BA_Harrison

A gelatinous alien organism crashes to Earth inside a meteorite and proceeds to dissolve human victims, the creature gradually growing in size as it 'eats'. Teenager Steve Andrews (Steve McQueen, who doesn't look a day over 27) and his girlfriend Jane Martin (Aneta Corsaut, just a few years younger than McQueen) witness the blob at work, but no-one will believe them...

Director Chuck Russell's 1988 version of The Blob is one of my favourite horror films of the '80s; I've been meaning to check out the 1950s original for a long time, to see how it compares. Having just watched the film, it's clear to me how much Chuck Russell admires it, his version being an affectionate update: besides a few minor tweaks (making the organism the result of a top secret US science experiment) and a lot more gore, the remake is basically the same film, with the old man getting the blob on his hand, hero Steve discovering that cold can repel the 'monster', and that classic moment when the blob attacks the patrons of a movie theatre. The fact that not many changes were needed to bring Russell's film up-to-date shows how strong the original story was.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how effective the special effects are in the original film - the blob is actually really good, with one scene actually being better than the same moment in the remake (I always thought that the blob retreating from under the cold room door was a bit rubbery in Russell's film). There is, perhaps, a little too much teen nonsense in the film, which was clearly marketed at the drive-in crowd, but because it was aimed at a younger audience, it does mean that we get a pretty amazing theme song during the opening credits: all together now... 'It creeps and leaps, And glides and slides, Across the floor, Right through the door, And all around the wall, A splotch, a blotch, Be careful of the Blob'.

This is the film where Chow Yun Fat shoots people round corners with a shotgun on a rope and where Conan Lee has a chainsaw duel with Gordon Liu. And if that wasn't enough, we get the drop-dead gorgeous Nina Li Chi (Jet Li's real-life wife), lots and lots of really bloody squibs, and Conan Lee doing some crazy stunts on top of a moving car. Admittedly, there's some bad comedy to endure in order to get to the good stuff, but let me just say it one more time... chainsaw duel... while doing kung fu!!! Believe me, it's well worth the wait.

Chow Yun Fat plays lazy womanising cop Francis Li, eleven years with the force and still only a sergeant; he is teamed with young 'perfect' cop Officer Michael Tso (Lee). Together they try to bust a cocaine smuggling operation run by kingpin Lau Fai (Liu). Being an 'odd couple', Li and Tso get into plenty of comedic situations typical of the buddy cop genre before the kidnapping of Li's sister by the drug gang forces them to get serious. Nina Li Chi plays Marydonna, sexy sister of drug dealer Poison Snake Ping (Phillip Ko), the woman helping the cops in their investigations.

As much as I generally dislike HK action films that feature too much comedy, this film has such incredible fighting and stunts that I can happily turn a blind eye to most of the dreadful humour.

Tiger Cage II is a sequel in name only, but the film is just as much fun and as action packed as the original, director Yuen Woo-Ping once again proving himself to be one of the best HK action directors in the business.

Donnie Yen, who had a supporting role in the first movie, returns as a completely different character -- ex-cop Dragon Yau -- who teams up with divorce lawyer Mandy Chang (the incredibly cute Rosamund Kwan) and unscrupulous businessman David (David Wu) to search for a stolen fortune in 'dirty' money. Unfortunately, they're not the only ones looking for the cash: a pair of gun-toting thugs and a motorcycle-helmet-wearing assassin make things very difficult for the trio, leaving a trail of bodies, with Dragon and Mandy wrongly suspected of murder by the police. Battling babe Cynthia Khan (In the Line of Duty IV) is also on hand as police inspector Yeung.

Like the previous Tiger Cage movie, this one is packed with ballistic action and bone-crunching stunts, with plenty of bloody squibs and breaking glass. Yuen Woo-Ping and his team achieve some jaw-dropping scenes, the most incredible moment being a fall from the top floor of a moving double-decker bus onto a car! There's no mention of a stuntman dying in the trivia section on IMDb, so I assume he survived, but my god it looks painful. The finalé is also awesome, as Donnie Yen battles two martial arts henchmen to the death -- a stunning swordfight with John Salvitti and a brutal smackdown against Michael Woods -- before defeating the main bad guy -- David's boss -- with help from his friend Tak (Gary Chow) and Mandy, who delivers the killer blow.