9/5/2023 0 Comments Falcon rising![]() The main problems with the movie generally fall with the script. Although his acting is only adequate, he does make up for it by his strong presence and animal magnetism, and when he thrown into an action scene, he acquits himself very well. The faults with the movie do not concern its star, Michael Jai White. I'm not saying that it is a bad movie, but there are several things holding it back from being a great B movie. You will probably find "Falcon Rising" to be entertaining the more that you are in an undemanding mood when you sit down to watch it. Some adult themes and language (punta) most of which was in Portuguese. Good formula writing for those who like the vigilante thing. My biggest shock was that Neal McDonough as an actual good guy and not the Chechen "Albino Assassin." How did they miss that? Maybe in the next one as this appears to be the first in a series of pending on profits. At this point the film goes super formula as we add elements of Patrick Swayze, Charles Bronson, child prostitution ring (hasn't been done enough yet) crooked cops, and yes the Yakuza who sneak up on armed people, brandishing a sword and while yelling. In spite of that, it was a welcomed change from the Mideast and Bulgaria. Chapman (aka Falcon) now has a reason to live as he goes after the bad guys in Rio, a city that has great stock footage scenery, but has most of the action take place in a small section of the slums. ![]() Cindy is a volunteer worker who gets bludgeoned in Brazil. He lives in NYC and is visited by his sister Cindy (Laila Ali) who pops in from Brazil so they can go to dinner together, and then back she goes. He is suicidal, but works out just in case. ****CONTAINS GENERIC PLOT SPOILERS**** Johnny Chapman (Michael Jai White) is a PTSD vet who is off his meds. "Falcon Rising" is definitely worth the time of watching if you are a fan of old school action movies. Which only added to the enjoyment of the movie, of course. There is a lot of action and fighting throughout the course of "Falcon Rising", and I will say that the action sequences and the fight scenes were quite nicely choreographed and executed on the screen. The story, in all its simplistic glory, is about a an ex-marine (played by Michael Jai White) who travels to Brazil, where he takes up fighting the Yakuza in the slums of Brazil, because the Yakuza attacked her sister and left her for dead. But the combination of the storyline, the action, the acting, and the cast, then the end result really worked out as an entertaining action movie with that late 1980's feel that action movies had back then. Sure, the storyline was generic and something that definitely has been seen before in other action movies. ![]() And it turned out that this action flick was actually rather entertaining. I decided to watch it solely because Michael Jai White starred in it. I had very little expectations to the movie, as I hadn't even heard about it prior to stumbling upon it by sheer luck on Netflix. Somebody should notice this guy and let him start making the films he was meant to make. White seems in peak condition but history tells us that he probably has only so many of these films in him before he goes the way of Seagal and starts wearing designer clothes based on tents. ![]() I will close this review with a challenge to anyone in Hollywood with ears to hear and eyes to see. And the benefit of a slow start is that it builds. It is a slow-starter but frankly to see White in an action scene is well worth the wait. For all intents and purposes, this could be White's long-awaited sequel to Blood and Bone. Now, a few years later, director Ernie Barbarash, who seems to have had a penchant for working with Van Damme, finally made the smart choice. That second part was clearly NOT a no-brainer, because, other than the IMDb faithful, no one else seems to have caught the hint. In my IMDb review of Blood and Bone, I not only top-rated the film (a no-brainer) but pointed out that Michael Jai White was probably the most entertaining action star out there, with split-second moves and a friendly gravitas that lets him connect with the viewer. ![]()
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