Movie Review: The Guillotines (We Pictures/Well Go Entertainment)

...being a devoted fan of martial arts cinema...from '70's old-school chop socky...to slick, action-driven, dramatically infused modern period pieces...this viewer often found himself particularly drawn to the quite imaginative, dynamic and exotic, albeit quite deadly weaponry, sometimes even more so than the prerequisite and choreographed hand-to-hand combat, in these films. The more exotic and constructively practical the weapon was, the more this viewer felt compelled to study it's historic use even further, even going as far as to verify whether or not the weapon was genuinely used by ancient warriors past, or was merely the imaginative product of the writers and filmmakers. Such was the case with the dreaded 'xuedizi'...a term literally translating into 'blood dripper', but to fans of chop socky cinema, this device was better known as the 'flying guillotine'. Amazingly enough, ancient history reveals that during the Quig Dynasty, covering a large era of time, from 1644 to 1912, the flying guillotine was indeed reportedly used by skilled Tibetan assassins...a skill which clearly involved amazingly keen and sightful precision (...the movies tend to make use of this weapon, look soooooo easy). The jaw-dropping level of dynamics, with regards to early martial arts films, was invariably raised, with the inclusion of this deadly and gruesome piece of precision weaponry, with the classic 1976 martial arts epic, "Masters of the Flying Guillotine", being the most famous, in featuring the fatal head-chopping tool. As visually compelling as the weapon was, it genuinely surprises most fans of martial arts cinema, that the flying guillotine wasn't utilized more in the movies; that disregard might well have seen long-overdue cessation, with the recent 're-invention' of the fatal bladed weapon, in 2012's visually striking, albeit heavily dramatic, and overly muddled martial arts epic, "The Guillotines"...

Movie Review: Code Of Honor (2013, Digital Playground)

Reviewed by John Beutler

Often, over the years, in peering behind the green door, so to speak, at the countless barrage of 'copycat' offerings that make up a good part of 'cinema de erotica'...specifically, those based upon...uh, well...let's face it, folks...outright copied from higher profile concept films, or the latest motion picture blockbusters, one might haplessly fall victim to a good number of such, which...despite the incorporative melding of expected eroticism and sexual spice...just don't seem to work, conceptually. However, on occasion, a cleverly conceived and downright erotically sexy coupling of high-concept-inspired, blatantly over-the-lines traced, rendering of such attributed adult entertainment DOES shimmer through; such is the case, with the (...conventional, and...well, not so conventional) blazing guns of 2013's outrageous 'search and rescue' sex epic, "Code of Honor"...

A French drug-dealing moll, Manuel, is living the high life, amidst a coastal cottage, replent with big guns, a mountain of cash, and a poolside bevy of buxom beautiful babes. After a smoking hot, heated bedroom tussle with two of the gals, Manuel is abruptly besieged by two armed, albeit bikini-clad, undercover agents, masquerading as part of his sexy poolside entourage. Out of desperation, and with guns-a'blazin', Manuel blasts his way out of the cottage, and makes a fast getaway, taking one of the beautiful undercover operatives with him as hostage, and leaving the other...the leader of this covert mission...holding the bag, to explain to her superior, why the operation went sour...