Karate Kill

This is a fun film. As others have said, it's part grindhouse & part kung-fu. You will see nods to The Big Boss, Enter the Dragon, Old Boy & others. Mitsutake & Imai are creative with the camera. CGI effects are not bad, and most of the actors are capable. There are some scripted surprises & some shocking kills. There is plenty of cinematic humor here, but no nyuk-nyuk dialogue jokes.

If not for the abundant use of slow-mo, this movie could've clocked in at around 45 mins. The sound effects were fine, but the reliance on cheap, overly-orchestrated soundtrack music detracted from the experience - but that's a common problem in low-budget films. I was disappointed in Katarina Severen's featured role. She showcased her wrestling-ring skills plenty, but her theatre skills were lacking. Same goes for Tomm Voss. Both were simple caricatures & could've been stronger in their villain roles. Sadly, the shallow script did not help them any.

California is always a poor substitute for Texas, but the compound set in the finale was suitable. Contrary to a previous reviewer, there is no "sociological insight" here, and there is no adolescent Trump-bashing. This film is a very straightforward hostage plot ala Taken, but much simpler.

I would take this film over a thousand similarly low-budget "horror" films, the kind seemingly cranked out by any kid with a Black Magic camera these days. Mitsutake needs a better screenwriter, but at least he knows how to tell an entertaining story. I look forward to seeing his other projects.

This movie is just plain f'ed up. It is somewhat entertaining in a disturbing way. So much of the movie is just so off the wall, but the fight scenes are decent. If you are a fan of low budget cult films, you likely will enjoy it

Good Karate, and Asami is a compelling character if the protagonist really isn't. The film's main value is its insight into the culture and values of Trumpistas and the alt-right - which really should be called the alt-rite, for its essentially K-mart values. From the news I've watched from abroad, the villains in this film are pretty indistinguishable from the average pro-Trump demonstrator, save for being better-looking and a lot more articulate. Sometimes it takes an objective, outside perspective to really shine light on a phenomenon.

There were more T's & A's than there were roundhouse kicks, which gave it more of a Russ Meyer's/Grindhouse feel throughout most of the movie. The fight scenes were the most redeeming factor in this film which i gave 4 stars, otherwise a 3 star would be more deserving. This film lacked continuity and a few of the actors portrayed their characters with such a cheesy lackluster performance. My guess is the cast was a mix of professional and amateur actors. Although the fight action was good, there were some noticeable repetitions that made me yawn at a few stunts. David Sakurai is a talented Karate fighter and I would like to see him in higher quality action films. Had this movie been given better supporting actors and a sensible script, I think David would have carried this movie to at least a 7 star rating or better.

Well, first and foremost from this 2016 action/martial arts movie's cover, I must admit that I was expecting a tad more contents from the movie. But then again, I wasn't really knowing what I was getting myself into here in 2021, as I sat down to watch "Karate Kill" from writer and director Kurando Mitsutake. But it being a Japanese movie that I hadn't already seen, I needed no persuasion to sit down to watch it.

And while I did manage to sit through the entire movie to the end, I cannot claim that "Karate Kill" was a movie that was overly entertaining or enjoyable. It was a fairly simple and dumb - if you think about it - movie, with a dubious storyline that just felt too linear, forced and half-hearted. It was the lack of a properly and thoroughly thought through plot that held the movie back.

Sure, the action sequences in the movie were good, though certain aspects of the movie were less than mediocre. Such things as shotgun shells apparently burst into sparks upon contact with human skin and clothing, or that laughable and horrible animated CGI blood splatter.

Little did it help that the acting in the movie was mediocre at best, and the fact that the dialogue was so simplistic that it felt it was written by a middle-schooler.

"Karate Kill" is a movie that requires absolutely no brain activity from the audience. You just lean back and watch it, then most likely will very quickly forget about it entirely after it has been seen. I, for one, wasn't impressed with this movie.

My rating of the 2016 "Karate Kill" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. There are an abundance of far better martial arts movies readily available on the the Asian movie market.