It's a wonderfully short movie, less than 90 minutes, and that too is a strength of the movie; because even with its short length, it shows signs of struggling to keep going at times. Ultimately the movie succeeds because of Jason Statham and his ability to charm the audience even at warp speed. Silly crude jokes, ridiculous violence, and an utterly stupid plot (the ending makes one wonder how they made a sequel, unless cloning is involved) make up "Crank", but the movie moves so fast you never stop to realize any of this while you're watching. Far from great, but entertaining in a very 80s action kinda' way, there isn't a five second stretch without hitting, shooting, car chasing, or running.

Wesley Snipes is Blade half vampire - half human with all the right stuff.

Considering it's just Blade and Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) they need all the breaks they can get. Though Blade is half vampire that gives him the additional strength and endurance but his half human side allows him to walk about in the daytime. Kris Kristofferson really does work well with Snipes. I don't think I would have thought of that combination but somehow it clicks. Partially the success is do to the commitment of both actors. Whistler provides information and cool weapons coming for Blades growing arsenal. After all this careful creation of the character the movie bringing out a shotgun with silver bullets is disappointing to say the least. They could at least have had the bullets be manufactured from titanium or something!? Or how about oak? Cedar? Call me old fashioned but one should not seriously muck about with accepted standards. As for his other weapons they certainly make up a sufficient arsenal to take out a hell of a lot of vampires. A very cool sword with an "extra" a gorgeous black muscle car, guns and ammo with other great stuff necessary for the job. Blade is hot and looking real cool.

Snipes himself is greatly responsible for the creation and quality of the film. There was no Yuen woo Ping - no one really that had any experience that wanted to take on the project So, Snipes decided to take on much of the choreography. He gathered a group of not so well known along with people with a proven resume' and added his own style of martial cool. Snipes does practice martial arts but he has never claimed to be any kind of expert. He also grew up watching and loving martial arts movies and it's obvious he paid attention!

The other character with some screen time is N Bushe Wright. Unfortunately there really wasn't much for her to do, but she went through the paces well enough.

Blade has accepted his destiny - to save the world from being dominated by vampires. These are not your typical mindless blood suckers. There is a division amongst the vampires. One side, the "pure bloods" who are born as vampires and the other group who were human before being turned into vampires. The film treats the whole vampire concept as more of a disease or condition as opposed to random tearing of flesh and snapping of bones with spurting blood. They have even developed a type of cure if taken soon after being bitten adding more weight to the illness framework.

When Lord of the Immortals' Deacan Frost declares all out killing of human kind the viewer believes him. In his own way Frost is as cool as Blade and as believable in his role. Before long Blade learns Frost has even grander plans for the vampire race. His ultimate goal involves bringing a blood god back to life, into the human world. It's a welcome aspect into a genre that seems to be all about action and/or/ gore and loses the supernatural.

The soundtrack is predominantly techno - lite with some slower music lends a surrealistic tone. It adds an element to remind the viewer he or she may not be coming back thinking the same way again about vampires. It does help the flow of the film and works well for kick ass time.

Blade is a wonderful ride with lots of popcorn. And even thought provoking in it's own way. It's damn good entertainment you will be watching more than once!

Geez, where do I start? Well, how about the stupid anti-American attitude that is very blatant and seen throughout the film. I don't mind people being critical of U.S. foreign policy as long as it is intelligent and honest. "Battle Royale 2" fails on both accounts not to mention trying to have some deep message that is never even explained. Its quite obvious the adults (the teacher and Japanese government) are made to symbolize the Americans and the oppressed children are the terrorists with hearts of gold. They even go as far as showing beautiful scenery and a bunch of happy shining faces in Afghanistan which I guess are getting killed by B-52's of the great Satan whom the film says bombs dozens of countries, even naming them. Apparently the survivors of the previous film, Shuya & Noriko, escaped to Afghanistan where they learned how to shoot an AK-47, rubbed elbows with Al-Qaeda, and taught them the art of the haiku. Give me a break! Even Shuya's Wild Seven headquarters resembled an Afghan cave as they were fully equipped with that style of clothing. In reality, Japanese kids in Afghanistan would be kidnapped by terrorists, tribal leaders, or drug lords just like the South Korean missionaries that were killed there. The fact that the mission was held on Christmas seemed like they were not only taking a shot at America, but Christianity as well. "Battle Royale" served as a brilliant case study on stereotypes and Japanese society, but the story here has no substance and its preachiness is pointless and unwarranted. Ok, enough politics its time to go on to why this film really sucked.

The absolute worst aspect of this film (beyond the stupid political message) was the total lack of character development which was really what made the original great. In "Battle Royale 2" we learn nothing about the 42 students other than they are delinquents, some lost relatives in the bombing, Shiori Kitano (Ai Maeda) is the previous teacher's daughter, and the main character from Shikanotoride junior high, Takuma (Shugo Oshinari), was dropped off at school by his mom. Equally frustrating was that every time a remotely interesting character emerged they were killed off almost immediately leaving a generic looking group of individuals by the end of the film. The remaining girls were attractive, but looked alike never standing out in the film mainly because they had no character development. Why be so quick to kill off the punky looking plump chick, guy that resembles Keiji Maeda from Samurai Warriors, and the scared little fat girl that pissed her pants? Hell, I was rooting for the girl that pissed herself because she was the only relatable character in the film! Not only didn't we find out much about the junior high students, but we know next to nothing about the Wild Seven group either. Instead of the who'll-die-next-and-how suspense of "Battle Royale", we get a roster of students that are nothing more than a body count.

Another awful aspect of "Battle Royale 2" is the atrocious acting. Another strongpoint of the original was that everyone did a terrific job in their roles which is not the case here at all. I think Shugo Oshinari and V-film star, Riki Takeuchi (the teacher), turned in two of the worst performances I ever saw. The overacting from these two is just ludicrous as I keep thinking of Riki Takeuchi snarling in the camera with a mouthful of aspirin. There were also a few scenes of sappy melodrama that were poorly executed.

The action wasn't all that terrific either as many scenes were shot too close as blood spurted on the screen. To make thing worse, the students wore full battle garb and helmets so I didn't even know who was dying most of the time. This resembled a poorly shot war movie more than anything else. The mission's opening scene of the generic students storming the beach like Normandy was laughable. If the filmmakers think America is so bad then why are they adding a 3rd rate Omaha beach scene straight out of "Saving Private Ryan"? I was cringing as I watched the students running around aimlessly under a storm of gunfire as few got hit. It reminded me of the old GI Joe cartoons where the Joes and Cobra would trade gunfire for hours as no one got hit. Since the student's collars was linked I think most of them would never of got off the beach, like the real Normandy.

As my rant of the year is coming to a close (although I could go on for hours), I must admit that I liked the concept of the linked necklaces even if the film gave a lame explanation for it. But, Unfortunately, this wasn't used to its full potential and was even discarded halfway through the film. Some of the production values were decent, but really not praiseworthy.

Even if I never saw the original masterpiece, I would say "Battle Royale 2" was a very bad film. I would also nominate this abomination as one of the worst sequels ever made. I wish the Japanese government never set up this game and just bombed the terrorist compound so I never would of seen this crappy movie. I will give it a 1 1/2 stars mainly out of respect for the "Battle Royale" legacy.

Thoroughly not recommended!

The movie started off good. I mean, Sho and some idiot assassinating some Arabs, which turns out to be a training sequence? It was lovely. Then from there on out it's completely sucky. This is probably the most crappy and inconsistent film ever made, and I'm talking bad. It's like the evil step brother of "Plan 9 From Outer Space". The storytelling is so incoherent, it was almost impossible to sit through and follow. I got the premise that is about some terrorist group lead by a Nazi cripple with a pet monkey and some soul chick who calls herself Colonel Honey Hump that takes hostages so they can free some 7-foot wacko--but the storytelling is horrid.

"9 Deaths" does have its comical moments, I think. I'm not even sure as to whether the comedy was intentional or not. The comedy moments were shit, like when Sho fights some midgets dressed up Michael Jackson (or gangsters or whatever). Errr...that's about it.

One thing that did make me laugh so loud that I puked out my lungs was the credits at the beginning. As the title credits ensue, you'll see Sho perform his ninjitsu in a sexually suggestive form while some love song is playing. Then these ballerina dancers start prancing about (dis)gracefully. Oh my god, I wanted to die.

The action in this film wasn't any good either. It's like "Revenge Of The Ninja", only abate times 1,000,000,000,000,001. It was sloppier than hell and (by far) doesn't make up for this film's crappiness.

Another example of the film's absurdity (in a bad way) is Sho dressing up like an old man for no apparent reason as he beats up some guys. WHAT THE FUCK IS IT ALL ABOUT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!?

You know what, scratch the suicide thing. All I have to do is watch it again and I'll get some sort of telepathic infliction which will exert a brain tumor, followed by encephalitis, then my head will explode. There we go, that outta' bring the religious nut-jobs to help with banning this ass soup.

Multiple plot twists unfold, layers of deceptions are unveiled as the connections between the various characters become clearer, until at last the motive for the deadly game becomes revealted. It's a movie worth watching more than once to appreciate the subtle hints of foreshadowing that you likely missed on the previous viewing, or how a convincing clue turns out to be a red herring.

The various enigmas themselves have been seen in one variation or another in other places...books, math journals, movies, etc., but having to remember how to solve them correctly in under a minute with one's life on the line certainly ratchets up the pressure, and thus drive's the story's suspense.

My only critique of the film, and it's a minor one, is that apparently in post-production the creators chose to color virtually the whole movie in some sickly yellow hue, even the scenes not located in the claustrophobic room. I would rather they had left all the colors in their natual hues, as the yellow effect really muddied the picture quality and strained my eyes to watch.

Oh well, it's a cool movie to watch. With a great script and appropriate acting, it's fun to see just how much can be done with just the bare minitmum of actors and sets.

Apparently having learned from "Tokyo Gore Police", they stuck with a ridiculous parade of gore as the primary plot motivator here and kept the story short, sweet, and to the point: Girl who was pieced together from her 11 friends as some sort of Bionic Woman from hell seeks revenge on those who killed her. Simple, straightforward, and full of crowd-pleasing over-the-top gore battles.

The setting is the Tokugawa Shogunate of the future--who knows, maybe in 100 years they'll come back to power so we have a smattering of swords, Harajuku-inspired samurai fashions, and a steampunk sensibility. I can see this easily raising the hackles of many viewers, as its predecessor, "Tokyo Gore Police", did. There is a quirky low budget quality to this movie that either you'll embrace for its oddness or hate for the exact same reason. I immediately liked this movie, I liked "Tokyo Gore Police" as well, so maybe there is no accounting for taste. Because of the variety and speed at which the gore flies at you in this movie, we have guys getting their skeletons punched from their bodies, guys turned into fountains of spurting blood, breast balls of doom, killer fur-covered guitars, and more.

"Samurai Princess" cuts (pun intended) to the chase much faster than "Tokyo Gore Police" and has a style that honestly is second to none. It's worth checking out for gorehounds and fans of wacky cinema.

Zombie movies are a Anti-Globalization rally. We don't give two rats' asses about your political views. We want gore, a couple of boobs, and violent zombie killing action. As much as I respect and admire the George Romero Living Dead Trilogy (I consider both "Land Of..." and "Diary Of..." not part of the series, we will see what comes of "Survival Of The Dead" if we consider it part of the hallowed group or not) for their political message and themes, they were expertly woven into the story itself and weren't the sole purpose behind the film--something every subsequent zombie-with-a-message movie totally forgets. Ideally for the low budget filmmaker, the goal should be Lucio Fulci's "Zombi", it is perfection in the cheap gore-drenched thrills department and is a much safer bet for those without the writing skills to deliver a message without boxing gloves.

That being said, the makers of "Zombies Anonymous" completely ignored my statement. In fact they went the opposite road and made the entire movie one long lecture on how we treat illegal immigrants. No zombie killing, no boobs, no apocalypse scenario. It is talky, dull, and stuck with its head hopelessly up its own ass. The one-star I've granted the film is due to the few brief moments of gore which, compared to the rest of the subpar filmmaking on display here, were actually decent, which proves to me they knew how to make a low budget gore flick but decided to go with the terrible dialogue and amateur acting route, making the movie an even bigger disappointment.

Unless you are in the mood for being lectured to ad nauseum on how you live in a terrible society because we make illegals mop our floors, I'd recommend skipping this and watching Lucio Fulci's "Zombi" while hitting yourself in the head with a hammer. It will hurt less and you'll get to watch a decent zombie movie in between the blinding flashes of pain.

This leads to Jet Li fighting the governor (portrayed by Chiu Man Cheuk) for his father's life in the grand finale. Granted there is a lot of wire-fu, but I loved the comic performances of Jet Li and Josephine Siao. Josephine Siao makes this movie with her comic portrayal as Sai Yuk's kung fu mama! Great movie for wire-fu lovers, comedy lovers, and Jet Li fans! The Dragon Dynasty version does have the original language version, which I recommend!

Sometimes bad acting can be considerably entertaining. However, there are times when the acting is sooooo bad it antagonizes the thoughts virulently and viewers will find themselves banging their heads against a wall, hoping to die. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to turn off the f!@#in' movie, but that's your problem. My reactions to this film's abysmal acting were insane. I wanted to sodomize the DVD of "Blood Heat", but if I snapped the bitch in half, I couldn't sell it back to a recycled DVD store, so sexual assault was more rational, but I didn't follow through. ALMOST, I guarantee it. :)

I'm sorry to those who liked this film's action and so forth, but the horrid acting overshadows the film, I'm afraid. I mean, I wanted this film to end with everyone being mutilated to death, especially the ass who played the Sewer Rat leader. HE PISSED ME OFF! "We are the Sewer Rats and we are retarded. Now we blow up your arena. (Ground explodes.) Whooo-hooo! Yeah! Uhhhh!" SHUT UP!!!!!!

The conception was nice, but unfortunately the story was poorly told and the horrid acting that goes along with it just made the film seem rather bleak.

If, however, you don't have conflicts with any personalities, annoying or otherwise, because it's more than likely you are annoying in your nature, this film does have great action. But I've said this before and I'll proudly say it a million times more: GREAT ACTION ALONE DOES NOT MAKE A GREAT MOVIE.

Not recommended unless you like being violated by a pogo sick.

The movie is all about noises and creeping dread, something you feel if you spend any time in a big old house that you aren't familiar with. It does a good job with its 80s setting--most modern horror movies rip off 80s movies but few decide to actually set it in the 80s. A likeable main character really helps make the movie work--she isn't too much of a victim nor is she too much of a pain in the ass. She really is the glue that holds the movie together, a natural normal person sucked into a very spooky world. The ending isn't all that great. With all this build up it's pretty difficult to satisfy everybody, but it does the job pretty well.

It isn't perfect, but when compared to pretty much every other domestic horror movie I have seen this year, it beats them all hands down. This is one of those rare occasions that I have found myself agreeing with the hype surrounding a movie. Normally a movie that is hyped too much is always desperately trying to compensate for being junk, but this one actually deserves a lot of the hype it received. Not perfect, but still a very outstanding horror movie in a time when more horror movies like this are needed.

The movie centers on two schoolmates, Young (Jun Chong) and Tony (Phillip Rhee), who in order to pay for college, start running a security-for-hire business. Actually, it's not clear where the guys are attending school, since it clearly looks like a high school, but all of the actors involved would look too old even in a grad school program. Anyway, Young and Tony are good at their job, which eventually lands them a high-paying job for someone that turns out to be a drug dealer. Seizing an opportunity, Young takes the dealer's stash, and a group of tough hitmen (which includes martial arts champion Bill "Superfoot" Wallace) are soon on their trail.

During the whole running time, L.A. Street Fighters feels like it could have been an enjoyable slice of 1980's straight-to-video cheese. But the fact that this production apparently had $19.73 to work with ends up crippling it. You that's hyperbole? Well, it looks like they couldn't even afford a lighting rig, which might have not been a huge issue, except for the fact that most of the scenes are filmed at night. It got to the point where I was questioning the brightness setting on my TV, since for a good amount of the movie, you can literally not see what the hell's going on.

That's a shame, since L.A. Street Fighters has quite a packed cast, at least if you're a fan of 1980's cable and/or VHS action movie releases. Besides the aforementioned cast members, canny viewers will be able to spot other B-movie icons like James Lew and Loren Avendon. When you can actually see the fights, they're actually good stuff, with some solid and bloody action. However, unless you're a total cinematic masochist, it's really not worth it at all to sit through the absurdly bad exposition scenes to check out a few minutes of decent action. Sure, you can probably obtain a copy of L.A. Street Fighters for about 99 cents, but even that small amount can't counteract just how terrible the majority of this release is.

Our hero here is Jack Doh (Alexander Lo Rei), a smarmy chap who heads to Shanghai with big dreams, but empty pockets. As soon as he gets off of the boat, Jack gets into a fight with Charlie Wu (Charlema Hsu), who mistakes him for a rapist. Apparently, both guys find this hilarious, and they're soon the best of buds. Through a series of convoluted plot twists (believe me, this is the sort of release you do not want to pay too much attention to the actual plot, for fear of your head exploding ala Scanners) Jack and Charlie become the heads of the Shanghai triad, which attracts the attention of a ninja (Tong Lung) looking to make Shanghai his own territory. But the ninja doesn't decide to take out the upstarts himself, instead sending a group of four racial stereotypes... I mean hitmen... to do the job. My personal "favorite" is the wine-swilling, cigar-chewing, knife-throwing, greasy-haired, scar-faced Italian.

Going from his history as a protege of Chang Cheh and action director of several martial arts classics like The Five Deadly Venoms, director Robert Tai perhaps realized that the story of Mafia Vs. Ninja was total crap, and tried to redeem things by upping the fight quotient. Yes, there are plenty of fisticuffs thrown at the viewer here, but, frankly, for the most part, they're not made very well. There are a ton of obvious tricks used like undercranking and barely-hidden wirework. And don't get me started on the "special effects" used for the ninja trickery. Apparently, a pile of leaves pulled by a string is supposed to show that ninjas are tunneling through the ground. Ech. Your average 1980's Michael Dudikoff straight-to-VHS B-movie had cooler ninja antics than what's presented here.

If you're a die-hard fan of B-movie cheese, you might find something worthwhile here. Certainly, the atrocious English dub itself is worthy of a Mystery Science Theatre smackdown, especially if you find yourself stranded in a blizzard-locked cabin with a few of your fellow beer-swilling kung fu-watching buddies, and the only other DVD you have is disc one of season two of Sabrina The Teenage Witch -- and that one is scratched. However, your average joe reading this review off of a random Google search would probably be better off taking the 99 cents they might spend on this DVD and buying a gas station chili dog. Because, at least then, they would get some sort of tangible fufillment for consuming the sub-standard product.

Relative newcomer Marko Zaror (whose biggest role up to this point has been being Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's stunt double in The Rundown) stars as Maco, a man who is haunted by the memories of a violent attack that he experienced as a child, which also left his parents dead and his younger brother in a mental ward. Maco tries to exorcise his demons by training incessantly, which turns him into a tremendous athlete, but leaves him living as a loner. During a late-night run, he comes across a robbery in progress, and saves the lovely reporter Carol (María Elena Swett). Sensing big ratings, Carol begins hyping her hero during newscasts, which leads Maco to turn into his alternate personality, Mirageman.

In many ways, the character of Mirageman has parallels with many classic superheroes, probably most pointedly Batman. But Maco doesn't have the resources Bruce Wayne does. He doesn't get information via a sophisticated bank of computers; he gets it from messages on his janky free e-mail account. And when Maco heads off to save people, he doesn't do it with a pimped-out vehicle -- he takes the bus. Mirageman takes this sort of thing into account, and uses a light touch for the first two acts, which really works, making Maco/Mirageman into a really enjoyable character.

Mirageman does take a more serious turn during the final act, which does feel a bit out of place. However, the action quotient also jumps up, and this goes a long way to making the viewer forgive the sudden change in the tone of the story. Martial arts films in South America are still a somewhat new territory, with director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza and Marko Zaror's previous film, Kiltro, being noted as one of the first "true" entries from the continent. But if Mirageman is any indication, Chile (and South America as a whole) holds a lot of potential for the fight fans out there.

The action scenes bring back a lot of memories of classic 1980's Hong Kong movies, with little in the way of wirework or other effects, and bone-crunching hits that look like they were barely pulled. Sure, Mirageman also shares some of the lesser elements of those productions, like an obvious low budget and acting that is suspect in parts, but there's also a lack of pretentiousness here. Most action junkies out there will probably agree that it's better to have a movie that doesn't have any money to work with, yet still delivers real excitement, is much better than a $100 million picture that looks nice, but feels hollow. Mirageman is a refreshing example of the former, and is well worth hunting down if you're in the mood for some good old-fashioned no-frills ass-kicking action.

Due to almost all of the local theatres being owned by foreign-based companies, the Australian film industry had been dormant for several decades until the 1960's, when the societal changes that were sweeping the western world encouraged film-makers (and audiences) to eschew American and European releases, and start exploring what it meant to be Australian via their cinematic output. After the installation of a movie rating system in 1971, which effectively killed Australia's notoriously strict government-sponsored censorship, there was a boon of releases, with many of them swinging to the realm of exploitation, or, as it is referred to here, Ozploitation. Sex and violence-laden entries like Alvin Purple and Turkey Shoot began to dominate Australian cinemas, much to the chagrin of critics, who regarded the Ozploitation films as trash. As evidenced by some of the interviews featured in this documentary, even many of the people involved in the making of these pictures would agree as to that assessment regarding the quality of their product.

But no one can deny that these films did well at the box office, and the profits let more "serious" directors to produce artier fare like Picnic at Hanging Rock. Combined with cross-over releases like Mad Max (an action picture which revolutionized how car chases were filmed) that performed strongly all over the world, the Australian movie industry soon found itself one of the top centers of movie-making. Soon, international productions were making their way to Australia, including several from Hong Kong, such as The Man From Hong Kong, which is regarded as one of Jimmy Wang Yu's best releases -- though, as per quotes given by people like the film's director Brian Trenchard-Smith, it was a miracle the movie was even completed due to Wang Yu and the crew not getting along with each other, to the point that fists were almost thrown on the set.

Even if you're not a film history buff and/or normally find documentaries to be deadly boring, it is still well worth your time to seek out Not Quite Hollywood, if just to check out the myriad of clips presented. This film definitely earns its' R rating, whith no small amount of nudity and gore tossed out during the running time. Fans of extreme cinema are going to go boffo for the small gems presented here, and will clog up their Netflix queue in order to see the full movies. Not Quite Hollywood might not be a good documentary in the true sense of the genre, since director Mark Hartley clearly wears the love he has for these films on his sleeve. But that enthusiasm passes on to the audience, and that feeling makes Not Quite Hollywood one of the better ways you can spend 100 minutes of your time.

The Great Pretenders' plot relies heavily on twists and double-crosses, so the description here will be brief. Bascially, Wong Seung Chin (Raymond Wong) is Hong Kong's top con man. Along with his proteges, Leung (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), Yip (Amy Yip), and Yam (Simon Yam), Wong fleeces Hong Kong's top criminals, and then gives the money to charity. After Wong and his team swindle the loanshark Lung (Leung Tin), they are confronted with their toughest test yet in the form of Mr. Giant (Teddy Robin Kwan).

Raymond Wong's script certainly does not employ sublety to get its' point across. Viewers can be forgiven if some of the intended humor not only falls flat, but generates groans. Most notably, Simon Yam mincing it up as a "queenie" homosexual is virtually guaranteed to offend a lot of people out there, instead of producing the intended laughter. But Wong's admittedly pedestrian approach to the story affords us lots of jokes about Amy Yip's big boobs, which of course leads her to appearing in various skimpy and tight-fitting outfits. Now that's what I call production value.

All kidding aside, The Great Pretenders does come off at times like it's shamelessly pandering to the audience, trying to cram as many jokes into the running time, hoping at least some of them stick. Despite this, there is a sort of dopey charm to the proceedings which begins to come out as the movie progresses that allows the viewer to just switch off their brains, relax, and enjoy the antics. The Great Pretenders certainly isn't an example of great cinema from Hong Kong, but it is good enough to set aside ninety minutes of your life for, especially if you're a fan of the actors involved.

Taking a well-traveled road, None But the Brave's story has Cheng playing Siu Ying, a revolutionary who poses as the sister of Captain Lui (Au Wai), who is building allegiances with the encroaching Japanese, who are led by Sano (essayed by the popular Japanese star Shishido Jo). Siu's ruse works at first, and she gains valuable intelligence, which she passes on to the leader of the resistance, Yang Kang (James Tien). But after her true identity is discovered, Ying must battle a growing number of both Chinese and Japanese foes in order to help the rebellion and save herself.

There is some fun to be had here, especially for well-heeled old-school vets. Despite the low budget of the production, a virtual "who's who" of talent that would become linchpins in the kung fu explosion of the mid-1970's are featured here (albeit in small doses for the most part) including a young Jackie Chan in one of his first speaking roles. And besides Cheng, the other main actors put in some solid work, especially Au Wai, who manages to create a very three-dimensional character -- someone that you might feel conflicted about rooting against until he reveals how truly dirty his motives are. Unfortunately, Lo Wei taints the acting side of things by placing himself in the movie with a fairly meaty role as a local commander.

As hammy as Lo's acting is, at least there is some passion behind it, which sadly cannot be said for his directorial style. If one was going to look up how to film a kung fu movie by the playbook, this is a crystal clear example of Hong Kong's "factory system" style in motion. Perhaps Lo was under monetary constraints, but the better directors will find a way to make even the cheapest of budgets work, and honestly, Lo Wei is in no way one of Hong Kong's better directors. But despite its' problems, None But the Brave still ends up playing out as a fairly entertaining old-school picture that fans of girl-fu might enjoy if they're not too picky.

Taking place in 2046, Kungfu Cyborg centers on K-1 (Alex Fong Lik-Sun), a cyborg sent to a village to assist Xu Dachun (Hu Jun) in cleaning up local cases. K-1 is so effecient that Xu is thrown to the side, and along with a growing romance between the robot and Sumei (Betty Sun Li), Xu begins to try and stop K-1. But after a renegade cyborg named K-88 (Wu Jing) begins wreaking havoc, the two rivals must join forces.

Science fiction in Chinese cinema is still a rarity, so I'll be a bit forgiving when it comes to the overall lower quality of the special effects, or even somewhat jarring facts that apparently this is a world where cybernetics have been fully realized, but people are still talking with cell phones that look they came from 2002, and communicate with each other via text-based IM clients. The action scenes are decent enough that the viewer can forgive at least some of the fluff which surrounds them.

However, they are not nearly good enough to truly forgive all of the cinematic faux paus present here, most notably the absolutely awful acting. Even Alex Fong, who is playing a robot -- a goddamn ROBOT, people -- overacts. I never thought I would be pining for the salad days of Ekin Cheng trying to emote while sitting in front of a greenscreen in Hot War.

Anyway, there's also just way too many elements thrown into the mix. Even in the schizophrenic world of Hong Kong movies, you really can't expect your audience who just got their eyes and ears melted by a special effects ejaculation to take a romantic scene seriously, especially when the dialogue is delivered with all the sincerity of a Billy Mays infomercial. Actually, watching Billy Mays schill Oxi Clean would probably be more entertaining than sitting through this over-long and over-blown mess. At least you would get some genuine laughs and enjoyment, unlike this production, which more often than not, just conjures up boredom or spite.