Category Archives: sequel

“The Roundup: No Way Out” Delves into Entertaining Chaos

4K Ultra HD, action, foreign films, sequel,

Variety calls Ma Seokdo, played by Don Lee, a bull in a tea shop whose brute force devastates a difficult situation. 

Step into the world of The Roundup: No Way Out, the sequel to The Roundup. Seven years have passed since Seokdo’s team was sent to Vietnam on a mission to extradite a dangerous Korean fugitive. The twist in the story was the fugitive seemed oddly eager to return home, raising questions about the true nature of their mission. 

In the sequel, we meet up with the likable hunk, who collaborates with a new squad to investigate a murder case at home. Seokdo learns the case involves busting dealers on a new synthetic drug, Hiper. He digs deeper. 

All the while, a Japanese mafia boss orchestrating the new drug, Ichioz, played cleverly by Ju Kunimura, keeps looking for trouble, and the drug distributor named Ricky, played by Munetaka Aoki, and his gang arrive in Korea to add havoc to the mayhem. Here, the entertainment flourishes as things go out of control. 

The film is excellent because, like the earlier films, it’s invariably entertaining and engaging. Watching Don Lee play Seokdo, who punches blockheads and more, is hilarious—he’s no Dirty Harry. Though a reviewer compared it to Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon, this spontaneous film stands on its own. It’s true to the South Korean culture: a vulnerable and assuming hero saves the day. 

Lee Sang-Yong directed the third title skillfully and brilliantly, as he did The Roundup. The movie won the Blue Dragon Award as the top box office winner of the year in South Korea. The Roundup: No Way Out also nailed the Audience Award at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival in Spain. Another sequel is in the works and will arrive in 2024. 

“Dust 2 Glory” SCORE Baja 1000 Desert Race

documentary, sequel, ,

Dana Brown helmed the documentary Dust 2 Glory, as an incredible comprehensive journey of the SCORE Baja 1000 desert race. The desert race takes place in Mexico on the Baja California Peninsula. It is one of the most celebrated off-road races in the world. Contestants come from all over the world to compete, but predominantly they come from the US. The importance of this race is because it is the final round of a four-race annual series.

Brown is well-known for his Dust to Glory documentary in 2005. The first to capture the landscape of motor sports in a documentary and present the best of off-road racing challenges.

Dust 2 Glory grabbed my heart at the beginning of the movie. I never saw the first documentary, so seeing the off-roading experience in Brown’s second documentary sparked my interest in this kind of world.  Otherwise, I would never have known about it.

The display of the race captured my interest from a standpoint of being in the racer’s shoes.  The movie educated me on the race itself. I discovered the race takes place on the Baja California Peninsula since 1967.

SCORE Baja 1000 is the finale of a round of four-race annual series. The people who take part push themselves to the limit and beyond. They are skilled and dedicated drivers, and I felt as if I was riding right along with them in the race. I cheered for them, and I felt their torment with each defeat.

Brown doesn’t just make a movie about extreme sports, he immerses the audience, so they are a part of the extreme sport with all the passion and glory.

The Blu-ray special featurettes seem limited but worth a look, which includes “Bruce Brown’s Last Interview” and “Dana Brown’s Interview.”

I wanted to share footage with you, but the distributors or producers block the footage given by the promotional company. With that, if anyone is into racing, they will like this movie.

Mechanic: Resurrection

action, drama, sequel, thriller, ,

mechanicresDirected by Dennis Gansel, the action-packed, thrill ride is the best way I can describe Mechanic: Resurrection because the movie takes off right at the get-go. Bullets spray and jaws get smashed with the starring power of Jason Statham as Arthur Bishop, an assassin who makes each of his targets’ deaths look like accidents, whose calm retirement is shattered when a former employer requires his services.

The movie also stars Jessica Alba, Tommy Lee Jones, and Michelle Yeoh.

The movie follows Bishop as he returns as the Mechanic in the sequel to the 2011 action-thriller. When the deceitful actions of a cunning but beautiful woman, played by Alba, force him to return to the life he left behind, Bishop’s life is once again in danger as he has to complete an impossible list of assassinations of the most dangerous men in the world.

Mechanic: Resurrection includes five behind-the-scenes featurettes looking at the development of the sequel, scoring the film, a breakdown of the Malaysian prison break sequence, and in-depth interviews with Michelle Yeoh and Jason Statham.

Tommy Lee Jones arrives but for not long. He still adds a lot of fun, which I enjoyed because he is a veteran and makes it look so easy. Jessica Alba looks good like a trophy. I just wish her character had more depth, but that is Hollywood for you. All in all, the movie is fast paced with tons of action and totally no-brainer entertainment. Any Statham fan will want to see this movie because it reeks action fight scenes only Statham knows how to do best.