Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
... View MoreSave your money for something good and enjoyable
... View MoreDon't listen to the negative reviews
... View MoreThere are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
... View MoreIf a movie studio can be corrupted by its own success, this movie must be the proof. Golden Harvest made really good movies in its first 3 years of existence. They made lot of money, but the success must have gone to their heads, because this movie is an absolutely the bottom of the barrel.First off, the actors in this movie is terrible (except Angela Mao and Betty Tin Pei). The usually high production quality and attention to detail Golden Harvest gives to its production isn't seen here. Story is pretty unintriguing as well.You can't make a horrible movie like this even if you tried, but I guess they've succeeded in doing this. It's not a bad movie in a sense that there are badly made movies that has utterly nothing going for it. This movie is not bad, it's HORRIBLE in the way things are depicted. So there you have it, one of the worst movie done by Golden Harvest. This one is it.
... View MoreA lot of people say that George Lazenby was the worst Bond. I thought he actually did a decent job, albeit a bit hard to fill in the shoes of Mr. Connery. However, I think majority of previously stated people said that after having seen Stoner.This is a good time capsule piece for the 70s. Psychedelic design, funky lapels and moon dresses, and of course drugs galore. Kind of like a precursor for E? Plus, the main boss knows how to throw a party: check out those cocktail uniforms! A cop named Stoner (HA HA HA, get it?) goes around asking questions and gets beat up a lot for it. You do have to admire his tenacity though. Lazenby's fight skills are more brawling than kung fu with him mainly slapping someone's face with a backfist. Also, credit Sammo with working on the fight scenes. Although he gets his butt whooped by Lazenby (yeah RIGHT!), Sammo takes a beating well and helps make others look great.Ah, Angela. The true femme fatale of action cinema. She was the real deal and could probably beat the crap out of you if you looked her the wrong way. But with that pretty face and sweet smile, who would ever do that? Angela's movements are so fluid that it's almost like a dance. She hits with force and I love seeing her busting heads or sending guys sprawling with her swift kicks. She's so good that even the main baddie gives a flirty smile her way. It would've been great to see her fight Betty Ting Pei, but it would've been no contest. My favorite scene has to be the cage where a lesson is learned: when Angela says no, she means NO!!The action comes every now and then, but the finale is so awesome that you don't want it to stop. Who knew a rotating desk could be so practical? Seeing Angela fighting thugs in a room set ablaze is all you could ask for.
... View MoreGeorge Lazenby shows some impressive agility as a kung-fu expert (as an actor, he still sucks!) and Angela Mao is a real fighting powerhouse, but they still can't save this incredibly choppy, incomprehensibly plotted and atrociously dubbed action film. I gave up on trying to follow the "story" early on; you should give up on even thinking about ever watching this movie. (*1/2)
... View More...perhaps I ought say "distilled" rather than refined - this film embodies the concentrated essence of the trashy 70s action flick, a heady brew for the irony-poisoned minds of today's trash conisseur's minds (e.g. mine)."Stoner" (as it was labelled at my local rental store) opens with a shot of an urbanely smug 'Asian drug lord' kicking back in his office. The walls are all red, his desk perpetually rotates, and there's a big map on the wall covered in flashing lights. The mere shock of the decor alone sets the tone for the remainder of the movie - jerky fight scenes, needless sexploitation, and pornstar swaggering all drenched in polyester and enveloped in a funky soundtrack punctuated with some very strange moog.Needless to say, it's hilarious. George Lazenby, incidentally, proves himself pretty useless throughout the film, both in-character and out-. The real star is Angela Mao, rolling her eyes about furiously and kicking arse in the surprisingly good final fight scene. I guess George's role was played up for Western release so we'd have a strutting, obnoxious white guy to relate to.
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