沙漠往事

铁桥三武馆开业当天，鬼车前来捣乱，并抓走徒弟加以迫害，铁桥三自己也差点丢了性命，在邓姗姗的帮助下，逐渐恢复，并联合徐大人设计将鬼车和洋人的阴谋破获。

清朝末年，一代宗师太极拳高手杨崇武（于海 饰）一家隐居杭州西子湖畔。杨崇武与妻子慧娘（胡慧中 饰）晚年喜得贵子杨学文（吴京 饰）。学文自幼天资聪慧，生性好武，而杨父怕他惹事闯祸，每日督促儿子苦读诗书，不准他外出。学文暗中偷学父亲的太极拳，并自创了一套辫子神功，平日勤加苦练，习得一身好武功。
　　适逢钱塘江边举行祈雨祭祀，学文和表弟偷偷前去参加龙王祭。在祭典上，学文遇见了留洋归来的千金小姐曹央云（钟丽缇 饰），学文一见钟情。为了追求央云，学文参加了革命党。他的辫子神功在禁鸦片运动中大显神威，学文与央云感情日益加深。然而向中国走私鸦片的帝国主义分子却并不善罢甘休，暗中设下阴谋诡计，一场殊死搏斗旋即展开。

　　功夫小子随师父回日本老家，使得武术进入更深的境界；解决了老师父一段几十年的恩怨；在暴风雨中抢救小孩；发展了一段异国恋情。「小子难缠」原班人马再度合作，比前集更富戏剧性、更感人。全剧的铺叙与发展随著台风的酝酿、来袭，处理得惊心动魄，高潮迭起将武术真义与大无畏精神表现得淋漓尽至！

　　Kyohei Aizawa, an assassin for a covert non-governmental espionage group in Japan called "SEEK", is grieving over the loss of his girlfriend from a tragic plane accident. The leader of "SEEK",Ryo Mikumo, contacts him for an emergency mission; save a fellow agent, recover a new highly explosive liquid called "RDX@", stop a ruthless Yakuza leader, Sojiro Kotsuki, and his gang before they take over Japan. Although the Ninjas were thought to have disappeared... the new breed of assassins live on helping to protect Japan and all that is right; the Ninjas are coming soon.

Director Gary Hustwit (Helvetica, Objectified) completes his design film trilogy with Urbanized. Exploring the design of cities with the world’s foremost architects, policymakers and engaged citizens, Urbanized frames a global discussion about how the design of our cities affects our lives.

　　Having witnessed his junkie father killed Russell Stevens grows up to become a policeman and make a difference. When he is offered an undercover job by Gerald Carver he accepts and begins to build a relationship with David Jason in order to get to the main dealers. However as he is forced to deal drugs and kill to keep his cover he finds the lines between cop and criminal being lost – is he a cop pretending to be a dealer or a dealer pretending to be a cop?
　　Larry (as he was then) Fishburne's first lead role was a typically dark vehicle. The story is the usual one of cop losing himself when undercover, however it manages to be more than that for most of the time. Co-written by Tolkin, who wrote The Player, this naturally has a nice cynical edge to it when it looks at the US's hypocritical approach to drug control and the political links between the street hustlers and the political high rollers who court respectability. The story does eventually settle into a traditional setting but even then it works well as a thriller.
　　The multi-talented Bill Duke directs well with a gritty feel and a few nice touches. However several things are a bit iffy. For most of the film Fishburne's narration/voice over is a bit like a cross between Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner – it comes across as a little too dark and heavy and also explains things like we can't figure it out ourselves. However once you get into the film it's not as big a deal. My main problem lies with the characters.
　　Fishburne is excellent, a real model of underlying anger and violence, Goldblum is good but perhaps a little OTT on the yuppie/violence thing, but there's good support from Smith and Spin City's beautiful (and often underused – but not here) Victoria Dillard. However the two main white characters (Goldblum and Smith) are both smeared with racist insinuations – Smith appears to insult his black officers and doesn't care about the junkies, while Goldblum is fascinated about all things black and talks about them as wild beautiful beasts and loves having sex with "black'. These things aren't a major problem, but with basically only two white characters in it, it's a little worrying that both are given that edge.
　　However these are minor complaints that get lost with a good thriller. Fishburne excels and Duke delivers a story that is a good thriller but also has a jaded, subversive edge.