The story is over-the-top about a virus that spreads throughout England killing thousands of people. The government decides to quarantine the virus site. The quarantine is successful. Three decades later, the Reaper Virus violently resurfaces in a major city. A team of specialists, including Eden Sinclair, is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. When I first read about the plot, I thought it was going to be exciting and original. It wasn't either exciting or original, The film had too many references to better movies.

I enjoy directors that acknowledge other directors or films in their movies. If a director can do that in his movie it makes it more personal for the audience. Quentin Tarantino does that with all his films in a way that it is personal but somehow original. The sharing of references goes for a lot of directors from Paul Thomas Anderson to the Coen brothers. Neil Marshall did a wonderful job of good reference in "Dog Soldiers"--he is a fan of Sam Rami's "Evil Dead" series and with "Dog Soldiers" it truly shows. "Doomsday" on the other hand had a promising plot but just ended up as a mess with too many references like the virus spreading, which is from "28 Days Later", to Eden Sinclair's one eye from "Escape From New York", the quarantine wall looks like it is from "Jurassic Park", the bus chase is from Walter Hill's "The Warriors", the post-apocalyptic wardrobes and car chase is from "The Mad Max" trilogy, and the castle and castle wardrobes is from "Robin Hood" or "Lord Of The Rings". The movie is just one big shout-out to better films.

"Doomsday" is not an original film, the visual style is sloppy, and either cut or uncut you still get bad editing. The many references to better movies ruins any credit of a good time at the movies. If Neil Marshall does not want be the horror guy anymore, he should have made a straightforward action picture. In "Doomsday" we get a mess of everything that Mr. Marshall enjoys and more. If you enjoy a messy film then you would enjoy this mess. There is one good point to the film which is, it's about time that we see the beautiful Rhona Mitra get a starring role. I am tired of seeing her in the background of other movies playing a supporting character. Though she may want to call her agent, because she should have been in the background of this sloppy movie.

The trailer of the movie was hands down awesome! But don't be fooled by what you saw in the trailer because it is not what you get on-screen. The film is a total chick flick with short and uninspired action sequences for the men. Plus this movie is not a Donnie Yen actioner. He is one of the supporting characters. The main stars of the film are the empress and the medicine man.

There is a lot of sentimental feeling in this movie. And with the sentimental feeling comes cheesy and cliched dialogue, such as "I'll wait for you". And with the cheesy dialogue we get a homemade balloon ride over the forest with some modern, poppy, and romantic song in the background.

The action scenes are rare and brief--we get the empress protecting the medicine man's tree house. The empress in a battle scene. The empress chased in the forest. And the notable action piece, the two-minute battle with Donnie Yen kicking ass. The final action scene has the empress fighting a one on one fight. Though it may seem like a lot, it is not. Again the action pieces are short. There are too many cheesy love scenes.

I cannot recommend this film to anyone. There was bad editing, too many sappy moments, and not enough action. The film is short but there weren't enough thrilling moments. I am giving this film a half star for the Donnie Yen scene, where he fights dozens of men. Again, there is no reason to buy this flick for that one reason because it is short and not too memorable for any DVD collection.

"An Empress And The Warrior" is a chick film with so many corny lines. It's as if the director saw "Titanic" and "Musa: The Warrior", then took the background of "Musa: The Warrior" and the lines from "Titanic", and cut all the action scenes from "Musa" to make a film about an Empress and a medicine man. This film is a waste of time and talent.

The movie "Brave" showcases his style in two good action scenes. The memorable one is inside a construction site where he dodges and kicks the hell out of people. Also in that scene there is a spectacular stunt where Mike B. jumps off the building and catches an iron rod hanging from the ledge. It was impressive, because Mike B. does his own stunts too. The second good fight is at the end where he kicks and punches his way out of the building.

"Brave" has some good action set pieces, but where that delivers everything else just fails. The story is about a young man who is forced by the mafia to steal a bank's client data in exchange for his brother's life and discovers he and his brother have been set up. It sounds simple reading it, but following it is confusing. The writer adds subplots about Mike B's fat brother which make no sense or give any added detail about the characters. There is a lot of double crossing in a movie that shouldn't have any double crossing set-up to begin with. The majority of the people that are going to watch this film are martial arts fans. The director and writer should have taken that into consideration. In "Brave" we have some nice action pieces but the story and acting are horrible. Also with "Brave" we don't get an ending, well not a clear ending--it simply just ends.

This film is a mess but I did enjoy the two action pieces. "Brave" is not a movie to get hyped up about. Aside from the two action pieces, you still have 72 minutes of a confusing story to follow. Mike B. is very talented and hopefully with his next movie it shows.

The set-up of the movie is very slow. The audience is not introduced to the new fighting sensation JeeJa Yanin until twenty minutes in the movie, where she is catching balls (literally) and fruits that her chubby best friend throws at her. CGI fruit and balls helped her a lot on that scene to impress upon a crowd that she has fast reflexes, and then a young punk throws a knife at her. We are finally introduced to her kicks and punches in a brief altercation. This was the twenty-minute mark. If you are a patient viewer, you would have to sit through the story about a criminal boss' hench-woman and criminal boss' associate and their love for each other. The criminal boss finds out and goes bat-crazy, shooting his own foot. The man and woman are on the run, and the woman says she's pregnant. The man leaves her and the mother is all alone taking care of her deaf child. The criminal boss returns with his drag-queen goons and cuts off one of the mother's fingers as the deaf child watches and cries. Then the scene cuts to the deaf girl, we see in a montage that she is interested in Thai fighters in front of her house, kung fu movies, her chubby friend, mom, and of course chocolate. Her kryptonite is flies, she really hates flies.

The action scenes are all right, starting with the first action sequence in the ice factory where she mimics Bruce Lee but thinks about Tony Jaa from "Ong-Bak". I was a little confused by that scene--shouldn't she have thought about Bruce Lee instead? In that scene ice is thrown at her, and she dodges it left and right. The second fight is in the warehouse where she fights atop crates and wooden platforms are thrown at her. The next action scene is in the shady butcher shop where the opponents are strapped with butcher knives and again the knives are thrown at her as she dodges them left and right. The last and final action scenes are on top of a roof where she fights thug girls that look like the fly girls from the show "In Living Color". Then the fight scene in the restaurant where she fights people with swords and a man with glasses that is on crack, I suppose. The most exciting out of all the fights is the one on top of billboards and restaurant signs--it was good and enjoyable.

The major problems of the movie were the lack of character development. I personally could not recognize any of the characters in the movie; they were lacking heart or any emotional impact. The story was a major problem too. There were a lot of parts that could of been cut out, like the beginning and some of the emotional parts. Another major problem was the action: there are three action scenes that look the same but in different locations--one in the butcher shop, second the warehouse, and third the ice factory. These action scenes were all the same with the same bad guys trying to attack JeeJa Yanin. The bad guys of the movie were a major problem as well. JeeJa Yanin fights a lot of people in the movie, but none of her opponents were really worthy, which lacks any danger for Miss Yanin. This is supposed to be a martial arts movie, we need a worthy opponent for our hero. If there are no good matches in a kung fu film, then it lacks excitement for the viewer. JeeJa Yanin's character is invincible in the movie, she is like a superhero and her kryptonite is flies. If this was supposed to be a superhero film, the writers should have established that. "Chocolate" is not a superhero film, it's about a deaf girl that fights and never gets hurts except when there are outtakes. There are a lot of martial arts films out there with a hero fighting off an opponent that is worthy to fight with. In this movie our main villain shoots himself in the foot and is surrounded by a group of drag-queen goons--maybe he should have read the guidelines on being a villain and stopped running away from a deaf girl.

"Chocolate" is not a five star masterpiece. We are missing the intense and thrilling action scenes, plus a decent story to follow. The character development is also missing. "Chocolate" is not a zero star movie, it does have some fun for the viewer. I am giving the film two and half stars even though it has three action scenes that look the same and henchmen that are no match for JeeJa Yanin. I did like the fight on top of the billboards, it was creative and original. There was a scene I enjoyed, in the butcher shop, where a man throws a knife at our hero but it bounces of a springy fence and strikes him on the shoulder. To me that's priceless entertainment.

There are some people that find this flick impressively done and others that butcher it. I am in between in this picture, it has its ups and downs.

I love how the picture looks, it has nice visuals. And the violence is brutally shot. But we also have a terrible score and wooden acting. Yes, I know this is supposed to be a stylish flick, but too much style can ruin a movie, and with this movie the style just dragged on sometimes. It's pure modern cult cinema, and with cult films you either love it or hate it or pick some great stuff from the movie.

I am giving it two and half stars. It has its moments but that's about it. I'll recommend it to any art students out there for its colorful look.