Falcon Rising

You will probably find "Falcon Rising" to be entertaining the more that you are in an undemanding mood when you sit down to watch it. I'm not saying that it is a bad movie, but there are several things holding it back from being a great B movie. The faults with the movie do not concern its star, Michael Jai White. Although his acting is only adequate, he does make up for it by his strong presence and animal magnetism, and when he thrown into an action scene, he acquits himself very well. The main problems with the movie generally fall with the script. The story (which is to a large degree very predictable) is kind of padded out, and takes forever to get going (over a third of the movie goes by before White's character really starts to get down to business.) Also, the movie gives White less of a chance to show off his martial art skills or gunplay than you might think. But when the action does come, it's pretty decent, not the best I've seen but also far from the worst. So the movie ends up being an okay effort, best saved for a casual viewing experience rather than when you are really craving a lot of gratuitous violent action.

Having seen "Blood and Bone" I was interested to see MJW's latest outing, and with some minor reservations this movie is worth a look if the genre interests you. Its well shot, reasonable well acted throughout, with a good peppering of action sequences culminating in the standard "final battle". The fight scenes are well done, focusing on MJW's obvious skills without special effects or camera trickery. The plot moves along nicely, true its a little formulaic and maybe predicable, but name an action/revenge movie that is not....its more about the journey than the destination....hands up who wasn't sure if Liam Neeson would find his daughter in "Taken". The thing that impresses me the most is how good it it is considering the budget...$4.5 million, compare that to "The Expendables" $262 million...and it doesn't look cheap...think more "Transporter" than "Bourne".... ...now there's a thought MJW v Jason Stratham..

Well, this enter the "you seen that before" category from the get go. There is nothing original about the plot. Ex Marine Falcon is out of the battlefield with post war trauma, the only thing he care for in this world is his sister. She get attacked and left for dead in Brazil and he goes after the people doing it.

The rest is your typical plot of any movies of that sub genra... BUT the main focus here is that this movie star Michael Jai White, the guy can be pretty impressive on screen. Not only does he has an intimidating presence and know how to act, but he fight really good too.

This is what makes the movie. Its true there is not as many fights as one would like, but when they happen, they are pretty good, and its really what i consider a very cool B action movie. If you like what veterans like Lundgren, Van Damme, Seagal or such do these days, you will love this one as its a bit above in my book. The thing is, MJW can fight, and its obvious the only reason why this movie does not shine more is the lack of fighting sequence for a plot development, which can't be seen badly either.

I had fun watching this, and i heard they plan it to be a series of movies, so i am interest to see what Falcon has in store next.

Maybe just a little bit above mediocre, which almost is a shame considering how captivating and how intriguing the character Michael Jai White is playing is. The beginning is quite strong, you get a strong character who is broken. So much so, that he questions his will to live.

And the way White is playing that is more than above average. White might not get too much credit from a lot of people, but he is a charismatic and at least good actor. See Black Dynamite if you question it. The action scenes are quite good and someone "stole" the summary I wanted to use "decent" - as in this is quite a decent movie. As I also say though it could have been more. If you like action movies, give this a try - just if you can do the uncut version. It might only be a few cuts towards the end, but if you watch a movie like this, you want the full impact

OK action movie but there is some confusion concerning the place of action. You can clearly see the typical views of Rio DE Janeiro and not a word about Sao Paolo. Maybe it is a small detail to most viewers - thou I doubt it, but right is right. It happens in Rio and not in Sao Paolo, OK? Otherwise an entertaining movie, recommended. After that we can go on to say few words about the movie itself. It seemed a little like Jason Statham plot - remember Jason's "Homefront?" The Brazilian police couple for ex. was a little too obvious to me, but not surprising at all. The action is quite interesting as it takes us beyond the Favela and gets us to take an additional quick look into the world of trafficking. All in all really good acting on most characters and nicely photographed too, Thomas K.