Despite problems with free time, we continue to find out who became the best in our project to sum up the results of action films for 2019. Today we'll look at The Best Martial Arts Movies и Disappointment of the year.
Martial arts movie 2019
The streets become silent, the cities are silent, and only peals of thunder announce to us the battle of the most important titans in our vote. “Reeves vs. Adkins,” what could be more monumental? The ex-Communado won a convincing victory.
John Wick 3 (dir. Chad Stahelski) (29%, 40 votes).
“John Wick 3” left behind many questions: plot, choreographic, directorial. But as for a film that, against the backdrop of the stagnation of the fighting genre, stirred up this whole swamp, there are no questions. Moreover, we were all waiting for a new young star who would burst onto the screens and with a wave of his hand (or foot) would freshen up this whole musty story, but in the end the new blood turned out to be a pre-retirement hard worker Keanu Reeves, which did not come from the fighting-stunt sphere at all. Yes, we can say that, on the one hand, he continues to ride the wave of films from the “pensioners are back in the saddle” series, continuing the line of Neeson, Washington, Penn and others, and on the other hand, his Wick is clearly something more than “Gunmen” и “The Equalizers”. This is a full-fledged franchise, with a well-thought-out world, voluminous, textured, well-developed visually, with a subculture and background. Another feature is the fact that, in essence, the Wick formula is a rather hackneyed story, filled with many cliched constructions: a former killer decided to quit, a personal tragedy in the past, revenge for a teacher, wife, dog, inflated mortgage interest (as the basic engine of the plot ), the Russian mafia, then the non-Russian mafia, then the mafia of the whole world... We have already seen all this more than once. However, the film, as always, was saved by the presentation of the material. First of all, it's damn beautiful! Chad Stahelski managed to present a rather simple dish under the guise of an exclusive from the chef, and now yesterday’s pasta sparkled with new colors on beautiful dishes, albeit with cranberry sauce.
Secondly, Keanu, who, it would seem, was never equipped for non-stop fights, came out of his comfort zone and patiently climbs to this “combat” peak and fights against one, two, three, with a pants belt, without a pants belt and most importantly - without cables and almost all without doubles... In this regard, he deserves victory like no one else.
The same Adkins has been playing the same character for a long time, who dances to Timman’s tune. A small exception is "Revenge", but more on that later. In general, the Briton doesn’t have any way out of his comfort zone; he can keep up his guy kicks for another 10 years if gout doesn’t stop him. But Reeves has almost completely discarded his past dramatic victories and is now firmly associated with an action star who can work not only with his face, but also with his hands. What a twist.
Well, in conclusion, it should be noted that the third part turned out to be simply the “song of the year” for stuntmen of all stripes, from an extra in the tenth row to the main boss, and in terms of combat casting, the film can easily compete with "Triple Threat", which, in fact, he did with success.
We are waiting for the fourth part.
Vengeance (dir. Jesse Johnson) (19%, 26 votes)
So, sir, well, this is all clear. Quicker Alexey Panin will become President of Uruguay than Scott Adkins will not be on at least one of our lists of winners.
You can endlessly joke, tease, or, on the contrary, lament, but the prolific Briton is like grandfather Lenin, only he is not yet lying in the Mausoleum - how unchanged he becomes in his role. And if earlier he worked in tandem with Isaac Florentine, then now the latter has been replaced by Jesse Johnson (“Chain Dog”, “Collectors”, “Accident”, “Triple Threat”). An action movie has been added to the duo's impressive list of works. "Revenge", which, along with “Collectors”, is somewhat out of line.
В “Vengeance” (localizers decided to show their remarkable creativity again by calling him "British psychopath") Scott's character, as often happens with him, is marginal, aggressive, angry at the whole world and, in particular, at his family. This time he doesn’t have a beard, but he has iron teeth and a frantic desire for revenge. The difference between this film and his other works is that "Revenge" not a fighting game in the full sense of the word, but a drama with action elements. Although in the end it still descended into fights, destruction and pogroms as the culmination. The fights this time are less orthodox for the genre, without spins and tricking, but more realistic and rollicking. The final bar brawl won our category “Best fight”, but we will cover it in more detail in the corresponding publication.
In general, you can try to consider "Revenge" as a step towards Scott's role diversity and, along with “Collectors”, to show us Adkins as an actor, and not just an on-screen fighter. However, Scott inherited from his past works a certain clumsiness, the same set of acting colors, and as soon as he starts beating people, the viewer immediately sees in which form Adkins looks best.
Triple Threat (dir. Jesse Johnson) (18%, 25 votes)
Again Jesse Johnson and again Scott Adkins, but only in the company of “the best of the best”: Tony Jaa, Michael Jay White, Iko Uwaisa, Tiger Chen, Michael Bisping и Ron Smoorenburg. As soon as the project was announced, fans of action films perked up and continued to rejoice until the first viewing, and then... But let's talk about everything in order and in the right places.
Last year the film took second place in the category "The most anticipated film" and this was understandable - the screen was bursting with an abundance of the most popular on-screen fighters, who, judging by the trailer, were supposed to fight each other to the delight of the viewer. In reality, this is what happened: there were a lot of fights, the characters swapped places, and Adkins again embodied the villain on the screen, taking the arm of White, who is also extremely good in this role, although his mug is difficult to fit into the frame. As a result, for every “good” famous guy there was a “bad” famous guy and most often the fighting pairs looked like an elephant and a Moska - Yuvays vs. White, Chen vs. Bisping.
When it was nearing the end, Johnson apparently realized that the shootouts and intermediate fights had to end and it was time to show the viewer the final battle, which should cross two characters who could look adequate next to each other, at least stylistically. And who from the existing list of characters is able to adequately compete with Adkins not only in terms of technical capabilities, but also in terms of screen solidity? Of course, old Tony, who, like Adkins, is also not the first freshness, but can still do it.
As a result, after all the upheavals and shootouts, we got a fight between two legends, which, of course, is not a pearl of the genre, but definitely better than the other battle of the titans: Scott vs. Donnie in the last "Im Pane".
Disappointment of the year
Triple Threat (dir. Jesse Johnson) (19%, 34 votes)
Jesse Johnson - a clear confirmation of the phrase “from love to hate - one step.” Bronze in the category “Martial Arts Movie” и “Best Action”, and gold in “Disappointment”. One leg here, the other there, and the balls in the middle.
At the same time, this is perhaps the most understandable case of all such paradoxes in our voting. I liked it because the casting was such that the screen was cracking, there was a sea of gunfire, a ton of fights, and we crossed our fingers in anticipation of how Adkins and Ja would cross their legs in a duel.
What happened? In pursuit of fan service, which, as it turned out, consisted only of showing as many familiar faces as possible in one frame, they forgot to provide a script, clear dialogues and memorable humor. At one time we happily hated “Showdown in Manila”, but the plot of Johnson's film is exactly on the same level, if not worse.
All the characters have incredibly serious faces, except for Bisping, who just has a dumb face. Adkins is “as usual,” White moves breathlessly from one frame to another, Tony looks like a fussy good-natured guy, who in the end turns out to be some kind of evil and scary warrior with a bloody background, but doesn’t act it out in any way. Tiger Chen, who can be replaced by anyone, wears the hairstyle of the blacksmith Vakula, is boring and always worried about something, like a sober excellent student around drunk classmates, Iko’s character carries a personal tragedy in his soul, plays a double game, and is the only one with a clear motivation, but plays essentially the same character from "Raids", and when he fights, it still seems like he's swatting away bees. Well, and Smurenburg, which is traditionally killed in a boring battle, and Gija Yanin, which is literally smeared across the scenery.
The shootouts defy all laws of physics, logic, and precision, and it's clear that Johnson doesn't know how to film them. The villains are tearing the consulate and the police station to pieces, crushing people left and right, calmly moving around the city with guns at the ready, and uttering phrases like: “let’s go, in a couple of minutes there will be a lot of cops here.”
The fights were staged by the same Tim Ivanovich Man, which means that you won’t see anything new.
There are certainly advantages: normal angles, readable movements, but all this is as unprincipled as possible in the presence of not the worst, to put it mildly, on-screen fighters. The bet, for obvious reasons, was placed on Iko, Tony and Scott. Iko is rapidly gaining weight, Tony has not yet lost it (both cinematic and fat), although he has noticeably lost money on the way, but Adkins will still pull out any video series with his presence. But as a result, Ja appears with a set of his standard feints, Scott with a set of standard feints, and Uwais, who has no feints, but this did not save him from the standard.
White moves like Godzilla, and while he turns, opponents can stand in line at McDonald's or wait until they retire. Smoorenburg, Vanderberg and Yanin were used almost as extras, and it was too early to call Bisping a full-fledged movie fighter. It is clear that it is very difficult to give significant screen time to so many characters, but it would be possible to either shorten the characters or reduce the meaningless chases and shooting.
In short, serious casting in a very frivolous movie. Let's go watch the first one “Ong Bak” or second "Undeniable".
Invincible Dragon (dir. Fruit Chan) (12%, 21 votes)
“Invincible Dragon” is a classic victim of directorial uncertainty. Author of the picture Fruit Chan mixed almost all the genres that I could remember in one pan: science fiction, drama, thriller, fighting game. It's a shame that nothing came of it. Max Zhang, playing the main role, could have realized his best acting work, but it didn’t happen.
From the first minutes, the viewer expects to see a crime thriller about the confrontation between a daring policeman and a maniac killer. Then it all turns into a drama, accompanied by stupid conversations about tattoos and some police dialogue that is impossible to remember. For the first 10 minutes, the main character looks like the stylist from “Fashionable Sentence,” but then they put a fake wig and mustache on him, and he becomes like the Chinese Igor Nikolaev or Baygali Serkebaev from the group “A-Studio.” Not only does Zhang look ridiculous and it’s simply unrealistic to force yourself to empathize with him, but the “wig with a mustache” itself as a way to show the spiritual tragedy and recluse of the character is one of the most hackneyed techniques in B-class cinema and serial soaps.
Then all this turns into some kind of revival of a hero like Rocky Balboa and training to terribly inappropriate music, as a result of which in almost a week the hero from a wreck again turns into a fighting machine and hangs his fake belly in the closet. All this is so clumsy, clipped and schematic that adjusting for the conventions of cinema does not save the situation.
It’s almost impossible to follow the crime plot; it’s too background, boring and inconsistent. At the same time, other plot paths appear on the horizon, which also do not lead to a logical conclusion, ending mid-sentence, and half of the characters are simply superfluous.
Anderson Silva He doesn’t look like a maniac at all and his motivation is extremely unconvincing, although it would be possible to make a one-on-one vendetta and leave it at that. Why was I in the casting? Juju Chan, which was severely deprived of screen time and did not play an important role in the logic of the plot, remains a mystery.
At the end of the day, the events turn into a fighting-action movie with ropes, close-ups of faces and exchanges of love, favored for Hong Kong cinema, again inappropriate music and lines written for another film. At the same time, the humor in the scenes makes you smile, but often it doesn’t suit the village or the city, except, perhaps, for the funny dragon tattoo on the stomach of the mafioso at the very beginning of the film.
The fights take place against the backdrop of cheap computer graphics and ultimately result in a pathetic, phantasmagoric finale, in which fantasy falls on the viewer like a drain from an ass.
Eh, but Fruit Chan with Sammo Hoon filmed in the distant 80s "Dragon Heart"...
Escape Plan 3 (dir. John Hertzfeld) (11%, 20 votes)
Considering how sad he was “Escape Plan 2”, no one was expecting the third part, but they didn’t ask the viewer’s permission and released it anyway. The film begins with brooding music and stolid camera work, and it feels like we're watching some kind of drama with Clint Eastwood. But there is no drama, and instead of it, we are first given the stupidest kidnapping of the daughter of a Chinese millionaire, when the bodyguard in hand-to-hand scatters the opponents who fall on him one by one due to the camera angle, like eggs that a wolf catches in a legendary electronic game, and no one plays it shoots. By the way, you can see how, against the backdrop of this strange fight, there is Daniel Bernhard and holds at gunpoint point-blank hostages who are not at all dangerous to him, having 1000 and 1 chance to shoot the bodyguard. Then we see a dull fight Max Zhang no one knows where, with no one knows who the guards are, and at the end of the fight - Ray Breslin (Stallone) teleported out of nowhere.
Next, in some garage or hangar, a secret team led by Breslin is sitting, which is now doing something unknown.
They calmly let you in Max Zhang, tell him the story of their past years, and almost the entire ins and outs of the business, right down to their teenage erotic dreams.
After 5 minutes, another transverse Chinese they meet comes to them, the same bodyguard, with the words: “I found you through Interpol” (why, how, why not through Avito?) and thrusts them a flash drive with the words: “This is for you.” The top-secret team puts this flash drive into the laptop without fear of a p*rn banner, and some bearded man with a sparkling face begins to broadcast to them from the screen, saying that he is the son of their former partner (Vincent D. Onofrio), who was dishonest and That's why Breslin's team killed him. By the way, this guy from the flash drive himself doesn’t look like D. Onofrio at all, but oh well. It turns out that he kidnapped the daughter of a millionaire, and he also has a vendetta against Breslin. A beacon was hidden in the flash drive, in the form of a bright red light bulb, which no one noticed. And the villain, who is doing something unclear, has some kind of abandoned prison in Belarus, in which some people are also imprisoned for unknown reasons. Apparently he's a professional kidnapper. And his entire team is entirely bearded guys, who, like everyone else in this film, are doing something incomprehensible.
And here is a newly formed team led by Breslin, who have known each other for 5 minutes, plus Dave Batista, who has one fight in the film and a little more screen time for a cameo, rush into this prison to save the millionaire and bring justice. Why is the film called "Escape plan" It’s incomprehensible, because no one is running anywhere, but on the contrary, they themselves come to whoever they need. Sylvester Stallone no longer an intellectual and skilled tester of ultra-technological prisons, but a killing machine, and as soon as he starts crushing his enemies, the film turns into a boring one "Rambo", and in the literal sense. Max Zhang, as it turned out, is not particularly needed in the plot and will be replaced with the same unlucky bodyguard, and his final blow to Bernhardt can be nominated for worst cinematography and editing. But what was especially strange was the role of this very bodyguard, who was completely lost and forgotten about in every sense. The last shots with him are perhaps an application for a spin-off or for the 4th part, God forbid.
Hmmm, how well it all started...
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Tags: avenue, Escape Plan 3: The Extractors, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, The Invincible Dragon, Triple Threat, Anderson Silva, Jesse W. Johnson, Gija Yanin, John Hertzfeld, Dave Batista, Daniel Bernhard, Juju Chan, Iko Uwais, results of action cinema 2019, Keanu Reeves, Michael Bisping, Michael Jai White, Max Zhang, Ron Smoorenburg, Sylvester Stallone, Scott Adkins, Tiger Chen, Tim Man, Tony JAA, Fruit Chan, Chad Stahelski
Tags: avenue, Escape Plan 3: The Extractors, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, The Invincible Dragon, Triple Threat, Anderson Silva, Jesse W. Johnson, Gija Yanin, John Hertzfeld, Dave Batista, Daniel Bernhard, Juju Chan, Iko Uwais, results of action cinema 2019, Keanu Reeves, Michael Bisping, Michael Jai White, Max Zhang, Ron Smoorenburg, Sylvester Stallone, Scott Adkins, Tiger Chen, Tim Man, Tony JAA, Fruit Chan, Chad Stahelski
In my opinion, “John Wick” is unusual not even in its combat choreography, but in its fusion of martial arts and bullet ballet. Something similar happened in “Equilibrium,” but Reeves-Stahelski brought the production to perfection. Well, and pure stunts, for example, car stunts, are very cool.