He Swore To Protect
By Any Means Necessary
Starring: Michael Jai White, Neal McDonough, Jimmy Navarro, Lateef Crowder, Laila Ali
Director: Ernie Barbarash
2014 | 100 Minutes | Rated R
“You either shoot me or stop wasting my time!” – John Chapman
Synopsis:
John “Falcon” Chapman is a martial arts master and former Marine who heads to Brazil to track down the men who murdered his sister and stumbles on a city ruled by Yakuza.
Like most other action movie fans, I was excited to hear that Michael Jai White was going to be getting his own action movie series, the Codename: Falcon series. He’s such a talented guy and action fans recognize how great he is. It’s about time he’s had a major breakout role to put him over the top. Spawn doesn’t count…
Michael Jai White always brings it. The action is top notch, though it is pretty scarce for the first half of the movie. The final fight is awesome with MJW taking on not 1… not 2… but 3 dudes all at once. And everything is filmed really well, no Jason Bourne over edited fight scenes.
It’s also really cool to see Lateef Crowder getting a larger role. I really think he could be a legit DTV action star, given the opportunity. He has the look and can definitely perform the stunts.
The Brazilian scenery is gorgeous but the majority of actual shooting locations could be almost anywhere. It sometimes looks like they just drove around until they found a spot that would work for that scene, got out, filmed, and moved on to the next spot. Because of this, the movie has a tendency to feel a bit cheap. Taking a look at the posters also adds to this impression of how little money was probably flowing toward this flick.
Despite its shortcomings, I would love to see more movies in the Codename: Falcon series. I just don’t know if we’ll ever get it.
Action Movie Fanatix 