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In Jackie Chan's “Police Story” film series, Stanley Tong took over the helm as director from Chan in “Police Story 3: Supercop” (1992). Michelle Yeoh joined the cast as Inspector Yang from China and gave Chan a good run for his money doing her own stunts and fighting. In “Supercop 2”, Yeoh reprises her role as the main lead this time while Chan returns in a cameo as Inspector Chan and in drag.

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Not long after her return to China from her successful mission in Malaysia, some terrorists are holding hostages in a building. The Government promptly sends Inspector Jessica Yang Jian Wa (Michelle Yeoh) to rescue them. With the help of her boyfriend, Vietnam war veteran David Chang Fung (Yu Rong Guang), who now works as a security guard, they have the situation under control. Yang gets a medal...

The story goes thus: it was 1985, and Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan, having enjoyed nearly two decades of cinematic success in his native country, wanted to extend his reach into the United States. Chan had already tried to infiltrate America in 1980 with Robert Clouse's film "The Big Brawl," but while it was highly respected by martial arts fans, "Brawl" wasn't the massive hit Chan wanted. Chan had already directed four movies by 1985 but still felt that an American director could translate his fightin' sensibilities for a North American audience more accurately. So, he hired genre filmmaker James Glickenhaus to helm the 1985 actioner "The Protector."

Chan and Glickenhaus butted heads throughout production, as Glickenhaus refused to film fight sequences in a way Chan approved of. At the end of production, Chan merely re-edited the film himself and directed new scenes in the hope of salvaging the project.

It was his...

Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee may be universally considered the greatest in the Martial Arts genre, but they’re not alone at the top. Both are unquestionably the biggest names in kung fu movies, but they don’t dominate the genre. It’s actually filled with talented fighters not named Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, some of which being actors whose fame predate the two stars.

The number of iconic martial arts movies released since the 1960s speaks to the idea that Lee and Chan have plenty of company when it comes to actors with real fighting skills. After all, a large portion of the most talked-about martial arts movies of all time don’t include either actor. Bloodsport, Come Drink With Me, Ong Bak, Fearless, and Ip Man are among the countless films in the genre that don’t rely on the top two kung fu stars. Here are...

Michael James Gubitosi, more famously known as Robert Blake, died at the age of 89 in Los Angeles from heart disease. The news comes from Blake's niece Noreen Austin and was reported by Deadline. Blake was a Hollywood lifer, getting his start as a child in the MGM film "Bridal Suite" before assuming the role of Porky in the "Our Gang" and "The Little Rascals" shorts from 1939 to 1944. He continued performing well into his teen years, taking a brief hiatus in his 20s after he was drafted into the United States Army.

Blake reportedly developed a severe substance abuse problem in the years that followed but turned back to acting to get his life on track. He re-emerged playing more adult, dramatic roles, appearing in films like "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," "In Cold Blood," and a string of studio Westerns under the stage name "Bobby Blake." He would eventually pivot...

Michelle Yeoh is opening up about the discrimination she faced in Hollywood.

While the actress was a bonified star in Asia thanks to Hong Kong action flicks like “Police Story 3: Super Cop” and “Supercop 2,” it was her role in the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies” that brought her to Hollywood’s attention.

She played the iconic spy, Wai Lin, who broke every stereotype about Bond Girls with her martial arts and capabilities.

Read More: How Michelle Yeoh Helped Ke Huy Quan Prep For ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once: ‘Couldn’t Have Done This Without Her’

“The first movie I did after I came to America was ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ with Pierce Brosnan,” she recalled to People magazine. “James Bond at that point had only been known as macho, and the girls were just the ones with cutesy names.”

While she came to the West’s attention with the film,...

Michelle Yeoh was already a star overseas by 1997 thanks to popular Hong Kong movies like “Police Story 3: Super Cop” and “Supercop 2,” but it wasn’t until the James Bond tentpole “Tomorrow Never Dies” opened that year that Yeoh had her Hollywood breakthrough. The actor played Wai Lin, a Chinese spy who is highly skilled in marital arts and bucks every “damsel in distress” and “Bond girl” stereotype.

“The first movie I did after I came to America was ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ with Pierce Brosnan,” Yeoh recently told People magazine. “James Bond at that point had only been known as macho, and the girls were just the ones with cutesy names.”

Although Yeoh was praised for her progressive and action-ready Bond girl, she told People that the Hollywood offers that followed were exactly the opposite.

“At that point, people in the industry couldn’t really tell the difference between...

Recently, I was pondering a question: who is the most recently celebrated filmmaker who wasn't also a writer? This is a much more difficult question to answer than you might think. Think of all the great auteurs of today from Barry Jenkins to Céline Sciamma to Bong Joon-ho. They all write their own material. They may work with co-writers, but when it comes to the act of putting words on the page, they have to be involved. All five of the Oscar nominees for Best Director this year also wrote their films' screenplays.

While writer-directors are the norm today, they were a rarity prior to the New Hollywood era of filmmaking. Directing and screenwriting were isolated positions that the studios hired separately and signed to contracts. You basically had Preston Sturges, Charles Chaplin, and Billy Wilder, and that was kind of it. It wasn't until the prevalence of the auteur...

Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" has remained a pop culture watermark since it blasted its way onto screens in 1992. At its core, the deconstructed crime film is about disguise and betrayal. Tim Roth's undercover cop Freddy Newandyke is pretending to be a gangster, but in a sense, all of the characters are in disguise.

The monikers they take on are supposed to protect their true identity just in case any backstabbing goes on or the police nab some of them during the jewelry heist. But those fake names are also giving them permission to play pretend, just like a group of kids playing dress up. In the planning stage, all the characters are playing their parts; when the plan fails, their personas give them a reason to become more extreme versions of themselves. 

In flashbacks, we see Freddy construct his criminal self in order to infiltrate the group, suggesting...

Streaming platforms and a return to physical film markets helped boost exports.

South Korea’s film exports totalled $71.5m in 2022, up 47% year-on-year, according to a report from the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Sales of completed Korean films made up the majority of this figure at $71.4m, up 66% year-on-year – the second highest record since 2005’s $76m.

The report states that film markets transitioning back to their physical versions helped revive exports as face-to-face meetings became possible again. Global streaming platforms also added to heightened interest in Korean content, which resulted in more favourable conditions.

Films that had previously seen their release...

If there's one evergreen truth about Hollywood, it's that breaking into the film business is never easy. There's always a catch-22 involved, especially for first-time filmmakers who face an endless revolving door of "I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?"

Assuming one can get through that conundrum, there's the matter of convincing a studio (or investors of some sort) that your movie can make its money back. It's the reason why so many green directors gravitate toward the horror genre for their debut film, given that horror is a perennial box-office draw.

Quentin Tarantino, being a brash artist from the get-go, did not take such a tried-and-true route to the big screen. His first feature film, "Reservoir Dogs," is a multi-character crime drama that pushed the envelope of language, violence, and structure in 1992, that last point confusing Hollywood in particular. One element Tarantino insisted...

Digital effects have made a lot of advances in the last few decades, but not everyone prefers a computer-generated spectacle. Filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino prefer the grittier, traditional option — even when the practical effect is less practical than CGI. The "Kill Bill" director went to extreme lengths to avoid creating his gore in post. One effect, in particular, cost him hours on set, but his commitment to his creative vision paid off in the end.

"Kill Bill" might be the most violent movie in Tarantino's filmography, which is saying a lot. The film's most unforgettable moments were filled with blood and action, but what makes a fight scene really great is the sum of its parts. The director had a keen eye for details, and even the quick deaths of minor characters were shot to perfection. One such moment took the most takes that Tarantino had ever done on a single shot.

Although "Volume 2" is the gentler, more thoughtful installment of the "Kill Bill" saga, you wouldn't know that from the fight scene between Beatrix (Uma Thurman) and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah). Although there is some begrudging respect between them, Beatrix and Elle hate each other more than perhaps any other two members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, and that's reflected in their final showdown in Budd's cramped trailer. It's a vicious, bloody fight: Beatrix shoves Elle's head in a toilet at one point, throws a tobacco spit jar in her face, and then she yanks out Elle's one remaining eye.

It's a stark contrast from Beatrix's battle against O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) in the first volume. There, O-Ren trash-talks her a little in the beginning, but as their fight goes on it gets increasingly respectful. "For ridiculing you earlier, I apologize," O-Ren says near the end of the fight,...

Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino met in 1992 when both filmmakers exploded onto the scene with their respective films, "El Mariachi" and "Reservoir Dogs." Filmmaker panels don't happen quite as often as they used to at major film festivals, but back then, Rodriguez and Tarantino were on a panel addressing violence in the movies (naturally). That was always a hot button topic and both directors, especially Tarantino, have had to address the graphic content in their films multiple times over the years.

Coming off the success of "Kill Bill" and "Sin City" over a decade later, the idea to do "Grindhouse" was born out of curated movie nights that Tarantino would cull together out of old 35mm prints of drive-in movies and obscure trailers from the 1970's. "Grindhouse" was really a way to craft a passion project out of their love for some of the under seen gems that they revered growing up that,...

The hilarious and heartwarming crime film "True Romance" would not be the same without Patricia Arquette playing the ditzy and lovable Alabama Worley. Arquette went on to earn an Academy Award decades later, but when "True Romance" was released in 1993, it was a major breakout role for the actress, still in the early stages of her career.

The film gained a lot of critical and audience acclaim, but it also attracted a lot of controversy. Some of the edgier moments of the movie actually made Arquette highly uncomfortable at the time. Arquette thoroughly sympathized with her "True Romance" character, but she had trouble relating to Alabama.

"I struggled with playing her," the actress admitted to The Independent. "She's so supportive, even of things that are kind of shocking. Her boyfriend murders someone and she's still like... yeah!"

On screen it might have seemed like Alabama was thoroughly impressed by Clarence's violence,...

After watching a Quentin Tarantino movie, there's always a good chance you will walk away from it with an unanswered question or two. In "Pulp Fiction," it's never revealed what was in the glowing briefcase Jules and Vern pick up at the film's beginning. "Reservoir Dogs" leaves the fate of Mr. Pink ambiguous at the end of the film, never outright confirming the character's death. In "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," the circumstances surrounding the death of Cliff Booth's wife are left a mystery (unless you read the novelization). Tarantino has seemingly struck a delicate balance when crafting the world of his films. Either the director creates intricate and highly detailed backstories that leave no stone unturned (the Rick Dalton biography speaks for itself), or he prefers to leave select details entirely up to interpretation.

"The Hateful Eight" is a prime example of the latter, as the Western thriller...

Like many people passionate about movies, particularly those who grew up in the golden age of trash-talking critics like Pauline Kael, Judith Crist, Rex Reed, Gene Siskel, and Roger Ebert, Quentin Tarantino isn't shy about throwing an elbow or twelve when discussing cinema. He doesn't vacillate, nor does he spend much time discussing films that elicit a ho-hum response. You could say he likes to play contrarian, but that would suggest he's basically the Skip Bayless of film discourse. While you may vehemently disagree with Tarantino from time to time, he is anything but a full-of-it blowhard who spouts off inflammatory opinions to get a rise out of low-information fanatics. Tarantino knows his subject inside and out. If you want to enter his arena, you better come armed with ardor and a lifetime's worth of film knowledge.

This doesn't mean Tarantino can't be infuriating on occasion. This is, after all,...

Everything Everywhere All at Once describes Michelle Yeoh’s career right now. She is everywhere. As Emperor Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery, she boldly went where no one has gone before with a role so scene-stealing that there’s talk of a spin-off dedicated just to her character. Yeoh also dominated as the powerful matriarch and ultimate “tiger mom” Eleanor Young in Crazy Rich Asians. And she’s one of the only actors to play two completely different characters in the MCU: Ying Nan in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Aleta Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. A24’s multiverse-spanning science fiction film Everything Everywhere All at Once is one more indication that Yeoh isn’t slowing down. Coming soon, she has lead roles in The Witcher: Blood Origin, American Born Chinese, and the four upcoming Avatar sequels.

Most remember Yeoh from her...

"The enemy has moved in." Gravitas has released a new US trailer for the crazy cool action film Vanguard, starring Jackie Chan - who is still making action films despite announcing he would retire. This time he re-teams with the Hk director of his classic action films Supercop, Supercop 2, Rumble in the Bronx, and First Strike - Stanley Tong. An accountant is threatened by the world's deadliest mercenary organization and Covert security company Vanguard is the last hope of survival for him. Of course. This is basically a Michael Bay film made by a Hong Kong director instead. Also starring Yang Yang, Miya Muqi, Lun Ai, Ruohan Xu, and Zhengting Zhu. As brainless as this movie will be, I must admit it looks like a massive amount of explosive action fun - with drones and lions and gatling guns and more. Might be worth a watch. Here's the new...

*The review refers to the Japanese Cut of the film (105 minutes)

Considered by Jackie Chan himself as his best action film, “Police Story” is a true one-man show, with him writing, directing, acting as stunt coordinator and having the protagonist role, and also the movie that established him as a worldwide superstar. The first part of a series that spawned five sequels and one spinoff film (“Once A Cop” won the Best Film award at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards and was a huge success in East Asia.

The story revolves around Sergeant Chan Ka-Kui, who is assigned to the Royal Hong Kong Police Force after finishing his Special Ops training. His first mission, alongside former colleague “Big Mouth” and a number of undercover officers, is to arrest crime lord Chu Tao, in a shanty town. The operation is a success, but Chan and his team wreak...

International action-comedy icon Jackie Chan (Rush Hour franchise, Railroad Tigers) is an Indiana Jones-style scholar hunting Indian treasure in the adventure-comedy Kung Fu Yoga, available on digital June 20 and on Blu-ray™ and DVD August 8 from Well Go USA Entertainment. Chan reunites with director Stanley Tong (Rumble in the Bronx, Supercop) for this fast-paced escapade that follows a professor on a quest that takes him from a Tibetan ice cave to Dubai to a mountain temple in India in order to locate a lost treasure. Kung Fu Yoga also stars Disha Patani (M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story), Amyra Dastur (Mr. X), Aarif Rahman (Young Bruce Lee) and Sonu Sood (Happy New Year). Bonus material includes bloopers, plus five behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Now you can own Kung Fu Yoga on Blu-ray. We Are Movie Geeks has Three copies to give away. All you have to do is leave a comment answering this question:...

Regardless of his race, Supergirl's James Olsen really doesn't have much in common with his comic book counterpart. For starters, he looks like he could probably beat up Superman in a fight, but he may very well get the opportunity to do that when he becomes a vigilante in season two of The CW series. The fan-favourite supporting character is going to adopt the identity of Guardian, a hero who was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Once a cop named Jim Harper, patrolling Metropolis's Suicide Slum, he eventually became the vigilante known as Guardian to "guard" society from criminals. It will be Olsen who wields the shield here though, but won't be telling Supergirl about it. "James is going to decide that he can no longer be a sidekick, so he’s going to become a vigilante," explains executive producer Andrew Kreisberg. "He’s going to become Guardian,...

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Police Story might just be the greatest action franchise of all time. But which movies are the best in the series?

After his disappointing experience in America filming The Protector, Jackie Chan returned to Hong Kong determined to make his own cop film his own way. The result - Police Story - kickstarted perhaps the greatest action franchise of all time; a series of films that still deliver thrills of a near-religious magnitude for genre fans.

Aside from the two reboots, the Police Stories revolve around Jackie's maverick Hong Kong cop Ka-Kui Chan (or Kevin Chan, in the English dubs) with frequent appearances from his lovably inept superior 'Uncle Bill' (Bill Tung) and his long-suffering girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung). The story continuity is a little ropey but instead each instalment offers a new, and usually more improbable, case for Ka-Kui to crack.

There's a blend of comedy,...

The Lady

Directed by Luc Besson

Written by Rebecca Frayn

France, U.K., 2011

Actress Michelle Yeoh has come a long, long way in her career as an international star. That is not to say that her beginnings were paltry when compared to the status she has now attained, only that her filmmography spans a great many genres, genres that not always highlight similar skills from its actors. Supercop and Supercop 2, anyone? Then came along The Tai Chi Master, which co-starred Jet Li. At the turn of the millennium, there was the international sensation Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which saw her popularity sore through the roof on the international market (a leading lady role in the 007 adventure Tomorrow Never Dies did not hurt either). Finally, with Luc Besson’s The Lady, Yeoh gets her chance to star in a political biopic of rather epic proportions, the sort of film than...

As we sat down to write the introduction to our list of notable film spin-offs, someone forwarded along a link to the big movie news story of the day: Tom Cruise announcing his plan to reprise his role as ultra-profane movie producer Les Grossman from the 2008 film "Tropic Thunder" in an as-yet-untitled comedy. Tom Cruise, in other words, is getting into the spin-off game.

So even though we're a week late in finishing this list inspired by "Get Him to the Greek" (more on that film in a bit), it's still plenty timely, and will continue to be as long as Hollywood exploits successful properties even after their original stars have moved on. Here's the elite company Mr. Grossman will be joining:

"Evan Almighty" (2007)

Original movie: "Bruce Almighty" (2003)

Spin-off character: Evan Baxter (Steve Carell)

When a spin-off brings along two original characters and the actors that played them -- in this case,...