Rating: 3.5

Adkins and Johnson go full force here and while it may not be to everyone’s taste, ‘Avengement’ is another hit for the duo and showcase for the unprecedented talents of Scott Adkins.

A worthy follow up to Kitamura’s stylish original and certainly packs a punch in the Samurai action department.

‘b420’ moves from a potentially arresting low-key beginning to a middle section that throws together predictable sub-plots, then Matthew Tang switches to a thriller for the final twenty minutes.

Despite his attempts to look beneath the surface of Korea, Bong Joon-Ho is unable to sink his teeth into anything too substantial though

As an introduction to the lunacy of Wangan precinct and Japanese protocol in general, ‘Bayside Shakedown’ more than holds the attention with its zesty pace and attempts to do things a little differently.

‘Beijing Blues’ is occasionally frustrating, but acts as an interesting anathema to the usual portrayal of police work as gritty or glamorous.

‘Big Blue Lake’ is a quietly confident debut, not especially enthralling or dramatic, but with enough positives to recommend it.

‘BKO: Bangkok Knockout’ delivers pretty much exactly what you would expect; a non-stop rollercoaster ride of brutally brilliant fight scenes housed in a sorry excuse for a movie.

Along with all the sweet kickboxing action the flick crams in a fair chunk of graphic gore and a surprising amount of drama for a low budget B-movie.

‘Blade of the 47 Ronin’ is slick albeit silly fun that rightly plays everything just earnest enough to be taken seriously but having fun with the hokey concept of Samurai’s running around modern Budapest fighting evil witches.

‘Blind’ is a more than capable thriller that builds patiently to an edge-of-the-seat climax. And Kim Ha-Neul continues to ascend to the top of Korea’s starlist with another charismatic performance.

Perhaps if the series had been completed it may have been bordering on the “classic” status, but as a standalone movie there are just far too many plot holes for it to fully succeed.