@synth_cinema: April 2025

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HCF Review - A Dish Eaten Cold

THE ADVENTURERS (1995)

In the early ’90s various film-makers planned to take their talents from Hong Kong to Hollywood, including Ringo Lam. Interestingly he’s one of several directors that wound up working on action vehicles starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but that’s a story for another time. In this case it’s that final project, the one right before the big move to North America, that’s up for consideration. Which means that it’s an exciting prospect; is the film one last mega-blowout like John Woo’s opus Hard Boiled or are the results a mixed bag? Are their still shades of Lam’s grimy excesses from Full Contact or is it closer to the heroic bloodshed in City on Fire? Let’s take a look and see what undercover thrills are on offer.

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Review Roundup - King Rat

NOSFERATU (2024)

It's been a while since the days of the old Drac vs. Drac vampire movie blog, in fact more years than I'd like to admit, but here we are back with that old creep once again. Since there have been not one but two recent Bram Stoker adaptations the comparison was inevitable. Of course because true evil never dies (in studio board rooms and on the big screen) there are always plenty of films like this around, but stories taking direct inspiration are always an interesting prospect. There's always a chance for creativity, and there's always a chance someone will do an accurate version of the original book. Which unfortunately is only partly true in both cases here.