Right, well I sat down to watch the 2021 action movie "Heroes Return", which oddly enough was named "Operation Bangkok" on the DVD cover. And even more odd was the fact that the movie had nothing to do with Bangkok whatsoever.
Now, one might think that when a movie had Biao Yuen on the cast list then you would be in for something worthwhile. But talk about a swing and a miss for "Heroes Return" from director Wing-Kin Yip.
The storyline in "Heroes Return" was rubbish, sheer and utter rubbish. Actually it was so weak and thin that there almost was no storyline. And if only the action and acting would have been top notch to make up for the shortcoming of next to no storyline. But even that was laughably bad.
The characters in the movie were bland and generic. Truth be told, then I don't remember a single name of any of the characters. And what was up with the Laura Croft/Tomb Raider inspired character who brought a bow to a gunfight against automatic weapons?
The dialogue in "Heroes Return" was staggering and bad. Again with the Tomb Raider character, her father gets shot in a heavy gunfight, and she runs up to him and asks what is wrong with him. Wow. Amazing writing right there. And there was a lot of yelling out the names of people whom were long dead or just recently dead.
And the acting performances in the movie were all over the place. And not in a good way. Most of the performances were just toe-curling bad. But then again, the actors and actresses virtually had nothing to work with here in this 2021 action movie.
The entire movie just permeates low budget and lousy writing. But I will say that at least the gunfights were sort of adequate. But they just did nothing to make up for all the shortcomings that "Heroes Return" had. And believe you me, there were many of those.
The villain in the movie was pointless and bland, having no backstory and no charisma at all. Apparently widening your eyes is what the actress thought would be sufficient to display emotions and portray a villainous character. Trust me, you want to watch it for yourself, because it was just bad.
If you enjoy action movies, then stay well clear of "Heroes Return", it just simply isn't worth the effort. Even many of the low budget direct-to-VHS action movies of the late 80s and early 90s surpassed this rubbish. Yet, for some reason I managed to sit through the entire ordeal.
My rating of "Heroes Return" lands on a very, very generous two out of ten stars. And that is based only on some watchable gunfights, which was the only thing that "Heroes Return" had going for it.
