Netflix'ns: Flash Point

Netflix'ns is a series of review shorts of films discovered on Netflix, be it DVD or streaming. For better or worse, I sat through these films and have lived to tell the tale. These are not so much reviews as just comments on the film watched. This is also a work in progress.



The only reason this jumped up my queue is that it is unfortunately leaving Netflix Watch Instant availability. This is one of the annoying things of the service. I wish that whatever became available to be streamed would stay that way. I guess it is just the nature of the beast. The contracts are always going to be worded in odd ways, perhaps it will come back someday. In any case, the DVD is still available and I have to recommend it to all action and martial arts fans.

I see it billed as a sequel to Kill Zone (aka SPL), which I need to make a point to see, and stars Donnie Yen as a police inspector who has a habit of doling out his own justice in the arrest process. He is assigned to work with an undercover operative to take down a Vietnamese crime syndicate. When the undercover man becomes a target, the fight for Yen becomes personal.

The plot sounds awfully familiar. It certainly seems like a common plot for an action movie, but that is all right. Director Wilson Yip gives the movie a great style using interesting camera angles and gets us right into the action. Meanwhile, Donnie Yen shows why he is one of the best at what he does. He brings an intense character to the screen and delivers in a series of fight sequences, especially the bone-breaking final showdown.

There is something about the action in Hong Kong films that Hollywood should take some cues from. The fights, the car chases, everything has an real immediacy, they do not feel like effects. They look painful, those definitely have some serious contact to them.

Anyway, it may be leaving the stream, the DVD is still there, check it out!