Badland Hunters

A mad scientist is hellbent on reviving his dead daughter and his weird experiment is stopped mid way. At the same time, Seoul is brought down by an earthquake with a Richter scale reading of 5. With no fresh water, the city is on the verge of apocalypse and enter the Hunter who not only keeps the people fed but also protects them from the bounty Hunters and ofcourse more. When the mad scientist returns with his sinister plan, taking away the young children, he is not aware of how many punches the Hunter can throw.

Badland Hunters succeed in terms of providing enough human punch bags to Don Lee. The ordinary vfx isn't really a hurdle in the proceedings and he quickly gets into business, starting with a crocodile. The story however has nothing new to offer and is as silly as one expects it to be, which could've been deemed Gold in the 80s but in 2024, one can be happy for Don Lee's screen presence to even make this bland film to entertain slightly. The runtime also helps as there is not too much space for melodrama and the makers seems to be aware of what their true strength is in so the film gets into action mode quickly and stays that way throughout.

When it comes to netflix produced movies, the quality of the movies often reach to lower than the movies released in the theaters just like those straight-to-DVD movies. Of course there are few exceptions, but because of the long list of the sub par movies that Netflix produced, I tend to lower my expectation, and that seems to work out well when I watch netflix movies such as Rebel Moon and this movie, Badland Hunters. It was nice to see something new and different in both movies. The action scenes in both movie are also superb that are worth watching again. However, I would give just a little bit more points on Badland Hunters since it has shorter running time, but has longer action time. It's slightly more than 90 minutes, but it has a lot more actions. It's a cheesy and gory action flick that delivered what it was promising. What else do you expect? Life changing experience? Epiphany? Watch for the actions especially last 30 minutes. You won't be disappointed.

Badland Hunters combines a lot of familiar elements for a post apocalyptic adventure that pushes through any narrative issues with its brutal action and the fact that this is a surprisingly funny film. Despite all the mutant soldiers, gangs and a mad scientist, this is one of the most civilised wastelands put to screen and there's a lot of charm in that.

Ma Dong-seok is obviously very believable with his natural physicality and he has a subtle leading man charm. The best part of his performance is how he's never phased by any of the evil plans he uncovers or the unkillable antagonists he comes up against but a set of stairs knocks the wind out of him and the woman who's constantly flirting with him truly baffles him.

As a stuntman turned director, Heo Myeong-haeng offers further proof that former stuntmen are the best at shooting action sequences. Whilst some of the fights can be too hyper active, for the most part that kind of camera work really works here, accentuating the movements of the performers in a way that enhances every blow. Especially any punch from Ma Dong-seok himself.

Badland Hunters: A South Korean dystopian action film which is a sequel to the 2023 film Concrete Utopia , I missed Concrete Utopia and wasn't aware of it's existence until after I watched Badland Hunters. Maybe I would have gotten more context if I seen the originak film first but Hunters is entertaining. World destroyed by mega-earthquakes. Mad Max style settlements plagurd by bandits, a mighty hunter who fights them off. There's also a mad scientist who carries out weird experiments on humans and has an army od super soldiers. We also get to see fast moving quasi-zombies. There's a quest and battles, some good hand to hand fighting and dastardly decapitations. Not to be taken too seriously but it's a goodish SF B movie with a line of humour running through it. Directed by Heo Myung, Screenplay by Kim Bo-tong & Kwak Jae-min. On Netflix. 6.5/10.

Ma Dong-Seok is one of my favorite action stars, almost on par with Jason Statham in my books in terms of entertainment value. His work is usually very enjoyable (the badass punches in Round-up 2, some of the best I've ever seen) action + humor, like almost nobody else.

I was really looking fwd to Badland Hunters, but this turned out to be a let down. The plot is these action movies isn't usually anything new but this had a bunch of stuff going on that didn't add any value...? Action for the sake of it....tsk.

That said, others seem to like it, for a mix of all sorts of action. If you have nothing else to watch, maaaybe check it out? I'd much rather rewatch some of his older content.