They sure hyped this one up as much as they possibly could!

Pearl Hart's a nice lady, but this is by no means a good movie.

The recollection's based upon a true story, but one that seems very sensationalistic. It's about a woman, who had some untrustworthy men, and robbed a stagecoach with one, and that was that.

She went to prison, she got out, and she possibly married. That's all.

They did a decent job of playing like old times, but it all feels pretty drawn out and limited both content and character-wise. A story maybe not befit for a movie. Or maybe just without the proper budget to be made one.

It's alright. Some views are nice. The prison's interesting. It's not that particular, or spectacular, or personable overall.

 rated 2.5/5: almost not bad

Death the narrator, Ben Thompson the vengeful, his dead wife Mary and Santano the one who killed her - this is their story. And of a bundle of other men. And women. Who all die! It's a bit like Seven Samurai but: pointless.

Apaches and cowboys though, the Western World out in the badlands, with but a hint of civilization apart from the brief sex scene in the beginning...

It's not a bad movie - I love the sights in particular - but it does have you wishing for more.

Props on the promo though Death. If you didn't exist people would probably have to invent you.

The narration's definitely unique.

 rated 3/5: not bad

The rivalry between two bounty hunters intensifies as they both attempt to track down a destructive device known as the "Hand of God."

Hand of God hmmmm... that sounds familiar! Something from the Fast & Furious franchise? Or was that maybe the Eye of God? Was it some other movie...? I'm pretty sure I've heard it somewhere, not that far back...

This was a good movie anyhow.

It's also the third film in this particular franchise, after Tokyo and Seoul Raiders (the latter from all the way back in 2006).

I still haven't seen the second one, apparently!

If you don't know the franchise you can basically sum it up as spy stuff.

Fun such.

They have a nifty shoe trick in this one, they have a memorable black and white quote, they have fancy locales more than gadgets, props more than special effects, there's a creatively luminescent intro, a classy cast, modern architecture and good action.

Unfortunately there's also a little shaky cam and messy scripting, but it ends with an appreciative twist. It was both better than I thought it would be initially, and at the same time... it's just kind of a let down isn't it? Not that much was at stake after all.

It's apparently Jingle Ma Cho Shing's last movie btw, at the time of writing. He has a distinctive style. Apparently he started with a movie called Mr. Coconut in 1989, according to IMDB. He's done more, but that seems like such a suitable one to check out, I'm a try to find it...

I came out the same year I was born too.

Albeit not always perfect these Raider movies are fun to watch, and they leave you in a good mood. The cast's great, the premise clever.

Good watch.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

AKA The God Of Gamblers 2?

It seems to ride that City Hunter wave of crazy this one. With a battle scene to match if just for a little bit, and a little kid that really knows Kung Fu (I think I've seen him in some other movies too... wonder if he's still doing this as an adult now), beautiful ladies, flashy fights and gambling and just straight up nonsense... it's got it all.

It's got it all yet somehow it goes over the top somewhere, and I stop laughing, and the main character comes across just straight out silly.
No longer in a positively comical way.

Did I already get my daily dose of fun? Did they start to rush things plot-wise, and ease up too much on effects and what-nots - forget the slapstick and just go straight out goofy dances and expressionism?

The God of Gamblers lost his edge too. It's a shame. For a while I thought this'd be a straight up five star. Straight up. From humble beginnings that exceeded my expectations tenfold but then... yeah. Stuff happened.

I still had a blast with it though.

Eric Kot's great. Donnie Yen's but there for a short while but he's always good too. Chingmy Yau and Diana Pang are maybe the real spotlights of the show though. No wait I mean Man-Tat Ng, Fui-On Shing and Andy Cheng. Well they're all great. Who plays the kid? His is an impressive performance too! Everyone's so good.

And I miss creative comedy like this.

Never mind the potentially disrespectful Michael Jackson jokes now.

It's still fun.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

I miss the creative days. When they made movies like this. Visual. Sensual. Grotesque occasionally, but creatively so.

It's a thriller/horror movie with Donnie Yen innit, plus the beautiful Chingmy Yau, who just so happens to be Satan's daughter in the film.

Satan's not demonish enough a name? Never mind cultural differences that reflect themselves in the translation choices. It is a good movie.

What's nice about it - not that it's a movie you'd generally consider 'nice' - are also the fights. You don't usually get martial arts and horror these days, but in Hong Kong it seems like for a while you did, so if that's your thing this here's a gem for you to swallow. It's more fight than horror.

But not all fight. It's good. Gritty. Ambivalent.

It gets predictable after a while but still not without an emotional trail behind it... it starts off really atmospheric too.

Great cast. Great milieu.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

A sexy lady (Stacey Shaffer) ends up hostage in a bank robbery arranged by her husband and a manipulative female fugitive, gets caught up in the action, winds up in prison - although she's innocent, with a male prison guard with a taste for girls and savagery and a female warden with ditto.

There's a drug-inflicted young cellmate, a tough girl, two main fractions with the black and white gangs, and a female fugitive who for some reason has a grudge against our protagonist.

It's a naked cage, where cage refers to the prison, and naked to the girls, though there's actually not that much nudity involved at all. Maybe it's an emotional matter. The vulnerability introduced by imprisonment...

I can't say this was great.

The horse thing looked forced, the electrotherapy didn't look realistic, it's strange the other girl didn't see Amy was in a bad place, and the frequent in-movie deaths aren't always clear as to if they really are deaths or if they aren't, but sometimes the acting's more intense than expected, and sometimes the filming's creative in a good way too (like with the pick-up scene at the beginning).

The getaway scene was good, and sometimes you actually do get to see some nudity, so that's cool to me too.

Caged Heat comes to mind now that I've seen this. Another potential classic within the genre of exploitative female prison film. Just might check that one out next and see how it compares...

Just a note too: I'm fascinated by Faith Minton. She's a strong lady here. Wonder if she's been in any other films...

 rated 3/5: not bad