Triple Threat (2019)

If art for arts sake is a widely accepted philosophy, then action for action's sake must also be a thing. And while I acknowledge that a visual media like cinema can exist without any didactic need to explain itself beyond its own autotelic value, I prefer to have a little story in my action movies. Triple Threat delivers both, with emphasis on 'action' and the 'little' being literal.
A mission to free Thai prisoners from Indonesian captors ends in a massacre and a double-cross, leaving wronged parties on both sides. What follows is a story of payback involving many squibs and some of Southeast Asia's best martial artists, the kind who prove that well-choreographed action can itself be an art form. The dialogue is mostly English language, with some Chinese and Thai. It's occasionally badly dubbed, but it's tolerable.

2½ local assistants out of 5

MAN OF TAI CHI [2013]

The Chinese martial arts film, Man Of Tai Chi serves as actor Keanu Reeves' directorial debut.
It's a story about an underground fight club and...well...you can probably guess the rest from that alone.  As simple as the story and characters are, it's the wonderfully choreographed fight scenes that take center stage here.  Reeves has a great eye for photography as he makes use of all sorts of camera techniques, simple yet used to their maximum effect without distractions.  It's evenly paced plot never gets in the way of the fights and if that's what you're here for then you won't be disappointed...that is until the terribly corny third and final act that derails all the great fun we were having before that.

3 "security" jobs out of 5