tlavideo.com

Review

In his 1982 film, One Down, Two to Go, blaxploitation icon Fred Williamson pulls a pistol on a martial artist, uttering the immortal line, "You may be an expert in kung fu, but I'm an expert in gun fu!" Twenty years later, it seems writer-director Wimmer has taken this sentiment to heart by making what may be the first "gun fu" film. In an oppressive future, a "cleric" (Bale), trained in a firearms-based martial art, hunts "sense offenders" — citizens who've stopped taking their emotion-deadening drugs. That is until he forgets to take his own meds. This derivative, silly premise is the springboard for some terrific gunfight setpieces that elevate the moderately involving if nonsensical story to the realms of irresistible guilty pleasure. Bale is quite good, too, especially in the particularly hysterical scene in which he slaughters a cadre of officers to protect a cute puppy!

 -- Dean C. Galanis