A French German Japanese American crime film directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Forest Whitaker, Henry Silva and Isaach de Bankole.
Mobsters decide to kill one of their assassins who follows samurai traditions and communicates with them only through notes on pigeons.
Out of the Jarmusch I've seen so far, this is not his best work. It seemed too new, too Hollywood and too violent. I'm not really one for guns anyway and this guy practiced with a sword that never got used. Also, if he's such an honorable samurai, why does he go around stealing cars like it doesn't matter? The video had lots more fast editing and close shots than I would have liked and the mobster's daughter spoke 1 line of audible dialogue and like 5 lines inaudible. Overall, not really what I like to watch. I would advise Jarmusch fans to skip it and I rate it tolerable.
An American action film directed by Andrew Davis, starring Steven Seagal, Pam Grier, Sharon Stone and Henry Silva.
Steven Seagal plays a "loose cannon cop who doesn't play by the rules". He is on a case involving drug smuggling, illegal immigration, explosives trafficking and assassination.
This was on a kung fu list, but there was very little fu that got kunged. An hour and 36 minutes of yet another LCCWDPBTR was too much for me. Shootout, chase scene, computer hacking in DOS and cheesy '80s music made it very cliche and stereotypical. The plot failed to hold my interest because I of how many times I have seen this type of thing before. Reiterations of the classic cop flick characters did not entertain me either. Their dialogue could have been copied and pasted from the gargantuan amount of similar films that preceded this one and the acting was as cheesy as the music. Sets and costumes consisted of regular '80s clothing in a city. The only unique set was the martial arts dojo in the beginning. Special effects consisted of blanks for the guns and squibs for people getting shot. There were also some falls from tall buildings. The audio was mixed correctly and the music, although cheesy, was from a time when musical virtuosity was still driving creativity and before Kurt Cobain wrecked rock. Hal Hinson of the Washington Post said this was "woefully short on originality". It has 6/10 on IMDB, 53% Tomatometer and 48% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. 53% average failing grade seems about right to me. I rate this poor because I have seen much worse than cliche and repetition.
