http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wys_7B16BVY
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YES!YES!YES!
I mean, Greetings,
I have been waiting for this for quite a while. There is supposed to be a few movies with the character played by Michael Jai White. This should be fun.
I LOVE the tone of Laila Ali's voice. Better than a cup of hot chocolate with biscuits.
mickey
This is now on Netflix. It started out with a hackneyed plot - a PTSD suffering vet's sister runs into gang trouble in Rio. Mayhem ensues. I almost bailed but I'm glad I didn't. While the plot might be predictable at every step, the action is really solid. White delivers some excellent gun and martial arts sequences. He's freakin huge, yoked like a pro wrassler, and still gots the moves. I would love to see a film which pits him against Marko Zaror and Dave Bautista - like a heavyweight battle royale. FR is also a good showcase for Lateef Crowder, who I think has great potential to be a lead in an action flick someday. FR could have used more Laila. I concur with mickey - Laila has a great screen presence that has yet to be fully exposed. When her character presence ended - well, decreased - that's when I almost bailed. FR also has some nice locations - the Rio scenes must have been stock footage as IMDB says it was filmed in Puerto Rico.
The Yakuza bordered on racist villains. They even did a Nyotaimori scene, which was as stereotypic as Mafia at a spaghetti feed, I suppose. What bothered me (and this is from a martial standpoint) was that the Yakuza leader wielded a katana so behind his villain throne, there was a daisho rack (actually a three sword rack but I can't remember what that's called off hand). The swords were displayed upside down. A house of war (which a Yakuza lair certainly is) should display its swords 'blade to sky' not with the blades facing downwards. Clearly, the filmmakers knew little of Japanese swordsmanship. This was even more evident on how badly the villain wielded his katana (although this was somwhat redeemed by White's use of improvised tonfa).
FR is an attempt of White to build a new action franchise (thus the 'Rising') and I was engaged enough by the action to watch a sequel, should that come to pass.
A number of years ago, right around the time I saw the KWOON series, I recall also coming across these guys called zero-gravity (at least I think that's what they were called). They made some really cool short action flicks and he was one of the guys. This guy has some serious gravity defying skill from what I recall, the whole crew were all good but this guy seemed to rise above (pun intended). Good to hear he's getting a break in the business.Quote:
Originally Posted by GeneChing
Greetings,
I saw the movie a few weeks ago. I agree it was a good start. I really did not see the need for the death of Lateef's character. They could have had the character reappear in future installments of the franchise in support of or in conflict with Michael Jai White's character.
mickey
I want to see this.
One thing: if it's set in Brazil, wouldn't it have made sense to have the villains be Brazilian? Lots of possibilities there for different fighting styles.
Greetings,
Just for you, Jimbo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZjUV00M1I
mickey
Zero Gravity was one of the early amateur stunt teams. They were loosely connected to my former school, U.S.A. Omei Kung Fu, way back when Shifu Tony Chen was still overseeing it. Both Tiffany Reyes and Lianne Lin did some product modelling for MartialArtsMart/Tiger Claw. But I never met Lateef. I first became aware of him in the Protector and didn't even know he was with ZG until one of my Kung Fu sibs told me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brule
Of course, KWOON I know very well as that came up from my first Kung Fu school, Lam Kwoon, and my dear brother Subitai is active here. :cool: