★ 4 / 10
Amateurish, painfully long, few redeeming qualities
destroyerwod
My initial review was declined for reasons i do not know for sure, so i am reposting it without the context intro (as i think it may comes from this).So in the…
My initial review was declined for reasons i do not know for sure, so i am reposting it without the context intro (as i think it may comes from this).So in the 2010s i had a phase where i would watch every martial arts movies made in the 90s or so, especially Americans. Cynthia Rothrock was a name that i watch a lot of stuff of. Not gonna lie i had ton of fun with movies like Tiger Claws (trilogy), Sword to Justice, Lady Dragon 1&2, China O'Brien and many more. Im not gonna say they were all quality movies, but they were up my alley in term of "revenge/badass kickboxing flicks or such". I was eating that style !But Cynthia kinda faded away a bit for a while and didn't made much movies until she had a resurgence a few years ago. Some movies were absolutely terrible (Showdown in Manilla) and others she had a small support role and i enjoyed (The Last Kumite).I am saying all of this to tell you i enjoyed Cynthia as an actress in the past years.But this one ... it is ... it is not good. So right away as the movie start you are greeted by a few very bad CGI blood splatters. Oddly enough this will come and go a few times (especially early on) but the movie will also use much better practical effects. Honestly movie makers, stop with the CGI blood. It can be "ok" if done with a budget (Expendables 2) but it can also be awfull if there is a lack of budget (Expendables 4).I am sure Cynthia wanted to make a Western with her friends because its something she never did, and while it keep the esthetic in the background, it is mostly a typical revenge fighting movie. Don't expect horse battles or great 6-shooters standoff. Now is it for best or worst? I enjoy martial arts movies and i can't say i am that fond of westerns, so it should be a good thing right? But sadly its not.I appreciated all these peoples in the past but the reality is they all pretty old and move ...well like peoples of their age. I will say Cynthia still throw down nicely for her age, but there is a difference when you carry a movie on your shoulder compare to doing a support role.Benny "The Jet" Urquidez is in this, but he is litterally a pointless cameo and has a super sloppy fight with another older man and its painful to watch.Richard Norton (RIP) get the best out of this flick in my opinion. He plays the villain and he is really easy to hate in the movie. He has the better acting as well. Its not the first time he and Cynthia go against each others and its a nice throwback, but it could had been executed so much better storywise.And the story is where the movie is the worst. Yes the villain is evil and yes you want him to pay, but it is executed so badly. It moves at a weird pace and the movie is way too long for its own good. While there is a few scenes where our heros do fun fighting stuff, they are far too stretched out to keep us entertained.Now not only the story felt like some Uwe Boll movie (Bloodrayne 2 come to mind) but the direction as well. Everything felt "cheap" in a way. I get it, its a low budget movie, its not suppose to look theatrical, but maybe with a better story i would had been more able to go over that aspect like The Last Kumite.I am sorry to be that harsh over the movie but i have to say things as they are.I always been the kind of guy to defend direct to VOD movies. Some of those are actually my favorites. I think if you have a good story and decent film making skills, you can produce something good even if you are limited budget wise. Sadly this movie was not that.I am gonna go with a 4 out of 10 but im being generous because i like these peoples, it is a passion project and im sure Cynthia and her friends had fun making it. But it is under average for sure. Wouldn't recommand it to anyone who is not a fan of Rothrock, Norton and all these old timers from the 90s. An Uwe Boll movie not made by Uwe Boll.
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★ 5 / 10
paul_m_haakonsen
Normally, Western movies is not my go-to kind of genre for entertainment. But every now and again I do opt to sit down and watch one. And this particular…
Normally, Western movies is not my go-to kind of genre for entertainment. But every now and again I do opt to sit down and watch one. And this particular movie's cover was interesting enough for me to pick it up and giving it a chance, without knowing what I was in for, nor knowing who was on the cast list.Writers Cynthia Rothrock, Robert Clancy and Jeff Gress put together a pretty straightforward script and storyline. It wasn't exactly rocket science material, but the script provided adequate entertainment, and isn't that the sole purpose of a movie? I was adequately entertained throughout the course of the 116 minutes that the movie ran for.Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a martial arts training montage put into a Western movie? Yes? Well, you're in luck. Just sit down to watch "Black Creek" and you will find out. I kid you not.The cast ensemble in the movie is quite impressive, especially if you watched movies during the late 1980s and all throughout the 1990s. The cast list includes the likes of Cynthia Rothrock, Don Wilson, Richard Norton and Patrick Kilpatrick. The acting performances in "Black Creek" were good.The movie could have benefitted tremendously from a more round-handed trim in editing, as a 116 minute runtime was sort of pushing it to the edge.Certainly a watchable Western movie, but it certainly is not going to become a classic in the Western genre.My rating of directors Shannon Lanier and Mike Möller's 2024 Western "Black Creek" lands on a five out of ten stars.
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★ 2 / 10
In which my hope and doubt are greeted by tiring schlock
I_Ailurophile
I'm an unabashed fan of Cynthia Rothrock. No few of the films she has been a part of are truly great, like 'Yes Madam' and 'Righting wrongs'; others are…
I'm an unabashed fan of Cynthia Rothrock. No few of the films she has been a part of are truly great, like 'Yes Madam' and 'Righting wrongs'; others are plainly ridiculous B-movies, like 'Honor and glory' or 'Lady Dragon,' but still a total blast. On the other hand, especially post-2000, her credits are a very mixed bag with an increasing trend toward low-grade paycheck schlock (see 'The martial arts kid' or 'Showdown in Manila' - or rather, please don't). For all the earnest enthusiasm and fun that went into this crowdfunded passion project, I'd be plainly lying if I said I weren't doubtful about the title's chances. Featuring Rothrock and a retinue of her friends and past collaborators, could 'Black Creek' stand firm on its own merits?The first spray of blood we see on our screens is painfully gauche, low-budget computer-generated imagery. This is unfortunate enough in and of itself, but even more curious when the next blood we see (among other later examples) is unmistakably the work of practical effects artists. Like too many modern movies in the Age of the Internet, this also readily comes across as overproduced in terms of both its image and its sound. Both the visions and the audio to greet us are impeccable and crisp, but therefore carry a heightened sense of artifice; sometimes "perfect" really is the enemy of "good," as the whole feels sterile and soulless. This sense is not helped by direction that is at once brusque and forced, and weak and unconvincing, nor overzealous editing and otherwise pacing. For all the experience that many involved have in the industry, the acting routinely feels terribly false and forced and far less than credible, and not for one moment do I think this is a reflection solely on director Shannon Lanier. Actually, outside of any flicks that starred John Wayne, unless we dare to invoke the name of Neil Breen, this is some of the worst acting I've ever seen. Even the action sequences - the centerpiece of the entire affair and the supposed forte of its stars - are marked by a dire split between the authentic and impactful and the inauthentic and dull, and this may be true mere seconds apart, in the same scene. I don't know what "fight director" Mike Möller was doing, nor anyone else involved in the fight scenes, but no one was doing their job.The dialogue is simply awful, and the character writing is garbage. The plot is painfully straightforward, and where the scene writing doesn't flounder with all the same harsh descriptors I've already employed, the execution suffers from questionable sequencing. In every regard - down to the production design and art direction, costume design, and hair and makeup that are reliable staples of sincere genre pieces - it's as if we're seeing a fake, plastic facsimile of a western. All the odds and ends are given superficial representation, but the details are missing, the substance is lacking, and there's not one ounce of heart to be found in these two hours, not even in the music or cinematography. There are recognizable themes and ideas in the screenplay, but apparently writing is not a strength for Rothrock, Robert Clancy, or Jeff Gress, and their product is coarse and crude. Owing to tonal problems on top of all else there are no meaningful dynamics to be found here, nor any subtlety or nuance; the phrase "blunt instrument" comes to mind, but is overly generous.I'm fully aware that Rothrock's goal in creating this picture was to have a good time with her friends, and to play in a genre she hadn't heretofore. Maybe we can say those goals were achieved, and if so, I'm glad for their success. The trouble is that it's a western only on the surface, and in every other regard it has far more in common with the dubious type of empty-headed, testosterone-fueled, poorly made pablum that has proliferated in the last decade or so at a time when anyone can make anything and have it seen by everyone on the World Wide Web. The best ideas on hand, such as (a) a scene in the first half where protagonist Rose makes a bold but foolish entrance into a saloon, or (b) a passing quip between Rose and Katie in the second half, were mostly wasted. The worst ideas on hand, of which there are far too many, will thankfully not live long in my memory. There was potential here, but to be frank, for that potential to have been realized would have required a largely very different assemblage among the crew, if not also among the cast, and additional writers to revise and refine the humble iteration we see before us.I remain a fan of Rothrock and her long if uneven career as an action star. For as much energy as she and her collaborators proudly poured into this, a part of me honestly feels bad being so heavily critical and dismissive of it. The fact of the matter, however, is that while 'Black Creek' may be the western Rothrock wanted to make, it's not a western that the majority of viewers will ever want to watch, and the star's judgment has seemingly been clouded and corrupted by her experiences in the recent cinematic landscape. Accentuating the point, at two hours this is much, much longer than it should have been. It's still the case that there are worse ways to spend one's time, and in fairness, it's not as if every last tidbit is uniformly rotten. Sadly, though, there's just not remotely enough value in this film to make it particularly worthwhile unless one has a very specific, concrete impetus to watch. I guess I'm glad for those who get more out of it than I do, but to such viewers I would also suggest watching anything else - anything at all. And to Rothrock And Friends I can only say, in the most polite of terms, "better luck next time."
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4.3/10
546
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I couldn't get through it. Turned off about 20 minutes in. It's like a film project funded by a Realtor. Yikes!