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John Woo, Chinese director responsible for, among others, Face Off, this time focuses on Chinese History to create this saga of two long parts that form 4 hours of an epic historical movie at the times of the Han dynasty. This is the most expensive piece made ever in Asia and you can tell already from minute one. Armies of extras, outstanding effects, well chosen script, and beautiful stars.

At first I could help myself from thinking about the seventies awesome TV series named The Water Margin, while seeing the wardrobe, the weapons, their hairdos, etc,.. This is the story of two warlords, at the sunset of the Han dynasty,that rebelled against the dictator emperor and allied to confrontation the last in the mother of all battles.

I see how the film, through the non stopping meaty action, shows to “westerners” how the Chinese culture preceded ours by hundreds of years in the invention of soccer (= Cuju), gunpowder, the use of astrology in the battle field and others. For those of you who look for a well made medieval war action film, with the right amount of blood flowing from the bodies after a blow, the right measure of martial arts, combined with great photography and all in Chinese subtitled sound, this is it.

I tried to recollect any Harvey Keitel’s movie where he didn’t act in a fantastic fashion. This film is no exception. In this movie, Harvey plays a corrupted lieutenant of the NYC Police Department. The character is so destroyed inside that killing himself a little more wont take him lower from where he stands now. Crack, heroine and cocaine, alcohol and pills are in the daily menu  of this cop, for which the boundaries between legal and not, moral and not, law enforcement officers and criminals, these boundaries are almost nonexistent, by osmosis.

His bookmaker pursues him in order to be paid for the cops debt, his co workers don’t seem to really care about him and the ones that really show him respect and caress are the criminal and junkies. He lives in a world of being a cop only for the sub world of simple street criminals, while he behaves exactly like one of them.
He got himself so deep into trouble with black market betting that he knows the bullet with his name on it has already left the smoking barrel.

The punch line arrives when he actually finds out the moment crime perpetrators and handcuff them and takes them to where all of us expects him to, the police station, so he can get a special reward of 50 k that could partially help him to cover his debt, but instead of it, and as a kind of redemption quest, he does the only good deed in the picture, and offers a new life to the crime rapists, and put them into a bus to somewhere where they can start from scratch. The end is foreseeable as it was supposed to end in the real life.

Planet B-Boy is an excellent documentary about Hip-Hop dancing, music, the hip-hop protagonists and their life style. The guys in the doc are, no doubt, completely sporty, dedicated youngsters, that burn long hours every day on rehearsing movements, jingle jangling and choreography which originated in athletics, breakdance, martial arts and disco.

People from all over the planet gather in Germany and push themselves to get the title of Best Hip Hop group in the world, as representatives of their home countries. The prize is not monetary, the drive is purely honor – to go back to their countries of origin, and let the world know who is simply the best at this field. Many may think that this is a western “thing”, but it is amazing to see how this culture impregnated many young kids of Japan and Korea. It is also astonishing to see the amounts of adrenaline and energy that the dancers convey to the spectators, how esthetically they perform, with rhythm being primordial and acrobatics crucial. Be ready to feel the thrill.

On the same year, and right after finishing “The Wrestler”, Mickey Rourke went and did this action movie. Here he plays a native American hitman, working for the local mafia. Under strange circumstances, he associates with a troublemaker punk who will get him several degrees deeper into trouble, hunting down a couple who is left behind, after seeing their faces. With the beautiful Rosario Dawson and Diane Lane.

Score: 5.5

The latest action from Steven Seagal. This mess-&-crush-my-bones-Steven! one is about the russian mafia. Steven happens to be a pajalshta gangster named Ruslan, who served his time at one of the russians gulags, and created a known name around russian mafiosi. This time, again, our star is provoked by getting his ex wife assesinated and revenge is served. Nevertheless be prepare to face an old Steven, fat, hair designed but to be fair, the same good old aikido movements and above all the moment we all wait for at his movies: the sweet noise of a healthy arm breaking by the master’s force. Score: 4.5

I’m sorry, La linea is supposed to be a action movie in Tijuana about drug dealing from Mexico to US. The local gangs, the CIA, the local innocents. Though with a bunch of known actors in the script, the results are disastrous.  Score: 4.

What Doesn’t Kill You is a real story drama around the life in a tough Irish neighborhood in South Boston. A couple of youngsters from the hood will start making easy money for a local extortionist until they become his private soldiers and handle for him stolen merchandise, some drugs and extortion money recollection. On one of their working day they are caught and sent to jail. Brian, (Mark Ruffalo) married with two kids, after his 5 years in jail, had some thought and promised himself to stay far from drug consumption and trouble so his family doesn’t have to see him in this state instead of taking care of them. A life crossing decision comes up when he refuses to go for an armored car robbery and lets Paulie (Ethan Hawke) do it on his own. The movie will tell you if he did the right thing. Score: 6

I haven´t watched such way of doing an action movie as in Shoot ‘em up. In this movie you will enjoy car stunts, free falling, MacGyver tricks and lots of shooting that have nothing to envy Jackie Chan’s or 007’s movies. Smith, Clive Owen, gets himself involved with a  powerful gang of weapons manufacturers who are trying to kill a baby. In a series of fights, Smith has in his arms all the way the baby, who survives all the falling, bullets, etc,… kills dozen of goons using all kinds of weapons, positions and tactics. The beginning of the movie a must, and the end another. Very good past timer. Score: 6.5
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There is something special about Get Rich or die Tryin´. It looks so real to me, I don’t know yet whether this is based on a real story but it really looks like it.  The movie depicts the life story of a young African American (50 Cent) in a crack neighborhood filled with crime, drugs, hatred, respect and rap. As a youngster, with no father and a drug dealer mother, childhood was not easy. One day her mother got killed and he soon continued her way. He enters into an organized drug gang and builds a profile of hard and disciplined worker arisen some jealousy among others in the group. The young gangster has his own “soldiers” and his personal love for rap music. One day he decides to revenge an attack on a friend of his that left him on a wheel chair: he puts some bullets in the man that tried to kill his friend but finally he had to pay the price and sit his time at the joint in order to keep the calm established between his boss and the competitor Colombian gang. At the jail, the Colombians try to waste him while at the shower and his agent to be saves his live. At the solitary cell he composes a hit that will identify him among the other gangsters and at the end he will choose his sharp tongue in his lyrics to take down the man that put a contract on him.  Score: 6.5

Obviously the most used word in Baader Meihof is scheize. Apart from all the politics involved in this movie, it´s an action movie about this left wing German terrorist group of the 70´s Red Army Faction (RAF), its terrorists acts, their way of planning, thinking, collaborating with other terrorist groups, etc,… Action is mediocre, actors are not something and the story is one of blood, brain washing and westerners-trying-to-find-something-to-fight-for youngsters but chose the wrong cause shaking hands with others blood thirsty terror groups like the Palestinians ones of the 70´s.  Nominated for 2 Oscars, well, we all know how much politics and few arts are involved with the winning of this little statue nowadays. Score: 5