Director: John Liu, Kurtis M. Spieler
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Action
Plot:
In the midst of a rash of crimes, a cameraman for a TV news station learns that his pregnant wife has been caught up in the fray leaving him alone in the world with the city infested with crime. Determined to put an end to everything, he dons a ninja costume and takes to the streets patrolling and stopping various criminals in the midst of committing vicious acts drawing the attention of the police out to stop his vigilantism and a powerful criminal gang abducting women throughout the city to sell on the black market. When their paths collide, he has to use every skill he can to stop them and end the threat once and for all.
Review:
This one turned out to be quite the fun and enjoyable cheesefest. One of the greatest strengths here is the films’ breakneck style and approach, starting off immediately with the fateful encounter that sets the film in motion and moving along into a fun if over-the-top examination of the crime running through the streets. This becomes the starting point for the fun of the film where he is forced to become the costumed crimefighter and stop the gangs running the streets in a series of clumsily-staged yet enormously energetic and engaging fight scenes as the comically over-matched thugs are wiped out in short order. When it begins moving into the abduction storyline and the various twists that emerge from here regarding who’s on what side and the different kinds of action, it all adds a highly enjoyable atmosphere that makes for a fun time overall.
Of course, there’s also the overwhelming and inescapable sense of technical incompetence that runs throughout this one. From the hilariously miscast dubbed voices and melodramatic line-readings that are clearly not the intended emotions present in the scene that adds a campy value to everything and the utterly silly storyline that’s supposed to be taken so seriously it’s a citywide emergency, the whole effect of the film is pure unintentional hilarity. That carries over to the fights themselves, which are quite enjoyable but look so clumsily staged that there’s an awkwardness to them where the hilarity of the figures standing around waiting to be hit next is painstakingly obvious to these points and just piling on the absurdity of what’s happening. However, all the hilarity and absurdity present here in these regards have to be taken quite lightly due to the constraints of production and release, but keeping that all in mind there’s not much to hold this back.
Overview: ***.5/5
Since most of the flaws to this one are boiled down to the halted production and release which makes for a campy ride whether intentional or not, this is a pretty cut-and-dried type of genre release. This is purely for those that don’t mind the presentation and just want the high-energy action this provides, but anyone who are turned off by the presentation should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment