Genre: Martial Arts

An action/fight fan’s dream come true, ‘The Raid’ contains all the brilliantly choreographed fights scenes you could want but is also a damn riveting thriller.

While sometimes over indulgent and not quite as good as the first instalment, ‘The Raid 2’ is still an incredible achievement, a staggering action film and, well, just plain essential cinema.

The cast is not without charm, the idea not without potential, but ‘The Real Iron Monkey’ is a certified dud.

Charlie Nguyen’s film takes a dark and violent piece of Vietnam’s history and for the most part crafts an exciting action ride that unfortunately stumbles somewhat in the drama department.

Alongside ‘Invincible Shaolin’, ‘The Rebel Intruders’ ranks as one of the best of the Venoms’ films and one of their most realised.

Episodic and pantomimic, this is a series of not especially interesting scenes sewn together with a completely uninvolving main narrative.

It’s just disappointing that the obvious craft at work by the experienced crew on ‘The Revenger’ never quite translates into a solid, coherent whole.

Ann Hui’s version of Emperor Chien Lung isn’t a masterpiece, but is certainly worthy viewing – far more so than ‘The Emperor And His Brother’.

It doesn’t touch the likes of ‘Ong Bak’, ‘Chocolate’ or ‘Raging Phoenix’ in terms of scale or epic action but ‘The Sanctuary’ still shows why the Thai’s are at the top of the fight action game.

Although the film is nearly 25 years old, the action is not dated and serves as a breath of fresh air after a decade dominated by wirework.

This sequel doesn’t match the original, but there are enough fresh ideas to make it watchable.

Chor Yuen is once again painstaking in his vision of the visual ambience of the martial world, while he also gets fine performances out of his cast.