The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
Oct 9, 2008Martial Arts Adventure
Westernised homage to Wu Xia and the Shaw Brothers film with an American teen transported back to Ancient China, this has all the thrill of junior-grade martial arts tournament
Li Bingbing
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)
Aug 7, 2011Historical Detective/Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
Tsui Hark returns to form in this lush Chinese-backed historical drama where his wildly fantastical martial arts combine with the story of the true-life detective De Renjie/Detective Dee
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
Sep 24, 2012Videogame Adaptation/Complex of Zombies and Mutants
Another unnecessary entry in a creativity-handicapped series, the continuing popularity of which is baffles. This shuffles through the familiar moves, brings back several familiar characters but only leaves me asking why I have invested some nine hours of time following this series
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
Jun 28, 2014Live-Action Transformer Robots
Are there truly any new creative directions that Michael Bay feels he he has to explore for a fourth Transformers film? For me, all the Transformers beating the crap out of each other and copious mass destruction has reached a tipping point where it is hard to tell one of the films from each other
Zhongkui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (2015)
Nov 28, 2016Wu Xia Film
Lush, visually extravagant Chinese-made Wu Xia film, shot with an epic widescreen eye that looks amazing. It falls down somewhat when the two leads become replaced by CGI and only look like the avatars from a videogame
The Meg (2018)
Jan 18, 2019Giant Prehistoric Killer Shark
Big budget about a giant prehistoric killer shark film. This is like a Sharknado film with its sense of its own risibility perfectly under cap, played seriously and mounted as a series of spectacular shark attack sequences
Guardians of the Tomb (2018)
Sep 5, 2024Tomb-Raiding Adventure
A tomb raiding adventure about the venture into a tomb filled with deadly spiders in search of an immortality serum. A Chinese-Australian-co-production.