Finish bin. Updated on 6 May 2021
It looked pretty good, didn t it? The Mortal Kombat movie made all the right noises ahead of release. Ultra gore - check! Fatalities from the games - check! Loads of characters from the convoluted Mortal Kombat universe - check! Unfortunately the finished article - out today to rent in the UK priced £15.99 - fails to live up to the hype.
Mortal Kombat starts strong, with a fantastic fight starring Joe Taslim s Bi-Han - a ninja who goes on to become the frosty Sub-Zero - and Hiroyuki Sanada s Hanzo Hasashi - a ninja who goes on to become the fiery Scorpion. There s wonderful fight choreography to be seen as Hasashi flings a kunai attached to a rope (a cool origin story for one of the most iconic video game weapons of all time) through the heads of Bi-Han s goons. It s a fast, fresh action scene, and you can watch it in the video below:
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Mortal Kombat review: Is the violent movie reboot a flawless victory?
Or is it a fatality for the series? 06/05/2021
Mortal Kombat has now made it onto UK shores slightly later than planned, but fans of the iconic video game series can now see whether it was worth the wait – or, more accurately, worth the £15.99 rental.
The movie reboot introduces a new character into the world of Mortal Kombat in the form of MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) who s used to taking a beating, but has no idea of his actual heritage. That is until Outworld s Emperor Shang Tsung (Chin Han) sends his best warrior Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) to hunt him down.
1/5
This adaptation of the gory video-game franchise is, by turns, ludicrous and soporific – an insult to the kung-fu classics it’s knocking off
6 May 2021 • 1:00pm
Mortal sinners: the various warriors of Mortal Kombat are locked in an eternally dull battle
Credit: Mark Rogers
Dir: Simon McQuoid. Starring: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ludi Lin, Max Huang, Mehcad Brooks, Tadanobu Asano, Chin Lan. 15 cert, 110 mins
“In Mortal Kombat,” warns Kung Lao (Max Huang), a warrior monk with an Oddjob-ish razor-rimmed hat, “talent will only get you so far.” That’s certainly one way of putting it. The largely unknown cast of this video-game adaptation seem like a nice bunch, but if the next Tom Hardy or Charlize Theron happens to be among them, you would struggle to pick them out on the basis of anything here.
Fort Worth Weekly
The Paper Tigers (PG-13) This martial-arts comedy is about three middle-aged former kung fu prodigies (Alain Uy, Ron Yuan, and Mykel Shannon Jenkins) who are forced to revive their talents to solve the murder of their master. Also with Yuji Okumoto, Jae Suh Park, Roger Yuan, Peter Adrian Sudarso, Yoshi Sudarso, and Matthew Page. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
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OPENING
Above Suspicion (R) This thriller based on the first American conviction for the murder of a federal agent stars Jack Huston as an FBI man who has an illicit affair with his informant (Emilia Clarke). Also with Sophie Lowe, Austin Hébert, Thora Birch, Omar Benson Miller, and Johnny Knoxville. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
he new
Mortal Kombat movie is streaming on HBO Max, which is how I m sure most people have seen it since it dropped on April 8. I held off on watching it in my living room because I knew it would be playing on the biggest screen at the downtown AMC when I was officially vaccinated, and this seemed as good a film as any to welcome me back to the movie theater. Despite that, I m hardly a
Mortal Kombat connoisseur (or is that konnoisseur ?). I wasn t allowed to rent or buy the original video games when I was a kid too violent, my parents said but I do remember playing the Super Nintendo version in a friend s basement. The game, which began as an arcade staple and was structured around fighting tournaments with a colorful cast of characters, was so controversial that it seemed almost illicit: As kids, we felt like we were getting away with something as we ripped 16-bit spines and rib cages from our opponents bodies.