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2 articles from 2009

21 September 2009 8:56 AM, PDT | HollywoodChicago.com | See recent HollywoodChicago.com news »

Chicago – Attention martial arts fans, Buena Vista Home Video recently released a wave of martial arts films on Blu-Ray under the title “The Ultimate Force of Four” box set, including one of Jet Li’s best films, the spectacular “Hero,” from director Zhang Yimou. “Hero” is easily the highlight of the quartet of recent HD releases but “Iron Monkey,” “The Legend of Drunken Master,” and “Zatoichi” will all satisfy fans in 1080p (as long as they’re not purists about audio tracks).

Three of the four titles are merely HD imports of special features and films already available on standard DVD. The exception is “Hero,” which includes an all-new featurette and a digital copy, but is actually one of the most divisive Blu-Rays of the year. Miramax/Buena Vista has made the baffling choice to include a higher caliber quality of audio for the dubbed tracks on “Hero,” “Iron Monkey, »

- adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

17 February 2009 11:42 PM, PST | Beyond Hollywood | See recent Beyond Hollywood news »

You can’t go wrong with Gary Oldman in a movie about a hitman, a pretty girl, and evil CIA assassins. The film, which we reported on last year but have heard nothing about since, is called “Rain Fall”, and my guess is that Gary Oldman either plays the head of those evil CIA guys, or, well, he’s probably the head of the evil CIA guys. I’m just guessing, of course, but you don’t pay Gary Oldman and not have him play the heavy. It’s just wrong. Directed by the very cool-sounding Max Mannix, the movie is based on a novel by Barry Eisler, and has an assassin protecting the daughter of one of his victims against other assassins. Probably because he feels bad for whacking her old man or something. That seems to happen a lot in movies about assassins, if you haven’t noticed. »

- Nix

2 articles from 2009