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.

I had very little expectations to the movie, as I hadn't even heard about it prior to stumbling upon it by sheer luck on Netflix. I decided to watch it solely because Michael Jai White starred in it.

And it turned out that this action flick was actually rather entertaining. Sure, the storyline was generic and something that definitely has been seen before in other action movies. But the combination of the storyline, the action, the acting, and the cast, then the end result really worked out as an entertaining action movie with that late 1980's feel that action movies had back then.

The story, in all its simplistic glory, is about a an ex-marine (played by Michael Jai White) who travels to Brazil, where he takes up fighting the Yakuza in the slums of Brazil, because the Yakuza attacked her sister and left her for dead.

There is a lot of action and fighting throughout the course of "Falcon Rising", and I will say that the action sequences and the fight scenes were quite nicely choreographed and executed on the screen. Which only added to the enjoyment of the movie, of course.

"Falcon Rising" is definitely worth the time of watching if you are a fan of old school action movies.

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.

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..

After watching two Steven Seagal movies this weekend, I have a basis for comparison to say that this is fine action entertainment. Surely, the plot/story could have been better, but it's far from boring, and one does get to care for the characters. Most of the actors playing Brazilian didn't quite speak proper Brazilian Portuguese, but unless you speak Portuguese you won't notice it, and I didn't care that much, although it does take away some of the authenticity. There's some predictability, so if you're expecting something very original, you'd be disappointed.

This movie delivers different scenes and locations, a story that makes you wonder a bit what's going to happen next, great martial arts fighting from Michael Jai White and even some cool Capoeira moves from Lateef Crowder. The gun fights are also pretty good. If you love action, this movie is fun and leaves you wanting more. Wish there was a sequel...