The late Director Benny Chan left the world a lethal adventure in Raging Fire, a thriller with some kung-fu and gun action thrown in. Raging Fire is like The Raid: Redemption(2011) on acid. Sadly, Benny Chan has passed away, but Raging Fire has a crazy amount of action and violence, and it’s a film that fans of that genre should experience.

Raging Fire takes place in Hong Kong. Donnie Yen plays Cheung Sung-bong, a veteran police officer of the Regional Crime Unit. His protégé is Yau Kong-ngo, played by Nicholas Tse. But Cheung and Yau eventually find themselves to be enemies in the dark criminal underworld of Hong Kong.

The action and violence in Raging Fire are riveting. Around every corner is a wild fight—sometimes group fights, and many times those fights have lots of shootings, too. But the film is not just about fighting and shooting; there is a good dose of Chinese cultural rituals that are also fascinating. And the cultural rituals are intertwined with the criminal behavior.

I’ve always loved movies with a lot of action and, again, Raging Fire definitely has plenty of action. It’s a rollercoaster of craziness and two-faced criminals. The plot was a bit dry at times, but Chan’s choreography and the film’s continuity is where Raging Fire shines. Three and a half stars for Raging Fire.

I watched The 355 with mixed expectations. It has several glamorous actresses, so I knew that would be a plus. And I expected some decent suspense. But it turned out to be a poorly defined film lacking a solid storyline. The net result, to put it bluntly, is that The 355 is a disorganized mess, and is really just barely mediocre.

The 355 is in the genre of a spy thriller, and the main conflict is that a top-secret weapon has fallen into the hands of mercenaries. Several female agents mobilize to keep them from using the weapon, which would have worldwide catastrophic consequences. The agents include Jessica Chastain as Mace, Penelope Cruz as Graciela Rivera, Bingbing Fan as Lin Mi Sheng, Diane Kruger as Marie Schmidt, and Lupita Nyong’o as Khadijah Adiyeme.

I will give the film props for some of its action sequences, and there were some suspenseful segments. But despite the all-star lineup, to me this film came off as a Bourne film meets Charlie’s Angels and topped with a silly 007 approach. And it just never really became clear exactly how their mission was critical.

It’s really a struggle to be positive with this one. Director Simon Kinberg is still new to the directing game, and that may be where much of the blame lies. The film is disorganized and has no compelling factors to be anything close to a blockbuster hit, in spite of its great cast. The film didn’t even come close to living up to the trailers, which really just tried too hard. Just two stars for The 355.

Director Christian Schwochow created Munich: The Edge of War to be a puzzle of deceit, and he succeeded—in spades. The film is based on actual events preceding World War II, and it is politically enticing and spellbinding.

In 1917 (2019), a British war film set during World War I, actor George Mackay played the role of a soldier who faced serious peril while delivering a critical message. In Munich: The Edge of War, Mackay plays British diplomat Hugh Legat, who is assigned to Munich and must get a message out in an effort to prevent Adolph Hitler, played by Ulrich Matthes, from starting World War II. Jeremy Irons plays
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who desperately wants to avoid war. The plot thickens when Legat meets old friend Paul Von Hartman, played by Jannis Niewohner, who works for the German government. Though on opposite sides, they come together to figure out what is best for both of their countries. But there are spies everywhere and danger lurks around every corner.

Munich: The Edge of War had my head spinning with its puzzles of lies and misinformation. And my understanding is that it is a realistic depiction of the situation before the start of World War II. The espionage focus of Munich: The Edge of War is simply top-notch.

I found Munich: The Edge of War to be one of the best true story thrillers of World War II that I’ve seen for a long time. It was a thrilling and sometimes astonishing experience. George Mackay may have delivered his best performance since 1917, and Jeremy Irons was brilliant as Neville Chamberlain. Munich: The Edge of War is worth the time to watch on the big screen, and it should be a big hit when it opens on Netflix on January 21. Three and a half stars for Munich: The Edge of War.