\n<\/p>\n
Stream it on Netflix.<\/a><\/p>\n Manuel (Gianmarco Franchini) is in trouble. The corrupt police commissioner, Vasco (Adriano Giannini), is blackmailing Manuel, a 16-year-old, to infiltrate a drug-fueled party and engage in a sex act, on camera, with an attending politician. When the boy gets cold feet, abruptly fleeing from the party, he searches for protection; his father, Daytona (Toni Servillo), a former crime boss with dementia, provides some refuge. But it\u2019s the terminally ill mobster Cammello (Pierfrancesco Favino) who really steps up.<\/p>\n In the second half of \u201cAdagio,\u201d the director Stefano Sollima\u2019s Rome-set action crime thriller, Cammello and Manuel pair together, racing against these dirty cops over a vaguely apocalyptic landscape afflicted by fires, blackouts and oppressively high temperatures. Their troubles culminate in a bloody, sweaty chase through a train station, punctuated by rapid-fire bursts by Cammello, who must decide whether to live or die on his own terms.<\/p>\n Rent or buy it on most major platforms.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The veteran action star Jean-Claude Van Damme hasn\u2019t lost his touch. In the director James Cullen Bressack\u2019s \u201cDarkness of Man,\u201d he plays the gloomy Interpol agent Russell Hatch, who two years earlier watched his informant (Chika Kanamoto) die in a vicious shootout. Now he cares for her rebellious 15-year-old son, Jayden (Emerson Min), with the help of the boy\u2019s grandfather, Mr. Kim (Ji Yong Lee), and underworld uncle, Dae Hyun (Peter Jae); both are in conflict with Lazar (Andrey Ivchenko), a Russian gangster aiming to take over Los Angeles\u2019s Koreatown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As the washed-up Hatch, Van Damme is wry and brittle, providing a ruminative narration to a grisly noir whose action and tone often mirrors the \u201cJohn Wick\u201d franchise. Hatch, in fact, strolls with a huge gun toward a mobster pinned in an overturned car for a sequence visually reminiscent of the first \u201cWick\u201d film. With this new loner wrinkle added to Van Damme\u2019s persona, the actor remains effortlessly cool yet relatably flawed.<\/p>\n Stream it on Netflix.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Still dressed in his military uniform and toting his rifle, the Immortal Sugimoto (Kento Yamazaki), a survivor of the Russo-Japanese war, works to help Asirpa (Anna Yamada) recover a lost trove of gold belonging to her Ainu tribe. Its whereabouts can be found via a map, whose sections have been tattooed on the bodies of former inmates scattered across Japan. The Immortal Sugimoto and Asirpa, nevertheless, aren\u2019t alone in their search: A faction of disaffected soldiers and retired swordsmen is also in hot pursuit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Based on the same-titled manga, the Japanese director Shigeaki Kubo\u2019s \u201cGolden Kamuy\u201d is a fierce war flick that loves scale. The opening conflict at Hill 203 features more extras than one can count. Later brawls involving killer bears and a loyal white wolf are also expansive. Though clearly a first part to an eventual longer series, this impressively shot, vast film stands on its own.<\/p>\n Rent or buy on most major platforms.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The director Ross W. Clarkson\u2019s film plays like the best Van Damme movie that was never made. From its throwback 1980s R&B and hair metal soundtrack to its gory premise, it follows many of the conventions of martial arts films. Here, it is Mathis Landwehr taking the reins as Michael Rivers, a single father who is forced to fight when the sadistic Ron Hall (Matthias Hues), the owner of a deadly gladiatorial ring, kidnaps Michael\u2019s daughter, Bree (Kira Kortenbach). With the help of other conscripted fighters and the retired brawler Loren (Billy Blanks), Michael works to get in shape to save his girl.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Last Kumite\u201d features plenty of nostalgic wonders: copious training montages and a hulking final fighter named Dracko (Mike Derudder) suggests kinship with the \u201cRocky\u201d series. While the matches themselves are vicious affairs \u2014 one fighter snatches an eyeball from a guy\u2019s head and swallows it \u2014 Landwehr\u2019s physicality is a noted highlight. He sells the punches with grace. Balletically spinning his body through the air, he proves himself a worthy heir to Van Damme.<\/p>\n\u2018Darkness of Man\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Golden Kamuy\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018The Last Kumite\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018The Mob\u2019<\/h2>\n