The Hard Way: Michael Jai White, Madalina Anea, Randy Couture, Luke Goss (2018)

[DragonClaws]

While there's no IMDB/Facebook announcements about this production yet. What little information there is comes from a recent Instagram post, by the ever busy fight choreopgrahy wizard Tim Man. It looks like former pop singer Luke Goss, will be starring alongside Martial Artists and actors Randy Couture & Michael Jai White. The movie is currenty filming in Romania. Another title to add to Michael Jai White's ever growing list of up-coming movies, Primer alongside Amy Johnston, and Making A Killing with Christopher Lyodd, and action comedy Oultaw Johnny Black.

 

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by DragonClaws

[Drunken Monk]

Luke Goss is super underrated. I’m not sure why he ddin’t take off after Del Toro used him in his films.

[DragonClaws]

Too right @Drunken Monk, he's also done a lot of action movies in recent years.

The first time I saw him on-screen was in Blade 2, and then a bit later in Brit-Gangter film Charlie. Based on the life and times of well known 60's London crook Charlie Richardson.

[robbie]

On 25/03/2018 at 7:43 PM, Drunken Monk said:

Luke Goss is super underrated. I’m not sure why he ddin’t take off after Del Toro used him in his films.

Death race 2 is one of greatest films ever made. . but not sure it was due to luke goss performance. i think he got lucky with blade 2 and death race 2. . Sean bean  danny trejo, ving rames  were the stars of that.  He does not  have the  star power to carry a film on his own .. 

[DragonClaws]

6 hours ago, robbie said:

He does not  have the  star power to carry a film on his own .. 

He might not have the star power of some actors, but his starring role in Charlie was a strong performance. He's certainly been spending more time in the gym sine his pop singing days too.

I posted this in the Michael Jai White apprecaition thread, just had to post it here too.

 

 

[Drunken Monk]

6 hours ago, robbie said:

Death race 2 is one of greatest films ever made. . but not sure it was due to luke goss performance. i think he got lucky with blade 2 and death race 2. . Sean bean  danny trejo, ving rames  were the stars of that.  He does not  have the  star power to carry a film on his own .. 

I think he showed a lot of brooding intensity in "Hellboy 2", proving he has some solid acting chops on his when given the chance. Granted, I'm not sure if he's leading man quality but I'm willing to give him a chance.

[One Armed Boxer]

54 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

Granted, I'm not sure if he's leading man quality but I'm willing to give him a chance.

Don't be fooled by the cover into thinking 'Cartels' is a Seagal vehicle, it's actually an action flick with Goss as the star, although granted Seagal comes in at the end to screw everything up.  It's actually pretty decent (I reviewed it here).

[DragonClaws]

On 28/03/2018 at 9:27 PM, One Armed Boxer said:

Don't be fooled by the cover into thinking 'Cartels' is a Seagal vehicle, it's actually an action flick with Goss as the star, although granted Seagal comes in at the end to screw everything up.  It's actually pretty decent (I reviewed it here).

Seagal looks like he crashed the movie poster photo shoot at the last minute. Barely in the movie, but he's up front and centre. The other half picked up one Seagals DTV films for me from a charity shop, she thought Van Damme was in the film. This was because the cover said Seagal & Van Dam, but it was the pro-wrestler Rob Van Dam. It's called Sniper Special Op's, or some simialar title, I doubt he's in that much either?, but he's the only guy on the cover.

 

Getting back on topic, he's another recent pciture of the cast.

 

[DragonClaws]

 

This is how Tim Man approaches Monday mornings, he's a machine.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2018 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

Looks like The Hard Way is heading into post porudction?.

 

[ShaOW!linDude]

Already?

[DragonClaws]

15 hours ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

Already?

Most independent movies only get about two to three weeks to film, due to lower budgets these days. They were also probably filming this one, before it was announced on the Kung Fu Fandom forums.

[DragonClaws]

Has this production undergone a title change, I've been unable to find it, on any of the actor's IMDB page's. Which is how I found out about the production back in March.

[DragonClaws]

 

Thought there would be a trialer up this one by now, it's still not even listed on the IMDB.

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

 

The Hard Way (Review)

Link- https://theactionelite.com/the-hard-way-2019-review/

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Quote

officialmichaeljai

I want to thank all the fans for making #TheHardWay on #Netflix one of the most successful new movies on the platform. Randy #xcnatch, #thelukegoss & myself enjoyed making it and thanks to you we get to do more in the future.

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by DragonClaws

[KCN9NE]

This is now on Netflix 

[ShaOW!linDude]

Folks, this movie is a fairly enjoyable 90 minutes. The story's got a decent plot, though we're not really plowing new ground here. (Oh, a pun!) The acting is solid, though the dialogue does get a little cheesy at times. Still, MJW has some nice lines that give you a chuckle. He and Goss have good chemistry, and together they could tag team against Samuel L. Jackson in an F bomb war. But where the rubber really meets the road is the action. There's lots of shootouts, but it is equally balanced with fight scenes. Goss, who is a trained MA, gets a few, but they aren't anything special and quite short, except for his end fight. But again, it's pretty standard fare. No, the heavy lifting, as far as fight performance, goes to MJW, and he is brutally devastating in this. With Tim Man given the choreography honors, White gets to display his speed and technique in a number of scuffles. (I saw quite a few of what I'd consider rewatchable moments, but for me that's aggravating to do when watching it on Netflix.)

Spoiler

With Randy Couture thrown in the mix, you kinda know throughout the movie where this is all headed, and the finale is a fairly good mix-up between he and White.

Doesn't seem like MJW has been doing as much MA action fare of late, so this was a really nice surprise because I honestly figured it was going to be more drama driven with standard action scenes. Definitely a movie I want a dvd of. If you have Netflix, stick this in your queue. You won't be disappointed. This is a good one for MJW fans to tie you over until Triple Threat finally drops.

Edited March 13, 2019 by ShaOW!linDude

[kingofkungfu2002]

^^What he said. 

[DrNgor]

About a third of the way into the film, I thought to myself, "This feels like a Steven Seagal film with MJW in the lead role." And then you get to the end credits and see "Directed by Keoni Waxman" and "Produced by Binh Dang" and it all makes sense. That said, it's as entertaining (if not a little more) as the best of Seagal's 00s output thanks to Michael Jai White's awesome skills and Tim Man's solid choreography.

I guess working almost exclusively with Seagal rubbed off on Waxman, because this film felt incredibly misogynistic in how it dispatched its female characters. I can deal with it (to a point) if the bad guys really get what's coming to them afterward, but the villain deaths here were surprisingly bloodless. I also didn't care for the the brief torture sequence and the frequent F-bombs...call me weird, but I think Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino know how to do "swearing with finesse." This film just felt overboard.

The earlier fights had lighting problems and were over-edited. The best is saved for last, with MJW facing off against the guy who gets top billing but had little screen time until then. I love watching White kick, from his high/mid side kick fake-out to his aerial kicks. The man is a monster. He does do the side backfist a lot in his films. I'm sure he's being doing those since Universal Soldier: The Return. Luke Goss gets a nice SPL-lite fight against a knife-wielding attacker at the end. The action is enough to warrant a visit on Netflix, but not enough for me to recommend a purchase.