Martial arts movie 2022
Koreans are storming the Olympus, but you can’t just knock someone off the pedestal :)
Casualty: A Hitman's Holiday (dir. George Kirby, Harry Kirby) (29%, 33 votes)
“Casualty: A Hitman's Vacation” - the only full-fledged fighting game out of the entire trio of winners in this category. Scott Adkins in collaboration with Sarah Chan, multiple champion in wushu, against Zary Pitian, Peter Lee Thomas и Andy Long - this is a classic sprint, intense, totally entertaining and “bad”. Adkins, as writer and producer, and the Kirby brothers in the director's chair, obviously have a franchise in mind, so they're creating a mythology, trying to solidify a style, and form connections and relationships between characters that they can move forward with in future installments. The touch of “Britishness” is somewhat lost and replaced by flat humor, and sometimes downright idiotic.
Remember the journey you've taken "Collectors" brethren “An accident” by genre and target audience? The first part hit as hard as it could within its niche and budget, and we talked about the picture “there’s something in this,” but the second got heavier and lost its irony.
“Killer's Vacation” in the second part, on the contrary, they tried to cram in a million ironies, banter, jokes and a scattering of colorful characters, but in the end it all looked painful. But then there are Adkins and there are many, many action scenes.
In our “Post-New Year podcast” We noted that Scott in this film is tired and lacking in sparkle, and that's true. Perhaps he got caught up in the administrative routine of film production “Killer's Vacation”, or maybe he just works too much in other projects, but the same fight scenes looked very ordinary for him, in the manner of Adkins of the last five years.
Final fight Scott vs. Andy Long. Although, who knows?
I remember that "Triple Threat" greatly disappointed us at the time, but going back, this may have been the last film where Adkins, as an on-screen fighter, looked like himself, or rather the one we are used to. "British Psychopath" doesn’t count, because the story there is not about a fighting game at all.
Rђ RІRѕS, Sarah Chan became a decoration “Killer's Vacation” and although her character is somewhat stupid, the fight scenes with her participation are the most cheerful, especially when she heartily beats Scott himself.
No matter what we say “Casualty: A Hitman's Vacation” - gold in this category, and “scumbag” Adkins, as we know, cannot simply be knocked off the pedestal.
Guardian Killer (dir. Choi Jae-hoon) (15%, 17 votes)
“Killer Guardian” from Choi Jae-hoon received an award from us and how Best Asian Action Film. This fact is interesting because this time Asian films, and specifically Korean ones, have largely supplanted European or American projects in the genre of action films. Last year and the year before that, the Indians had a similar rise. This can be explained both by the active presence of Korean (and Indian) cinema in our modern film market, and by the high quality of films that have become universal in every sense.
If earlier we talked about Korean specifics, about the special traditions of their film language, about the fact that the audience’s threshold for entering Korean cinema is not always easy and simple, now globalism and world standards reign in it, although traditions have not gone away.
Another important point is the so-called “Jonouikism,” which we talk about when we cover South Korean action films.
“Killer Guardian” fully falls under this definition, but I would like to once again voice the idea that our editors discussed in “Post-New Year podcast”: Koreans shot this way a long time ago, long before, and many stylistic and even design approaches in “Uike” you can see in many Korean action films, corny, in the same “The Man from Nowhere” with Won Bin, which was filmed at the intersection of Korean and Hollywood styles.
“Killer Guardian” - this is the same cruel and silent movie, where characters in strict suits and neon locations decide their “bloody affairs”. Chan Hyuk, the leading actor practically does not express emotions, is not very clear to the viewer as a character (flashbacks do little to help with this) and even sometimes seems repulsive, so the film looks sketchy, but, by and large, we are already accustomed to this, because three-dimensional characters in modern movies can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and if an actor knows how to play silence, and Chan Hyuk knows how to remain silent, it’s not for nothing that he is a “guardian”, then the character at least convinces. We have also seen the plot with a flavor of Russophobia about the rescue of a girl from the clutches of slave traders a thousand times and have long become accustomed to it.
The action in the film is mainly pistol-based: shootouts, gun fu and silent bullets fired into the forehead in a killer manner. There are few hand-to-hand fights in the film, but they still exist, and not quite hand-to-hand, since the hero always has something in his hands, and these are, first of all, table legs, knives and axes, and Koreans, as we know, They love edged weapons very much. The fights are shot very tightly, with good, fairly long takes, and there is very little handheld shaky camera or nervous editing. Koreans, in fact, have always loved to shoot in “Born style”, but managed to do it in a non-irritating way. “Killer Guardian” it generally minimizes this manner, although to say that the fighting game in it is somehow overly original or very intense is also an exaggeration. It is bloody and cruel, but somehow smooth and “normal”, when the bar is confidently held, not let go, but not raised either.
Three small battles Jang Hyuk с Bruce Khan They are more interesting in the comeback of the latter, who has noticeably aged (he will turn 55 in April), understudies work for him in a couple of places, but he does the most important things himself and has certainly not lost his charisma. Both characters again shoot a lot and smash dishes and bar contents over their heads, which makes us wonder: why waste combat screen time on gun fu and speed-of-fire competitions when you have a karate and hapkido master as the final boss battle? The taste of disappointment after the final battle, of course, remains.
But in general, “Killer Guardian” - this is a good action movie, which the audience clearly noticed, but “scumbag” Adkins cannot simply be knocked off his pedestal.
Carter (dir. Jung Byung-gil) (14%, 16 votes)
Another Korean film that was featured in several nominations, "Carter" from Jung Byung-gil does not develop “Johnowickism”, but continues “hardcore”. More precisely, it improves the model that the director showed us in his own “To the villainess” - non-stop action with the effect of one continuous frame, but in the aesthetics of a computer game, moreover, of many genres, from a standard shooter to stealth and survival horror.
The picture is an example of the triumph of technology and craft, it has everything in abundance, so that by the end you will definitely feel dizzy, if not from the endless action and new plot twists that have fallen on your psyche, then at least from the spinning helicopter propeller and camera work, which depicts a carousel.
The hand-to-hand action begins with a mass brawl in a sauna, by the way, a classic location for showdowns, remember “Showdown in Little Tokyo”, “Maximum risk” and a little bit “Red Heat”.
В "Carter" - this is unbridled fuss, panic, suspense and a lot of stunt work. At some point, blood floods the camera lens, and we see the picture through a bright red filter. This scene is perhaps the only full-fledged hand-to-hand combat that is not woven into some additional action such as chases or the same helicopter madness.
Leading actor Chu Won is quite convincing, and even though the plot requires him to walk, fly and run with a face that does not understand anything, this does not prevent him from being consistent in his emotions.
If you compare "Carter" with the same “Villain”, then the latter seems more mature, holistic and interesting from an artistic point of view, since the film was not just an attraction. "Carter" but often does not bother itself with meaning at all, and there is a feeling that if the director had an unlimited budget and time, the film would really turn into a parody of grindhouse and bacchanalia, to which it is close even now.
Perhaps that is why he only got third place in this category. Although you can try forever, you can’t just knock “scum” Adkins off his pedestal.
Comeback of the Year
This year all comebacks deserve awards, but first place is beyond competition!
Thomas Ian Griffith (Cobra Kai) (21%, 27 votes)
Remember how in 2018 William Zabka burst into our voting, taking bronze in the nomination Comeback, and a year later - silver in Best Action Film Actor to the general joy and jokes about the fresh wind from the stale Zabka?
This time he gave us an enchanting déjà vu Thomas Ian Griffith, who performed a similar feint.
Looking back, I would like to say that the FFI editors always liked Griffith, no matter what role he appeared on the screen: charming scoundrels, CIA agents and police officers, bloodthirsty vampires - he succeeded in everything brilliantly, and the boundaries of low-budget films were always tight for him, it was immediately obvious. He had a whole set of aces up his sleeve: acting talent, spectacular appearance, charisma, self-irony, theatrical voice, and black belts in kempo karate and taekwondo gave persuasiveness in fight scenes. Many actors cannot boast of even half of these merits, but, alas, Thomas never became a movie star and left the screen at the beginning of the 15s, only to triumphantly return XNUMX years later. Return to cinema and to “Cobra Kai”.
The character of the sadistic sensei Terry Silver is filled with depth and volume so much that he does not even fit into this naive, often infantile and purely nostalgic series. One could have assumed that with the introduction of old characters, the creators would give us nonsense fan service and leave it at that, but that was not the case. Griffith plays with all the colors that he has not lost a bit over all these years, showing us a wide range of emotions of the character, from humility and hidden anger, to post-traumatic syndrome and satanic anger with an eye on world domination.
In the fourth and fifth seasons, it seems that besides him and William Zabka no one plays at all, his level is so striking.
Well, of all the “old men”, Griffith looks most adequate in the fight scenes, with a minimum number of doubles, although, we repeat, the series is never about fight choreography.
Cool, very cool, well-deserved first place.
Sylvester Stallone (Samaritan, King of Tulsa) (16%, 21 votes)
A comeback from citizen Sylvester is, of course, a loud statement, because Sly never left the screens, but the roles in "Samaritan" and TV series "King of Tulsa" compare favorably with his last five to seven works.
"Samaritan" - this is Stallone's solo work, in which he does not have backup dancers, as in the monstrous “Escape Plan 3” or “The Expendables” and there is no old background, as in “Rambo: Last Blood” or “Creed 2”, and in the latter he generally has a supporting role. Now this is a self-sufficient role, albeit in an inexpensive and intimate superhero film, which seems to us very self-sufficient in its simplicity. Remember "Invulnerable" Night Shyamalan, which is somewhat similar to "Samaritan" this ascetic super-Egro parable.
Yes, Sly’s character is too serious, yes, the finale of the film turns into a standard battle for him, but rather a “Ramboy”, yes, there are questions for the villain, and the film’s script fits on an A4 sheet, but this film has some kind of core and atmosphere . Plus, when was the last time Sylvester rocked a superhero or “comic book” aesthetic? Almost 30 years ago in "Judge Dredd" but it’s either good about him or nothing.
С "King of Tulsa" a little more complicated, but also interesting. A distant relative of the Norwegian-American TV series "Lillehammer" shows us Stallone as a more familiar brutal hero with balls, a charming gangster with inner morals (of course, how could it be otherwise?), standing on the border between hero and anti-hero.
The series is made according to modern canons: parallel storylines intertwined with each other, some of which, admittedly, are quite predictable, relationships between fathers and children, old scores, revenge and the final shootout in a bar accompanied by a cover of Phil Collins.
Stallone looks parodic and deliberately collective with his heavy waxy face, ash-blonde hair and gold chains, and his motley band of soldiers of fortune does not seem very convincing, but after a couple of episodes you no longer pay attention to this. Attempts to show how a person who spent a quarter of a century in prison tries to integrate into modern life using old methods are also not very original, but this does not go out of the general context, and the viscous taste of banality in them is minimal. Screenwriter “Assassins”, “Yellowstone” и "Mayor of Kingstown" - Taylor Sheridan knows what he's doing.
At the same time, do not expect deep meaning, because "King of Tulsa", like all modern cinema, is very referential and collective, but Sylvester Stallone It's really, really good there.
Gary Daniels (Gardener, Bring His Dead Body, Repeat) (15%, 19 votes)
The British kicker, beloved by fans of combat films, also never left the screens and was filmed quite steadily, however, the quality of the projects left and still leaves much to be desired. Gary Daniels never possessed any noticeable acting abilities, but always inspired confidence in the audience. In his golden years, he embodied very “correct” heroes and only occasionally played villains, while with age his role made a strong tilt towards antagonists. Besides the fact that at 59 years old he is still in excellent physical shape (there is a feeling that he is almost the same as he was at 35), his appearance has become more severe: ashen long hair gathered in a braid, a stone-carved face, a heavy sight. His appearance took on some kind of Western tint, and it seemed that there was no trace left of that blue-eyed blond with a slightly childish face.
И "Gardener" и “Repeating” - these are villainous roles in very weak and cheap projects, with the brightest detail in the face of Daniels, and the fight scenes in the film are expectedly unprofessional and dull, but this is not Gary's fault, because he tries.
“Bring his corpse” - this is the main role of Daniels, quite ambiguous, with a pinch of anti-heroism, and if not for the “knee-jerk production”, the film could be called quite good. A smartphone-level picture of a location in the form of a forest and wooden huts, apparently next to the director’s house, in the casting - revived in recent years Louis Mandylor and actor died Daniel Baldwin, and also the script is very primitive, but with plot twists.
There are fewer on-screen fights in the film than we would like, they are simple and of little interest to the modern viewer, although the kicks from Daniels in rapid fire are beautiful, the same JCVD doesn’t do even half of that in the frame now.
Daniels' final fight with Mandylor gives rise to flashbacks with “Collectors”, but falls far short of the latter. And again, Gary has nothing to do with this.
He would now, for example, "John Wick". Because Gary is ready, damn ready.
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Tags: Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday, Carter, The Killer, Bruce Khan, Gary Daniels, results of action cinema 2022, Sarah Chan, Sylvester Stallone, Scott Adkins, Thomas Ian Griffith, Chan Hyuk, Jung Byung-gil, Choo Won, Choi Jae-hoon, Andy Long
Tags: Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday, Carter, The Killer, Bruce Khan, Gary Daniels, results of action cinema 2022, Sarah Chan, Sylvester Stallone, Scott Adkins, Thomas Ian Griffith, Chan Hyuk, Jung Byung-gil, Choo Won, Choi Jae-hoon, Andy Long
I am waiting. I hope there will be something exciting.
I would like to mention Pasha as a person who has been an active participant in this project since…
Sad ending, albeit with a joke...
Added a video from the filming of "Twilight of the Warriors".