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quietearth [Celluloid 11.02.08] movie review action

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Year: 2008
Release date: Unknown
Director: Micah Moore
Writer: Micah Moore
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 6.5 out of 10

To be bluntly honest, I was dreading watching this. While visually lush, the acting looked sub par and I wondered how they could pull off a storyline that way. Was this going to be some cheap Joe Mantegna gangster film? Well I'm happy to report it isn't. It does have that sub par acting and the sound needs to be fixed at points, but in the end this is a great, fast-paced gangster flick which leaves no time to dwell on any philosophical or moral ramifications, it just gets right to the ass-kicking point. Done in a sin-cityish film noir style, the characters backgrounds are not flushed out, but fully complete in their roles, and more than adequate for the story. This is a gangster flick and an action film.


The story starts off with Jack (Eric Jacobus) having some personal difficulties, but after looking outside his window and finding some Triads and Italians having a little tiff, he steps out and whacks the guineas to save Boss Wu's favorite whore. Next thing he knows two dudes show up to bring him to Wu and now he's on the payroll as a hitman, they call him "The Ghost". His first job, to take out a couple of mobsters right in the middle of a restaraunt. He does well, but Wu recommends he goes to see Wei to learn kung-fu. These are quite spiritual lessons as part of his training is to read Machiavelli and Sun Tzu's Art of War. But through all of this, he is now a trusted part of the Triads inner circle.

From here, the action picked up so frantically that I was literally on the edge of my seat rooting for Jack and watching the frantic action unfold. At this point I knew this film wasn't some cheap low-budget garbage, they actually put alot of time into making this enjoyable, and like I said, we don't divert off into some philosophical crap, it's all gangster kung-fu action (well maybe with a little side of forbidden love).

With the great simple storyline did come another problem, and that was the sappiness factor. With music playing out some heartfelt scene, I wish it would have been toned down a bit, but alas, the film's still good nonetheless. The quick pace is kept throughout the entire film and that's what will grab the viewers attention. This might also be called "chivalrous" re: that forbidden love, but in the end it's just used as a vehicle for more killing, yeah!

In the end, I'd give this film a 7, and I do recommend it, but I've gotta drop it to a 6.5 due to the acting, and while this problem is palpable in the beginning, it is easily ignored the rest of the film. Did I like this film? Heck yeah! In fact, I know these guys have more stuff in the works like a zombie film called Z13 and a couple of PA flicks, Superhuman and Atrocity. Bring it on!


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