Published: February 23, 2022 Views: 159K
AMERICAN THEATRICAL BLOCKBUSTERS
Hollywood is back in full swing despite ongoing pandemic-related obstacles, and both Marvel and DC have multiple superhero blockbusters coming this year. Aside from the expected MCU installments like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder, it’s the animated sequel Across the Spider-Verse, due this fall, that looks like it could be the most likely to embrace the wonder and the unexpected. It’s also hard not to eagerly await Matt Reeves’ version of The Batman despite the character’s ubiquity — with its stacked cast and gorgeous trailers, the film could end up being one the year’s biggest events. Other blockbusters that could prove interesting include Ambulance (where it seems Michael Bay has discovered drones) and Bullet Train (the next outing from David Leitch and 87North, known for John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and Nobody), telling the story of five assassins on a bullet train who discover their missions have something in common. And, of course, James Cameron’s Avatar 2 is finally coming out at the end of the year.
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN
Aside from the main superhero and sci-fi tentpole events, Hollywood also has a couple of wild cards up its sleeve with the return of old action stars. Tom Cruise and the Mission: Impossible team will be back, still with Christopher McQuarrie at the helm of the seventh installment. Cruise will also headline Top Gun: Maverick, this time directed by Joseph Kosinski. On the Stallone side of things, his franchise will make a comeback with The Expendables 4. While the third film left a lot to be desired, one can hope the team can salvage the series with less winky-winky dialogue and more competent action. It’s always a pleasure to see the Stallone-Statham-Lundgren trio back together on the screen, and the addition of amazing martial artists such as Tony Jaa and Iko Uwais seems like a good thing. Statham will also star in his own fun-looking actioner, the Guy Ritchie-directed Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre which, after the unexpected success that was Wrath of Man last year, could very well surprise viewers more than one might have thought possible for a Ritchie joint.
THE NETFLIX SLATE
The streaming giant has been on the mind of every action fan lately with the announcement of a forthcoming The Raid remake produced by Michael Bay and original director Gareth Evans. In the meantime, the latter’s new film is scheduled to drop on the platform in the coming weeks. Little is known about Havoc aside from the fact that Tom Hardy stars as a cop fighting his way through the criminal underworld. The film already has the longest stunt department crew list of the year, and is expected to be Evans’ return to the highest levels of cinematic brutality. Chris Hemsworth’s Tyler Rake is also alive and well, and Extraction 2 is set to continue his adventures. The film is directed by former stunt choreographer Sam Hargrave, who worked with the Russo brothers on the Infinity War/Endgame diptych. The Russos are also set to release a massive film this year, namely The Gray Man, Netflix’s most expensive movie to date (tied with Red Notice). And it would feel wrong not to mention the vampire action movie Day Shift, starring Jamie Foxx and directed by J. J. Perry, a former stunt performer and coordinator who has worked on dozens of the most beloved actioners of the last 30 years.
INDIAN MASS ENTERTAINERS
The many film industries of India have been postponing major releases for months because of the ongoing Covid crisis. Unfortunately, the worsening situation has led to another delay for RRR, S. S. Rajamouli’s massive follow-up to the game-changing Baahubali series. Originally slated for an early January release, it now looks like the rip-roaring Tollywood blockbuster might open in April — a crowded month if the Kannada-language competitor KGF: Chapter 2 keeps its current release date. The sequel to the rousing 2018 hit — in which a gangster went undercover as a slave to eliminate the owner of a gold mine — KGF: Chapter 2 might be the most anticipated film in the history of Sandalwood. It’s hard to know which release Indian cinema fans are more hyped up for, but it appears the stakes are as high as they’ve ever been in Kollywood for Ajith Kumar’s Valimai, which looks like an extravagant love letter to motorcycle stunts the likes of which only India can produce.
UNPERTURBED JAPAN
Just like in India, the Japanese market is interesting in that films produced exclusively in Japan tend to make their money back on the national market without having to be exported. Unlike Indian movies, however, which have become more and more available worldwide, this partly explains why some Japanese releases take months if not years to reach Western shores. Let’s hope it takes less time for Shin Ultraman to cross Japan’s borders. This new adaptation of the 1966 series is expected to be a spiritual successor to Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno’s acclaimed Shin Godzilla.
The other big release on the horizon is Shinsuke Sato’s Kingdom II. The director’s resume, which includes intense actioners such as Library Wars, I Am a Hero, and Inuyashiki, as well as the Netflix series Alice in Borderland, has made him a household name. Also keep an eye out for the work of talented action designer Kensuke Sonomura in Bad City starring V-Cinema legend Hitoshi Ozawa, and in Tak Sakaguchi’s One Percenter.
UNSTOPPABLE KOREA
No one punches people as beautifully as Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee), of Eternals and Train to Busan fame. Well, rejoice! Ma will be back this year to take names and kick butts in The Roundup, a sequel to the 2017 hit The Outlaws. The South Korean film industry continues to thrive while the country does remarkably well against the ongoing pandemic, so there is no shortage of local blockbusters on the way. Among the most promising ones are Special Delivery, a Transporter-like actioner starring Park So-dam (“Jessica” in Parasite) that came out in early January in Korea, as well as the swashbuckling adventure The Pirates: Goblin Flag, the intense sounding, Die Hard-like Project Wolf Hunting, about prisoners revolting on a ship at sea, and of course the return of Korea’s most acclaimed action filmmaker Ryoo Seung-wan with his 1970s-set film Smuggling.
WHAT’S LEFT OF THE HONG KONG GLORY DAYS?
The fate of the Hong Kong film industry is still up in the air, but it did give us one of last year’s best action films with Raging Fire. So what do filmmakers have in store for us? Quite a few action films are on the cards, actually, but the biggest one is probably Warriors of Future, a sci-fi apocalyptic action blockbuster that should finally be coming out this year even though production wrapped in 2017. It’s hard not to be curious about The White Storm 3 as well, since the two previous installments managed to solidly entertain while recalling the good old days of the early 1990s, when the industry could go all out and offer a spectacle the likes of which we couldn’t see anywhere else.
But the most exciting film of the year might very well be Kowloon Walled City, which is currently in production and slated for a late 2022 release. Directed by Soi Cheang, the man behind the incredible SPL II: A Time For Consequences (Tony Jaa! Wu Jing! Max Zhang!), this new film stars some of Hong Kong’s greatest action stars, including the legendary Sammo Hung, with action choreography by the equally talented Kenji Tanigaki. The story is an adaptation of the cult manhua series City of Darkness, set in the 1980s. And yes, in case you were wondering, all three films mentioned here star Louis Koo, the most ubiquitous Hong Kong actor in recent memory.
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