"Heroes Of The East" embodies some of the best of the kung fu movie genre, and remains unique among its peers. It's an excellent example of Lau Kar Leung's ability to draw the viewer into his meticulous fight choreography, with compelling storytelling seamlessly incorporated into the action. It also stands as perhaps the greatest match up of Japanese and Chinese fighters. It's all the more impressive that he's able to pull this off so well without resorting to any real bloodshed, death, or dismemberment. There is a place for that, as I am sure Chang Cheh and Sony Chiba would argue, but Lau rises above this and just gives us fantastic martial arts action packaged in a very accesible story, even for non-fu fans.

This is one of the better Shaw efforts and definitely worth purchasing for fans of the genre. Recommended.

In the middle production, Alexander Fu Sheng, the original lead man of "Eight Diagram Pole Fighter", tragically died in a car accident at the age of 29. Wanting to complete the production, changes and rewriting the script were made so that Fu Sheng's completed scenes were to remain intact, and bringing Gordon Liu to the forefront of the plot. The result is an excellent kung fu film, and a fantastic finale for Alexander Fu Sheng's movie career.

The movie is dark with no humour at all. Some really nasty things happen throughout the film, and Fu Sheng and Liu's performances can be best seen as really pissed off.

Now for the fight action, there is a good amount of it, and master director and action choreographer Lau Kar Leung delivers some real gems, with emphasis on spear and pole combat.

This is a worthy immediate purchase and is absolutely recommended.

"Flash Point" won't dethrone "SPL", but it is a good action movie. The only flaw is the plot lacks originality, but it's fresher than most of the other corrupt cop scenarios. It's lighter on the story than "SPL" but lacks a signature fight as between Wu Jing vs. Yen and Yen vs. Sammo. As far as the action goes, it isn't a bonanza loaded with kung-fu, but what action is there is enough to get one's blood pumping.

There are only two main fight scenes to mention where Yen adds a touch of originality, incorporating MMA mixed martial arts in his choreography, utilizing grappling and trapping rather than his signature kicks. This works exceptionally well for the film's atmosphere and final showdown between Yen and Chou, which is quite impressive, and reminiscent of the fight between Ken Lo and Jackie Chan in "Drunken Master 2" where both combatants give it their all for the price of victory. "Flash Point" isn't a perfect movie in the classical film sense--it could be better, it could be worse--but it is a good movie that doesn't shortchange the viewer in any department. "Flash Point" is definitely a step in the right direction, and I look further to future collaborations between Yen and Yip.

"Blade Runner" is based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? One of the most visually influential science fiction films ever made, it's easy to understand it's impact on the films that follow it, particularly in the genre of science fiction. See any classic works of Japanese anime( Akira, Ghost in the Shell, etc.) and you'll see "Blade Runner's" influence in nearly every frame. "Blade Runner" is as much a hard boiled film noir detective story as it is science fiction.

Los Angeles, 2019. Deckard (Harrison Ford) plays a hard-cop who has disturbing criminals to retire. They are called Replicants, used for slave labor to build off world colonies where healthy humans are migrating to now the planet is polluted. Their presence on Earth is illegal, and it's up to Deckard to find them and shoot them. All good science fiction should ask the question "What does it mean to be human?" What makes "Blade Runner" work so well is that it dwells on this question.

Even though "Face/Off" doesn't have Chow Yun-Fat, it has a completeness and emotional resonance that puts it at the top of Woo's oeuvre with "A Better Tomorrow", "The Killer", and "Once A Thief". After years filled with "heroic bloodshed", Woo showed us the "heroic healing" in which he believes.