Broken Path

I saw Broken Path at the Phantasmagoria film festival this weekend and was very excited indeed. Johnny Yong Bosch gives a terrific account of himself here, as does Dan Southworth (a favourite performer of mine since the awesome US Seals 2), Motoko Nagino, and the other tremendous action performers in the film. The film is virtually one long non-stop fight from about 20 minutes in, after establishing Johnny's family life with his wife and young daughter. The action is outstanding, especially the final showdown between Johnny and Dan which really has to be seen to be believed, and the action scenes with Motoko Nagino kick ass, she is a tremendous performer, exhibiting some terrific fighting and stunt skills, and being a great actress as well. There a re a few criticisms such as the fact that every person in the film receives numerous injuries that would kill anyone instantly and then carry on fighting which just feels a bit silly. If the film was an animated Japanese film then you'd probably not bat an eyelid but some of it really was ridiculous. However the action scenes themselves were just terrific viewing and I think I could watch any of the set-pieces again and again. You can see what the cast had to go through making the film, and I'd love to see an outtake reel. In short if you love films like Drive, Wicked Game and so forth you will get a serious kick out of Broken Path, just don't expect any kind of realism per se.

BROKEN FIST turns out to be pretty good for what it is - which is a very low budget martial arts B-movie that takes place entirely on a ranch in rural Texas. There's virtually no story here, just a random guy protecting his wife from an onslaught of masked, martial arts-fighting goons, and the acting and characterisation certainly leave something to be desired too. However, what this does contain is constant, wall-to-wall fighting action, directed by an experienced Japanese POWER RANGERS director of all people! It does get repetitive and long-winded at times, but the choreography is generally decent and it generally held my interest to the end.

That may seem like an odd comparison to make, but just like My Dinner with Andre about 30 minutes into Broken Path you realise that we're not changing location. Yes, this is essentially one long 90 minute fight and as a result feels much more like an experimental art film than an action film. Some people at the Phantasmagoria film festival where I saw the film this weekend found the superhuman resilience of the characters a bit unrealistic but I just saw it as live-action anime. The only problem I had was the character of the wife is pretty useless throughout the film, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this and found it both a challenging and interesting take on a usually formulaic genre.

I have to say that the only reason that I watched this film, was because of the 7.0 out of 10 rating that it has on IMDb. I've read a review on here that rates it as good as Drive (with Ryan Gosling) I've read another review that rated this movie 10/10. I can honestly say that in my opinion, this film falls way way short of the reviews I've mentioned. To rate it as good as Drive, is to rate Dame Edna Everage as good looking as Jessica Alba....absolutely ludicrous! To rate it 10/10 is to rate it as high as The Godfather 1&2, The French Connection 1&2, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Kill List, Face Off....I could carry on believe me. The acting is some of the worst I've ever seen, no better than the worst soap operas on television at the moment and to say that the action scenes are pathetic is being kind. I would honestly rather sit and watch paint dry than this god awful movie.

Sorry, but I cannot for the likes of me understand how this piece of garbage can have a 7.0 rating here! It makes a mockery of the rating system.

Rarely have I ever came across such a terrible piece of rubbish as this so called "Movie" It is 90 minutes of pathetic kicking and bitch slapping, that is all it is - nothing more, so if you like to sit for 1 1/2 hours watching a bunch of ham actors grunting slapping kicking (cuddling a teddy bear) then I feel sorry for you.

I just cannot understand how it got its rating of 7, if it had made 2 it was doing well.

The only redeeming feature about this movie is when it finally ends, and that should have happened after about 2 minutes.

Absolute garbage.