Falcon Rising

[Drunk Monk]

This is now on Netflix. It started out with a hackneyed plot - a PTSD suffering vet's sister runs into gang trouble in Rio. Mayhem ensues. I almost bailed but I'm glad I didn't. While the plot might be predictable at every step, the action is really solid. White delivers some excellent gun and martial arts sequences. He's freakin huge, yoked like a pro wrassler, and still gots the moves. I would love to see a film which pits him against Marko Zaror and Dave Bautista - like a heavyweight battle royale. FR is also a good showcase for Lateef Crowder, who I think has great potential to be a lead in an action flick someday. FR could have used more Laila. I concur with mickey - Laila has a great screen presence that has yet to be fully exposed. When her character presence ended - well, decreased - that's when I almost bailed. FR also has some nice locations - the Rio scenes must have been stock footage as IMDB says it was filmed in Puerto Rico.

The Yakuza bordered on racist villains. They even did a Nyotaimori scene, which was as stereotypic as Mafia at a spaghetti feed, I suppose. What bothered me (and this is from a martial standpoint) was that the Yakuza leader wielded a katana so behind his villain throne, there was a daisho rack (actually a three sword rack but I can't remember what that's called off hand). The swords were displayed upside down. A house of war (which a Yakuza lair certainly is) should display its swords 'blade to sky' not with the blades facing downwards. Clearly, the filmmakers knew little of Japanese swordsmanship. This was even more evident on how badly the villain wielded his katana (although this was somwhat redeemed by White's use of improvised tonfa).

FR is an attempt of White to build a new action franchise (thus the 'Rising') and I was engaged enough by the action to watch a sequel, should that come to pass.

Okay, that was poached from my KFM review: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?67929-Falcon-Rising&p=1280281#post1280281">http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/sho ... ost1280281</a><!-- m -->

For DOOM eyes only - just speed to the fight scenes in this one. The fights are really good. The rest is negligible.