Trouble Man

Trying to star in and direct has left its mark. Its not easy to be in the directors chair as Michael Jai White has found out.

The plot offers a few twists but is simple enough. The fight scenes hold the movie together and are well done but the acting is weak and exaggerated throughout. A director with more experience would have fixed a lot of the problems. It was a good try but just not good enough.

Sunday, 17 August 2025: Great action film.

Once again martial arts actor, Michael J. White has proven that he and martial arts actor, Wesley Snipes are the best African "Black" Americans action heroes in films. Michael J. White deserves a star on Hollywood boulevard, but too sad that action films are Not recognized the same as comedies and dramas. I have seen almost all of Michael's films including the direct to cable or dvd and his actions scenes are always tops. I would give this film 10 stars, but at his age, 57 it is hard to jump kick in the air, fight and beat up 6 or 7 men without getting hurt.

This was a watchable film because it's in the category of "A LOW DOWN DIRTY SHAME", "I'M GON GET YOU SUCKA" and "HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE" which those movies i enjoyed! Action and comedy rolled into one with a strong comparison with the other 3 movies i mentioned. Not to mention the Kung Fu was decent!!!!!

When I saw the trailer for this, I was hyped! When I shared it with a friend, he asked if I had seen the 70's movie and I had no idea this was a remake. I immediately found the 70's version and watched it. Reminded me of Passenger 57 in a way. Maybe because the main character in the original had a small role in 57 as well.

This movie had action, comedy and decent stakes, but everything was in the wrong hands. I think it was too tall of an order for MJW to star and direct. The writer of this adaptation doesn't have a single credit worth mentioning and it lead to this being an underwhelming, yet entertaining film. Method man was great, just like his small role in Luke Cage. Orlando Jones was OK, but a little too silly in my opinion.

The Asian lead had potential, but her crew was also silly and this movie kept taking me out of the fantasy with really bad CGI. Would it have been too much to have a real fight on top of a building, in a garage or a park? The CGI was so obvious that it just ruined the illusion and made me wonder how small the budget really was here.

In the right hands, this could have been something, and black cinema needs movies like this, but the A+ potential was squandered on unqualified talent.

I bet I could have edited a far better film, but so be it. It is what it is and I think this will soon be forgotten.

Michael Jai White has made some fairly good films, but sadly, nothing that is exceptional. This film is not in either of those two categories.

From the writing to the action sequences, to dialogue, nothing here is worth the price of admission.

Each of the action sequences kind of looks like they were on runners starting blocks, waiting for the action command to start moving. It looks fake, totally scripted with no action flow.

The dialogue is stilted, and every scene fits into some phony gangster rap scenario. There is not a single bit that comes across as realistic!

The women are all wearing high-end street hoe outfits that come across as trashy.

Why is it that they only speak like bad tropes, instead of real people? It's really a bad script, with bad casting, acting, and direction.

I want to like Michael Jai White. He is a real martial artist, but direction seems outside his wheelhouse.