Puncture Wounds (2014)

Sadly Over-hyped

Admirable film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

In between playing supporting roles in movies like THE GRANDMASTER, Cung Le found the time to build on his solo career in the direct-to-video realm. Disappointingly, his sophomore effort here leaves a good deal to be desired. While the previous DRAGON EYES filled his prospects as a karate star with promise, PUNCTURE is a less impressive action flick that's mainly weakened by the ravages of producers and certainly leaves Le looking less extraordinary. It's still a decent film that's strengthened by its fight content, but a bit too far from perfect to warrant a purchase for me.The story: The family of a war veteran (Le) is murdered by a racist underground faction after he interferes with their business, prompting him to target the group and its leader (Dolph Lundgren) for retribution.I don't blame the stars or even the director (Giorgio Serafini) for the movie's DTV-isms. The production company behind the film, Voltage Pictures, has a habit of editing its low budget movies in amateurish ways, so expect to see lots of gratuitous slow motion and sped-up segments, "artistic" lighting overexposures, unnecessary close-ups, and scene-hopping. These aspects are present just enough to properly irritate you but not ruin the movie, to the same degree that the screenplay bothers me. There's a good deal of unnecessary cruelty and exploitation of women that I don't appreciate. While that was bad enough, I find it just as hard to forgive how boring the script renders Dolph Lundgren. The Swedish Superman excels at playing villains, and though it seems like the part of the long-haired supremacist leader would let him show off some of his creepiness, he clearly doesn't have good character material to work with and ends up being pretty unmemorable.Cung Le shows his rather meager dramatic limits, though he still makes a good tough guy. Another tough guy, Vinnie Jones, plays a character that weirdly has the bare minimum to do with the plot but manages through sheer charisma to still come off cool. But actions speak louder than words in these kinds of movies, and this is where PUNCTURE WOUNDS shows its best side. With only four fight scenes and one shootout, the movie could definitely use more action, though Cung Le's kicks are worth waiting for. The choreography manages to appear completely efficient without shirking flashiness, so it's very satisfying when Le takes on groups of bad guys. His finale with Lundgren is much shorter than it should be, but it allows Lundgren to look pretty fluid and powerful, using his height, reach, and power karate to take the fight to Le, cool but believably.The fights too are hampered by the aforementioned editing, so despite being the movie's brightest spot, they can't elevate this review to a higher rating. Despite this one being a minor disappointment, I'm hopeful for Le's future, provided he choose a better studio for his next vehicle. Bottom line: if you're looking for an imperfect but moderately exciting karate-revenge movie, this one fits the bill well enough, but it's not nearly the best any of its performers have to offer.

I managed to find this movie because i wanted to see a Cung le vs Dolph Lundgren Movie for sure... It was not easy to find but i did.The start of the movie is a bit anti climatic and even tough i saw this formula of presenting the guys one after the other with there name stamped on a freeze frame, it was kinda chaotic in that movie. I also didn't like the blurry camera in some part, i guess they wanted to go artistic but ended up just bad.The script is as unoriginal as it may get but i usually like that kind of stuff and overall liked it. On the other hand some scenes really does not help the movie, bad decisions made by the characters and "roll your eyes" moment where you are really wondering why didn't he just shoot...Also the relation between the characters looked very forced and the wooden acting of Cung Le and his army buddy didn't help get into those guys as characters either. Dolph is Dolph, he is enjoyable and he play a good enough villain. Vinnie Jones is there to be Vinnie Jones and add "star power" to a DTV movie.Now for the spoiler, and this really bugged me out, the Vin guy, who is the one killing the family, ending out showing remorse and we do not know if he died or not, that really was bad... There was so much potential, they could had made so much in the movie with that, as will he forgive him for having kill his family when he want to repent and do a good deed, it may had been cliché but the whole movie is very cliché anyway.So in the end, a good time if your drunk by Jeremy Jahns standard, the fights are nice, and even tough not spectacular in any mean, it fill a Friday night pretty good.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningJohn Ngugen (Cung Le) is a former army vet who's struggling to adjust to civilian life, blah blah blah, who finds redemption when he comes to the aid of a damsel in distress, blah blah blah (at least it's none PC), and incurs the wrath of crime lord Hollis (Dolph Lundgren), blah blah blah, and sets out on a mission of revenge when his parents are murdered, blah blah blah.I care about writing this review as much as I can when there seems so little point in doing it. It's hard to give a distinctive summary of it as a film in itself when it is so indistinctive from any other similar film out there. A Certain Justice follows the action movie formula by the book and fires out a none stop battering ram of clichés at a rate of twenty to four. The result is a film that can pass the time maybe if you're on a late night plane flight home or trying to nod off after a long hard day, but that you will care precisely nothing for. Likable but not awfully charismatic leading man Le is, well, likable but not awfully charismatic, while bad guy Lundgren has reverted back to his Johnny Mnemonic get-up, with imposing facial hair and biker hair.Formulaic. Generic. By the numbers. Take your pick, but there's really no other superlative for this pot boiler. **

This movie does not disappoint you if you are looking for some nice action. Many movies have been made on a similar storyline, but Puncture Wounds presents it you in a different flavor.John (Cung Le) is a soldier returning from war. He tries to help a hooker who works for Hollis (Dolph Lundgren) and that's how matters get worse. The rest of the movie is a mixed up world of corrupt police officers, drug dealers and prostitution rackets.Cung Le has given good performance and Dolph Lundgren has impressed like always. Vinnie Jones appears briefly but plays the bad guy role very naturally. One thing that may let down Dolph Lundgren fans is that he was not given longer screen time.