Huo Zhe Yan (2025)

A great action movie from Hong Kong with virtually continuous action and spectacle, artfully filmed, starring Xie Miao and Joe Taslim in likeable lead roles. An army of bad guys is unleashed upon them, ensuring they constantly have something to do and the viewer barely has time to be bothered by the simplistic plot and dialogue. High-quality brawling, let's just say.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Yes, this is back to heavy fighting and dropkicks in top gear! To say that this is just as good as The Raid (I or II) is a bit of an exaggeration, in my opinion, but it's certainly close. The punches and kicks don't land quite as hard as in The Raid, and I also found the setting less impressive. But great entertainment!

Translated from Dutch · View original

A great action movie. The story is secondary and serves purely as a framework for action, action, and more action. The execution is quite good, but taken a bit too far. In the first part of the film, the fight scenes are much of the same. They could have easily cut them down a bit, as 2 hours is too long to fill. Towards the end, however, things change; the fight scenes become harder, and all kinds of weapons and other props are used to endlessly beat each other up. Consequently, the final scene lasts just a little too long. Visually, the scenes look excellent, with well-filmed and choreographed scenes. Great entertainment, but sometimes just a bit too much of a good thing. 3.5

Translated from Dutch · View original