At this point in his career, Michael Jai White deserves to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Donnie Yen as one of the greatest martial artists working today.īeing a low-budget production, Falcon Rising is not without its flaws. During his fight scenes, White moves with the confidence and stopping force of a bulldozer like any great action star, White displays a fighting style that’s all his own. Michael Jai White is once again reunited with action choreographer Larnell Stovall ( Mortal Kombat: Legacy, Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown), and the dynamic duo do not disappoint. At least when Falcon Rising is promising to launch America’s next great action hero.īut I’m pleased to say that once the story does get rolling, Falcon Rising gains momentum in a big way and the final thirty minutes deliver plenty of well-shot fight scenes. While it’s admittedly interesting to see White play against type – we rarely see him portray a character as troubled and despair-ridden as John Chapman is at the beginning of the movie – viewers are likely more interested in watching White display his karate chops than his acting chops. There’s very little in the way of action during the opening act, which seems something of a crime when you have a leading man as buff and formidable as Michael Jai White (seriously, the guy is as big as the Hulk in this movie). While his most recent effort with Jean-Claude Van Damme, the respectable 6 Bullets, somewhat redeemed him in my eyes, I hold a bit of a grudge that he united two action stars as great as Van Damme and Scott Adkins and still delivered a movie as dull and action-less as Assassination Games.Ī part of me wondered which Barbarash was behind the camera for Falcon Rising, and the first 30 minutes or so did little to ease my fears. I was a bit worried when the movie started and I saw the credit ‘directed by Ernie Barbarash.’ Barbarash can be a hit-and-miss kind of filmmaker. Along the way, Chapman is bound to draw police attention and crack a few skulls, but he might also find the very thing he so desperately needs in life: a new mission. When his sister is viciously attacked and left for dead, Chapman boards the soonest flight to Brazil in order to track down her mysterious assailants. A kind soul, she’s off doing volunteer work in the crime-ridden favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Now how’s that for a twist on the kind of scene you see in every Steven Seagal movie?īut as alone as he is, Chapman still has someone he cares about: his younger sister. A few minutes into the movie, Michael Jai White encounters a convenience store robbery – and actually begs the armed robbers to shoot him in the head before he takes them down. He’s a suicidal ex-marine suffering from a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Of course, as Falcon Rising opens, the character of John ‘Falcon’ Chapman is in no shape to be a hero. And after watching it, I have to admit…hell, I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel. Here we are, over a year since the film was first announced, and Falcon Rising has finally arrived on DVD as well as Netflix’s streaming service. But was White’s star power enough to base an entire movie franchise around?Īpparently, yes. It was impossible to predict whether the film would strike a chord with audiences – all they really had to bank on was the marketability of leading man Michael Jai White, who was admittedly beloved by action fans for movies like Undisputed II and Black Dynamite. To say that the producers behind Falcon Rising were ambitious would be an understatement. The lead character of John Falcon, to be played by Michael Jai White, was billed as America’s next action hero: a new hero for a new age. Cast: Michael Jai White, Neal McDonough, Laila Ali, Lateef Crowder, Hazuki Kato, Millie Ruperto, Masashi Odate, Jimmy Navarro, Jazmín Caratiniīack in May of 2013, the producers of Falcon Rising boldly announced that the film – which hadn’t released a single image yet – would be the beginning of a series of action movies, with 1-2 entries planned for release every year.
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