Echo 8

When I stumbled upon this 2024 movie, I initially thought it was a sci-fi movie, given the movie's cover. And since I had never heard about the movie, I didn't know what I was in for. Of course I had to check it out and opted to give the movie a fair chance.

I must say, though, that I'm usually a bit hesitant about movies that are directed by people also starring in the movie. And such was the case with "Echo 8", as it was directed and starring both Takashi Hara and Maria Tran.

The storyline in the movie was pretty straightforward. Sure, it was watchable, but it was a bit too much on the simplistic side, and that made "Echo 8" feel a bit subpar. And the sluggish narrative didn't really do much to put the audience at the edge of their seats. Writer Elizabeth H. Vu didn't exactly put together the most riveting and thrilling of storylines.

Actually I wasn't familiar wit a single actor or actress on the cast list. And the acting performances in the movie were, for the most parts, fair enough. But there were moments and performances that felt forced and unnatural.

There is a fair amount of action in the movie to help make it more bearable to sit through the 95 minutes that the movie ran for. It was a watchable movie, albeit a bit on the bland side.

My rating of "Echo 8" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Honestly, Echo 8 didn't exactly grab me with the poster-it looked like your average low-budget indie trying to be more than it is. So I went in with zero expectations... and ended up getting completely blindsided.

Yeah, it starts slow. But give it 15-20 minutes, and suddenly you're hooked into a story that blends solid action with surprising emotional depth. And get this-it was made on a $10K budget. Ten grand. That's insane. The cinematography, fight choreography, and overall production quality are way better than most indie action flicks I've seen with ten times the budget.

Maria Tran leads the charge with a calm, focused energy that works well for her character. Her scenes with the co-star actually land-they've got decent chemistry and some solid back-and-forth that adds charm without forcing it. The writing isn't perfect, but it knows what it's trying to do and hits the mark more often than not.

Echo 8 isn't trying to be a blockbuster-it's an indie film with guts, a bit of heart, and a team clearly giving it their all. If you're into scrappy underdog action films that aren't just mindless brawls, it's absolutely worth a look.

Overall it's a valiant effort, and you can sometimes see the brilliance, especially in terms of how the movie looks for the budget, but the poor story writing and decent at best action (when it's supposed to be the main draw) are holding it back from becoming what it was-probably-envisioned as being.

This film is different to any other Australian film I've seen. It was refreshing to see something like this, with great, realistic action, suspense, mystery and a touch of humour. I was even more amazed at the high quality of the film when we realised the film makers created it on a micro budget. Would love to see more!

Probably one of the worst movies ever made.

I'm not sure how or why the level of martial arts or acting is thought to be acceptable for a movie here, it's not. A degrading and genre scarring movie... please Just Don't!!

Most action actors have a certain level of talent in the action area, and generally when a good actor engages in action they are forgiven for the lack of physical ability because their dramatic skills are of a high level.

But here unfortunately, the acting is stilted with memorized lines, predetermined deliveries and face pulling antics hijacking characters that are attempted to be portrayed by very poor untrained actors who also suffer from unathletic poorly skilled martial arts choreographry and execution.