![]() Visually there’s nothing special going on and it has that DTV look. Saying that, on a whole the film is quite bog standard though and that’s what disappointed me. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t going to trouble your brain cells or inspire a revolution, but it’s refreshing to see a low budget action movie put a little more effort into building characters or delivering a message than usual. It also hits a few social issues without rubbing them in your face or getting sentimental about it. The finale makes up for any doubts you may have about the action quotient, with an impressive showdown in a warehouse (where else?).Īway from the action, the film has a surprising amount of depth, briefly bringing up an interesting view of the drug trade in impoverished communities and giving a corrupt cop character more layers than usual. There aren’t a huge number of action scenes in the first hour, but there are enough to keep you excited and they’re sensibly spread out. ![]() Jai is an accomplished martial artist and the action choreography/direction allows him to show his skills, pulling off some impressive kicks and even getting to use some makeshift weapons. The fight scenes are very good, adding a healthy dose of gunplay to the mix and throwing in some capoeira to represent the country in which the film is set (it was actually shot in Puerto Rico). That’s not to say I wouldn’t recommend it to action junkies like myself though. Of course this means John has an excuse to shut down an evil syndicate as well as wreak bloody vengeance.Īfter loving White’s starring roles I mentioned earlier, I was very excited to check this out, but it didn’t quite live up to my high expectations. Through his detective work in the favelas, he soon learns that Cindy was investigating some dodgy goings on herself, which led to her assault. When she is almost killed and left on for dead on a beach in Rio De Janeiro, where she had been doing charity work, John flies straight over to put her would-be killer to justice. At the end of his tether and contemplating suicide, he is kept alive largely through the love and support of his sister, Cindy (Laila Ali, Muhammad Ali’s daughter, a boxer like her dad). In this action thriller, White plays John ‘Falcon’ Chapman, an ex-marine suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Hoping to change this and create a whole series of action vehicles for White is Falcon Rising. Since then he had a small role in The Dark Knight and made a few great DTV gems like Blood and Bone and the wonderful blaxploitation spoof, Black Dynamite (which White co-wrote).Īction aficionados might know him then, but once again he hasn’t starred in a big commercial success yet. In 2006 he received acclaim in action movie circles with a starring role in Undisputed 2 (alongside Adkins) and this helped give his career a boost. He had top billing in Spawn back in 1997, but the film hardly set fire to the box office and he spent most of the film in OTT make-up, so his face never became a part of the public consciousness. The second (not necessarily meant in that order) DTV star I always feel deserves more recognition is Michael Jai White. ![]() He was in the second Expendables film, which likely helped his career, but he’s still not quite risen to top billing in any notable successes or theatrical releases (although the days of cheesy action movies playing in theatres has pretty much been and gone). One of these is Scott Adkins, whose film Ninja: Shadow of a Tear I reviewed a while back and enjoyed a lot. However, in dragging out the careers of these men now in their late 50’s and 60’s (Stallone will be 70 next year!), I feel as though some deserving new action stars are being held back. It rejuvenated the careers of a couple of nigh on forgotten action heroes like Dolph Lundgren and helped keep Schwarzenegger and Stallone still relevant as on-screen ass-kickers. This seemed to be a double edged sword though in my opinion. The release of The Expendables and its sequels helped give direct to video action movies a bit of a popularity boost over the last few years. Starring: Michael Jai White, Neal McDonough, Laila Ali ![]()
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