For It Is Man's Number: hiroyuki sanada

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Friday, 19 June 2026

Mortal Kombat II (2026)

You know the cry. You know the other famous phrases. You know the characters. If you watched the previous Mortal Kombat film, the latest in a number of attempts to satisfy fans of the franchise, then you'll also know that the casting and action choreography seem to have greatly improved since the 1990s movies.

Simon McQuoid returns to the director's chair for this sequel, and the marketing would have you believe that this is essentially a Johnny Cage movie. While Cage (played here by Karl Urban) certainly features in a number of the highlights, this is actually a sneaky way to present a film that focuses on the likes of Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee). Writer Jeremy Slater has fun using the tournament as a framework for changing loyalties, but never forgets to leave room for some fights and dollops of gore.

I think I owe Mortal Kombat II another viewing, but it's hard for me to see my opinion changing much, even if I start to look around for other little pleasures within each scene. It's a fun time . . . WHEN it's aiming to be a fun time, but there are too many scenes that either show characters having to once again be convinced of the very existence of Mortal Kombat or having them wrestling with their own insecurities. It's just my personal preference, but Mortal Kombat should always have characters absolutely convinced of their own abilities and morality, whether right or wrong. I know, I know, you cannot just literally translate everything from a videogame directly to a movie, but I just don't need to spend too much time watching deadly warriors hum and ha about whether or not they're on the right side of history.

The fights are good though, and that's really what it's all about. I just wish there had been one or two more of them in the 116-minute runtime. I also wish that those involved had been a bit more inventive. There are so many characters available from this property, many with enjoyably quirky fighting moves, but McQuoid and Slater decide to ignore so many of them. Admittedly, they will have been thinking of ways in which to offer variety and energy in any more sequels, if they're greenlit, but I just kept wanting to see more favourites that would pop into my mind as I reached into my memory banks to consider the many hours I spent playing the first game on my SEGA Master System.

Urban, despite being a bit too old to totally convince in his role, brings his usual humour and charisma to Johnny Cage. He's a smartass, but also has enough skills to stand him in good stead for one or two fights. Both Rudolph and McNamee do better though, with both feeling like a more natural fit for their characters. Lawson also makes a welcome return, playing Kano, but it's a shame that he's onscreen for such a relatively short amount of time. Martyn Ford is believably deadly as Shao Kahn, Tati Gabrielle makes a strong impression in the role of Jade, and you get the welcome return of Joe Taslim and Hiroyuki Sanada, as well as Mehcad Brooks, and the less welcome return of Ludi Lin (no fault of his, just the fault of his character, Liu Kang, not being very exciting). Fans may not like the way Baraka is used, but actor CJ Bloomfield does a great job under that makeup job.

There's a chance that my expectations were too high here, especially when I thought we were getting a Johnny Cage movie, and that's why I need to give it another go. But being prepared for a bit less of a Cage-centric experience won't stop me from being slightly disappointed by the other potential treats missing from this. There's enough here to put it on a par with the film that preceded it, but I had hoped that this would be a lot more adventurous and fun after all of the groundwork laid last time around.

7/10

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Thursday, 30 March 2023

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

Keanu Reeves is back as John Wick, with Chad Stahelski once again directing, and writer Shay Hatten (who worked on the last film) now joined by Michael Finch, and many people are saying this is the best film in the series. I would disagree, but the third act has a number of major sequences that easily jostle for a spot amongst the action highlights of all four films.

Still looking for a way out of his predicament, John Wick is coming to the inevitable conclusion that he may just have to die. He won’t go down without a fight though, and aims to at least try to take down everyone who is sent after him. The armed goons are being sent in their droves by a determined Marquis (Bill Skarsgård), but the biggest threat comes from a skilled assassin who was once a friend (Caine, played by Donnie Yen) and a tracker (Shamier Anderson) who wants to keep Wick alive until the bounty on his head reaches his desired amount.

I have complained about some other films that start at a point not allowing for any decent sense of escalation, and you might think that John Wick Chapter 4 would have the same problem, considering the first half of the lengthy runtime, but don’t worry. While there is a risk of fatigue setting in, considering how many fight moments consist of people shooting at one another while lifting up their Kevlar jacket collars to protect their face/head, there is just enough inventiveness and style to keep you entertained until you get to the moments that truly feel as if they are taking things to another level. Every main action set-piece set in Paris, whether it involves the busy traffic going around the Arc de Triomphe or some fluid overhead camerawork showing our hero destroying numerous enemies with a gun that fires out incendiary ammo, sets the bar about as high as it can go for this kind of thing. And I cannot tell you how many times I winced during a battle on some steep steps that saw one stuntman after another take many painful tumbles.

Reeves is still perfect in the lead role, more action than words (but able to show both his determination and tiredness while leaving piles of corpses in his wake), and all of the returning players, such as Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick (RIP, his role here is all the more poignant), and Ian McShane, continue to have great fun in their supporting roles, with the latter once again effortlessly stealing some scenes with a raised eyebrow or delightful turn of phrase. Yen is a formidable opponent, and brings with him the legacy of his entire body of work (I hope those new to his skills will hunt down some of his greatest hits), and the same can be said for the great Hiroyuki Sanada, in a relatively small, but pivotal, role. Anderson is good fun, and he gets to give orders to the talented killer dog in this movie (which is great, but sadly not as entertaining as the dogs owned by Halle Berry in the previous instalment). Then there’s Bill Skarsgård, playing his main villain - or, arguably, just the new boss charged with re-enforcing rules and fixing what was broken by Wick’s rampage - with a smug air of superiority, a general lack of concern for what he sees as the inevitable outcome that will go his way, and an entertainingly overdone French accent. There’s also room for Clancy Brown (always welcome onscreen, here lending his talents to the role of Harbinger), Rina Sawayama (playing the daughter of one main character, and someone who may end up on a revenge mission of her own one day), Scott Adkins, Natalia Tena, and the lower half of Marie Pierra Kakoma’s face as she DJs at a radio station named WUXIA.

The soundtrack is another corker (Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard also having been a part of the series since the first film), the production design throughout keeps things well-balanced to show us bright colours and neon lighting in between moments of stealth in more shadowy areas, and there’s an equally fine job done, as ever in this series, of blending the editing and special effects with an overview of the frenetic action.

I doubt the series will end here, but I will not be unhappy if it does. It’s hard to think of what they could do to top this. You have all of the violence and death, all enjoyably creative, you could hope for, but there are also a couple of thematic strands running through the whole thing that give it some more weight, and keep you remembering what everyone has at stake. And you shouldn’t underestimate the glee you can experience from watching our hero repeatedly smack someone in the head with nunchucks. It’s almost downright cathartic.

8/10

Wednesday, 25 January 2023

Prime Time: Mortal Kombat (2021)

I may have said this before, but I have always been a Mortal Kombat guy. I like Tekken, I was always frustrated when playing against people who knew more than me on any incarnation of Street Fighter, but Mortal Kombat was MY fighting videogame. It had the special moves, had plenty of blood and gore, and had great characters. And, against all odds, it was turned into one of the better movie adaptations.

A lot of people were excited when they heard that it was being rebooted in film form (or whatever phrase fits best for this incarnation), but I wasn’t too bothered. I already had a fun Mortal Kombat movie. The second one wasn’t great, but I also had some animated adventures, and the game series has endured throughout the past few decades in a way that I think may have surprised many.

A feature debut from director Simon McQuoid, as well as a debut for writer Greg Russo (although his co-writer, Dave Callaham, has plenty of credits under his belt), Mortal Kombat is a slice of action that feels very much like a film placed in the hands of a very capable stunt team, and that’s no bad thing. In fact, I wish there had been time made for even more fight sequences. Why let plot get in the way of a good Mortal Kombat movie?

Speaking of the plot. It’s time for the big battle that will decide the fate of Earth, of course. Some people who have been chosen to fight are unaware of the full situation, despite being marked with the symbol that tags them as a participant in the tournament, and Cole Young (Lewis Tan) only starts to become aware of his fate when he and his family are threatened by Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim). Coke encounters Jax (Mehcad Brooks), who sends him to connect with Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee). Sonya might be able to help, but she also has her hands full with Kano (Josh Lawson), a man she is keeping on a short leash while using him to get to the tournament. Other familiar faces who appear here are Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (Max Huang), Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), and Shang Tsung (Chin Han). You also get screentime for Goro, Reptile, Nitara, Mileena, Kabal, and quite a few other moral fighters, and Hiroyuki Sanada gets to portray the legend we all loved to play . . . Scorpion.

This is a perfectly enjoyable film, with some decent fights that occasionally include a decent bit of blood and nastiness. I just don’t know why so many people raved about it though. It’s slightly overlong (clocking in at 110 minutes), some of the editing could have been improved to give the fights more fluidity, and to showcase the talented physical performers, and, as so many others have mentioned, it is a Mortal Kombat movie without the actual Mortal Kombat tournament at the heart of it. That is the aim, yes, but Shang Tsung wants to break the rules, which means being able to fight in a variety of locations that aren’t within the standard tournament environments. On the one hand, I can understand why this choice was made. On the other hand, Mortal Kombat should feel like Mortal Kombat. This doesn’t. It feels like what it is - a way to use the characters and fight moves in a rather standard action movie storyline.

Technically competent throughout, and the score does well enough, overall, to make you forget just how much you are missing the bombastic theme song from the first movie, there’s nothing particularly wrong here. The cast fit their roles well, and I believe every one of them could beat me up in a matter of seconds, and the special effects enhancing their capabilities are spot on. It just doesn’t have quite the right tone and narrative thrust to feel like the definitive Mortal Kombat movie. Maybe they will do even better with the next outing.

I will revisit this, it’s got enough good action and is entertaining throughout, but I will undoubtedly revisit the 1995 movie more. It is less polished, but just a bit more fun. And, despite inputting a code to get the maximum amount of blood ‘n’ guts, playing Mortal Kombat was always fun.

7/10

Friday, 30 September 2022

Bullet Train (2022)

A comedy action movie, emphasis on the comedy, starring Brad Pitt as a professional criminal who wants nothing in his life but good vibes, Bullet Train has a lot going for it. On paper. Directed by David Leitch, starring Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Joey King, Michael Shannon, and Hiroyuki Sanada, and mixing action and comedy on the titular bullet train, what’s not to love?

Pitt is on a simple mission. He is given the codename “Ladybug” and tasked with retrieving a briefcase from the bullet train. Ideally, he should get on, grab the case, and then get off at the next stop. Meanwhile, Lemon (Henry) and Tangerine (Taylor-Johnson) are looking after someone they are supposed to keep safe, in exchange for a decent payday. Meanwhile, Prince (King) wants to get revenge on a number of people, as does Wolf (played by Bad Bunny. MEANWHILE, others start to board the train with their own deadly agendas. Ladybug shouldn’t even be there, as he is filling in for an agent named Carver, and it isn’t long until he wishes he hadn’t taken the job.

Based on a book by Kôtarô Isaka, turned into a screenplay by Zak Olkewicz, this is a bizarre throwback to a time when every other film was trying to rip off Tarantino or Guy Ritchie. I am not sure if the problem lies with the source material, having not read the book, but there’s a smugness throughout that isn’t matched by the dialogue or plotting. Everything feels far too much like a Rube Goldberg machine, an excessive amount of moving parts and complications leading to a very underwhelming final result, and the eclectic cast isn’t good enough, overall, to help it all along.

Leitch, who has spent the last five years directing films that mix action and comedy better than this one, fails to find the right way through the dense plotting. There aren’t enough moments of impressive action, the comedy always feels like a separate component, rather than an intertwining strand, and any sense of entertaining spectacle is undermined by the overuse of CGI. This is a busy movie in so many ways, often painfully so, and I only felt that working in its favour during an enjoyable finale that somehow managed to tie up every strand and provide a punchline for every running gag (so fair play to Olkewicz for saving his best work until the end of the movie).

Pitt is fine in the lead role, playing a character we have seen a version of in a number of different movies now. The main thing that allows him to stand out is what he views as a constant string of bad luck, something that allows the script to keep getting bigger and wilder, but there’s a moderately interesting idea tucked away here about perspective, and how bad luck in one way may be good luck in the long run. Taylor-Johnson is bad, I just didn’t like him in this role (and I can only imagine how much this movie could have been improved with someone else there), but Henry does a bit better, helping to make their scenes together more bearable. I don’t want to rate every single main player, especially when I can spend some time highlighting just how good both Shannon and Sanada are. Both get in on the action for the third act, and both take this movie up an entire notch or two. King is okay, Bad Bunny is . . . okay, Zazie Beetz is great, but sadly underused, and there are a few cameos that properly amused me.

It certainly tries to keep the momentum going for most of the 2+ hour runtime, I will give it that, and the soundtrack has some great choices, although I wanted even more. I MIGHT revisit and reappraise this at some point, to see if I enjoy it more while spending less time trying to unpick the various plot threads, but for now I have to tell people that it’s not recommended. It’s tonally very messy, it’s comedically very hit and miss (but one hit, a sequence showing two men tallying up the numbers killed in their most recent job, is superb), and it spends a lot of time going off the rails before sorting itself out just in time for that enjoyable finale.

4/10