Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

 Year of Release: 2021

Director:  Destin Daniel Cretton

Screenplay: Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham, from a story by Dave Callaham and Destin Daniel Cretton,  based on the Marvel Comics character created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin

Starring:  Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, Tony Leung,

Running Time:  132 minutes

Genre: Fantasy, action,

Shaun (Simu Liu) lives in San Francisco and works as a valet parker with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina).  One day Shaun receives a message apparently from his estranged sister, Xu Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), and he and Katy are attacked on the bus by a highly trained team of fighters intent on stealing the pendant that Shaun wears, which was given to him by his deceased mother.  Believing his sister to be in danger, Shaun and Katy track her down to an underground "fight club" in Macau.  Shaun soon finds himself having to embrace his true identity as Shang-Chi, son of Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) leader of the shadowy Ten Rings organisation, who has existed for thousands of years with his mystical ten rings which give the owner godlike powers and immortality.

This is the 25th film in the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) base don characters and situations from the Marvel comic-books.   This has the advantage in being an essentially stand alone story, although there are connections to previous instalments, notably Benedict Wong in brief appearance reprising his role from Doctor Strange  (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Ben Kingsley reprising his role as clownish actor Tony Slattery from Iron Man Three (2013), and Mark Ruffalo and Brie Larson appear uncredited as Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers respectively in a brief mid-credits scene.  This is a fun martial arts fantasy film.  It suffers from an uneven tone, but the action scenes are very well staged, and there is plenty of spectacular special effects.  Tony Leung makes for a complex and almost sympathetic antagonist, who is more than just a one-note villain.  Simu Liu, Awkwafina and Meng'er Zhang make for likeable heroes, and it will be interesting to see where they go from here.  The film doesn't entirely break free from the Marvel origin story formula, but there is enough here to please longstanding fans and newcomers alike.  

Stick around until the very end of the credits because, as is usual for Marvel films, there are two bonus scenes during the closing credits, one comes about half way through, and the second at the very end of the credits.        

Meng'er Zhang, Simu Liu and Awkwafina in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Sexy Beast

Year of Release:  2000
Director:  Jonathan Glazer
Screenplay:  Louis Mellis and David Scinto
Starring:  Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, Cavan Kendall, Julianne White,  Álvaro Monje, James Fox
Running Time:  88 minutes
Genre:  Crime

Gal Dove (Winstone) is a retired British criminal who is now living happily in Spain with his wife DeeDee (Redman).  Gal and DeeDee's peaceful life is interrupted by the arrival of brutal gangster Don Logan (Kingsley) who wants Gal to take part in a bank robbery in London.  Gal wants no part in it, but Logan refuses to take no for an answer.

This film, which marks the feature debut from director Jonathan Glazer, has a fairly straightforward plot, but is elevated by a razor sharp and witty script with great performances, particularly from Ben Kingsley who is terrifying as the unpredictable sociopath Don Logan.  Ray Winstone provides the film's dramatic heft as the ex-crook who just wants to be left in peace, and Ian McShane is striking as the urbane, dead-eyed crime boss who is arranging the heist.  No one else in the film really gets much room to make an impression.  These three guys get the lion's share of the screen time and dialogue.  Contrasting the gorgeous, sun-drenched Spanish landscapes with the grey, dull, urbanity of London, the film is visually impressive, although the occasional surreal fantasy sequences are distracting and out of place.  Much of the tension in the film is from the verbal sparring between Logan and Gal, the threat of violence rather than the actual act, although the film does culminate in some shocking violence.
While this may not be the best British gangster film ever made, it is certainly above average.

Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast