A very entertaining cult action movie...

Rating: 9/10 (20 August 2010)

Very entertaining cult action movie...
I really don't know what else people expect (besides action!) when going to see a movie that boasts the heaviest line-up of action movie stars spanning the last few decades...? Sure, you would expect there to be a plot that holds the movie together and characters (which this movie has a lot of!) that you can buy into and cheer all the way to the end. This movie has those things and while the plot isn't the most original, (which is a very difficult thing to do nowadays within the action genre as it's limited by concepts based on reality unlike science fiction) the film has ingredients that gives you an ensemble of action that feels quite quite original although it's not! It's rare that I go to an action movie and get so many "whoahh!" moments, either the action looks too cheesy (slickly choreographed) or it uses too much CGI and looks too.. cheesy!! Well, this movie as many of you already know doesn't use any CGI, as (props to the aging cast!) they do ALL of their own stunts, and a couple of them are quite spectacular! The fight scenes are technically, probably not very realistic, with unflinchingly accurateknife-throwing, displays of almost super-human strength with limbsbeing severed and a ratio of deaths even the "300" Spartans would beproud of! But it's not meant to be. It's not a war film like "Saving Private Ryan" that leaves you sentimental and sobering, it's meant to be a larger than life action movie that entertains and dazzles and gives you a bit of an adrenaline rush, which it does in abundance.
All the main cast obviously have action movie careers and statuses that they want to protect, so I thought it'd be a bit risky putting so many stars that are exclusive to this one genre alongside each other in a movie. Having said that, somehow each of the actors were given enough airtime to enhance their individual careers, showing a bit of what they could do for the ones not so familiar to the moviescreen and more of what they can do for the more established.
OK, I think I've said enough without saying that much. If you watch action movies like anything from "Rambo" to "Bourne" or even "Manga" films and don't have a personal dislike for any of the cast or a nagging desire to find plot holes in movies, especially the heavily anticipated ones, you WILL really enjoy this movie!!!