly as it seems to constantly hint at being more than what it is: - The scenes with the woman who got beaten up, who serves as the catalyst for Statham's revenge, carry an underlying tone that there's something more going on with her than meets the eye, which keeps things interesting. Only you get to the end and find out nothing is going on, she really was just beaten up and that's it. - The mysterious young gambler who insists on hiring Statham as his escort in Vegas, and knows everything about him, also seems to be being setup to be part of a bigger plot. Only for it to be revealed that the real reason he wants to hire Statham is that he's grown up being scared of everything, and he believes Statham can teach him how to live his life not being afraid. Eh!? Did William Goldman really write this!? - I got the impression we're supposed to believe Statham has a drinking and gambling problem, but it's very clumsily handled. Are we supposed to believe he's an alcoholic because mid-way through conversations he'll order a double vodka, then the scene will briefly pause to go into slow motion showing him drinking it and holding his head, before resuming the conversation again? & his acting as he goes to cash in the half million that he's won is priceless, it's that bad, it actually took me a minute to figure out what was going on. It's a shame the movie is so bad because I'm a big fan of Statham, but he's an actor who has to stay within his comfort zone. 'Wild Card' could still have served him well, however under a director like Simon West (known for such trash as 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' and 'The Expendables 2'), it seems they're both working out of their comfort zone. There are three action scenes which are good stuff, if very brief (the first one is a matter of seconds), however as has been mentioned elsewhere in the thread they do show a return to form for Corey Yuen, displaying a gritty and grounded style. The finale which see's Statham armed with just a butter knife and spoon is particularly brutal, and makes you wish there'd been a whole heap more action rather than the poorly handled attempts at drama which make up most of the movie. Still worth a watch, but it comes with the warning that this is definitely in the lower tier of Statham movies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted June 6, 2017 Member Share Posted June 6, 2017 ***/**** Surprisingly (to myself) I enjoyed this. It is funny because after watching it I choose my score on IMBD and then check out the average rating (lower than I thought) and then go and read the rogerebert review (**½, though if you read it, it really sounds like a *** film) and I am wondering to myself why did I enjoy it more than most. The film is certainly filled with clichés such as the obvious “paid to get beat up” scene, but the pacing and the acting keep me interested throughout. But the film and direction does play against some of the stereotypes as well (thank goodness.) A lot of this I think is Simon West’s influence.* He is a solid director with Con Air as his most well known. Like the review stated on rogerebert.com, Jason Statham gets to have a lot of dialog and he is pretty good at it. It is a character driven film, previously done with Burt Reynolds in Heat, based on the William Goldman novel and it feels like it. Statham’s character Nick Wild is in the John Wick, Robert McCall (The Equalizer), Donnie Yen (both in character and real life) mode. He’s mostly unstoppable. The only thing that can stop him is him (or maybe the mob or some sniper though that was not used here). Corey Yuen’s choreography here is done well even if a bit short, especially the last scene with the cutlery (like the talked about but not seen scene in John Wick with the pencil). Stanley Tucci plays a mob boss that seems more realistic and is pretty effective similar to Francis Ng’s brilliant performance in Infernal Affairs 2. Notes: the card scenes are done quite well. Interesting use of cameos. I was not sold on Dominik García-Lorido’s performance. * There is some interesting use of flash forwards. There is a lot that is understated and West feels the need not to explain everything. There is some teasing as to how angles are going to go, but puts them out more logically than some possible expected twists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DragonClaws Posted June 9, 2017 Member Share Posted June 9, 2017 On 07/06/2017 at 0:37 AM, masterofoneinchpunch said: * There is some interesting use of flash forwards. There is a lot that is understated and West feels the need not to explain everything. There is some teasing as to how angles are going to go, but puts them out more logically than some possible expected twists. Nice write up @masterofoneinchpunch I havent't watched this or the movie its inspired by, it's one of the few Jason Statham movies I've not bought on DVD yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted June 9, 2017 Member Share Posted June 9, 2017 4 minutes ago, DragonClaws said: Nice write up @masterofoneinchpunch I havent't watched this or the movie its inspired by, it's one of the few Jason Statham movies I've not bought on DVD yet. Thanks. Now I have a whole bunch of Jason Statham films I still need to see (I own a decent amount of them.) Always catching up :D. Reminds me I need to see that release of Heat as well (seen the Michael Mann Heat). I do not think I own it. Always happy when I enjoy a film as with this one (a truism of course; however, there are some artistic films that I am glad I saw even if I did not necessarily enjoy them and then there are films like Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer -- well made but not to enjoy -- always fun watching Guardians of the Galaxy and thinking of Michael Rooker.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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