"Kuro-Obi" works on all fronts: story, script, cinematography, cast and especially the martial arts. Leads Akihito Yagi (Int'l. Meibukai Goju Ryu Karate Instructor) and Tatsuya Naka (Japan Karate Association General HQ (Corp) Instructor) surprisingly give acting and film fighting performances rarely found in one thespian. Once I saw their martial techniques, I knew I was looking at truly skilled martial artists.

Regarding the action, you won't find the highly dance-like Peking opera style of choreography like Hong Kong films, or the MTV style quick editing most US films use (to hide under trained stuntmen), but what you will find is very realistic fight scenes that are very entertaining!

"Kuro-Obi" is a great film that presents a story of honor, loyalty and how we must cope in a world of good and evil. Definitely a must-have for any fan of martial arts and/or film, period! Buy it, share it!

So why didn't they just make a "normal budget" movie with grown-up cameras? I later learned that the low budget was the film's primary selling point to the studios in the first place. Apparently the filmmakers basically approached the studio and said, "we can make a great horror movie for $X". To which the studio said, "Rock on!". Which they did.

And in that context, "Cloverfield" is nothing less than a spectacular success. However, personally, I'd rather have seen these talented filmmakers given a bit more cash to play with. The film does wind up feeling like a bit of a tease at times, as it's clearly lacking a lot of the big, impressive shots that we want to see.

Plus, I have to deduct some points for the ridiculous decisions some of these characters make. I know that's par for the course in a horror flick, but come on. It's not impossible to make a horror movie that's smart too. A little bit more effort in the script would have gone a long way. But anyway...

There you have it. The final choice, as always, is yours to make. I say check it out.

The film's most elaborate and well-choreographed fights take place in the ring, where the prison's inmates square off against each other in illegal fights set up by the Russian mafia. These are really the centerpieces of the film, and Scott Adkins--who plays the super-super-evil antagonist Uli Boyka--is phenomenally talented at this type of screen fighting. However, this is also one of the film's shortcomings, since we basically see one fighting style over and over again.

There are several other fight scenes that take place throughout the prison, as our hero (Michael Jai White) is forced to defend himself against Boyka's gang. These are mostly brief and therefore not very noteworthy.

We won't go into the many suspensions of disbelief that this film expects its audience to perform. Suffice it to say that the film's logic is shaky at best. But if you're just here to see some action, and you're a fan of "in the ring" kickboxing (and you don't mind waiting for it to come in spurts), this one should satisfy nicely.