Caryl
It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
lemon_magic
I found "One More Shot" on a specialty Roku Channel ("Black World") and gave it a watch one weeknight motivated by a fondness for obscure films and boredom. It wasn't that good, but I've done worse. The opening credits tell us that this movie is an example of films made for a South African audience in the mid 80s. Apparently this audience was cut off from what I would think of as "mainstream", and a home-grown film industry kept them supplied with light entertainment and novelties, of which this film is a prime example. So "One More Shot" shouldn't really be judged by the same standards of a Hollywood(or even Bollywood) movie from the same era. But I'm going to do that anyway.In essence, this isn't so much a movie as a sketch of a movie. Here's the plot summary: People (I'm not going to call them "actors") say things, do things, punch each other a lot, and then the good guys win.The end. And I'm making it sound more coherent than it really is. So what about the actual execution? Well...while some of the individual scenes and setups aren't that bad, the movie appears to have been edited by some someone who needed to turn 30 minutes of plot into an 85 minute movie. So there's a LOT of padding disguised as exotic "travelogue" style footage, a lot of driving, several training montages (did I mention this is sort of a martial arts film? It's sort of a martial arts film) and about a hundred fights.OK, it's a martial arts film, so never mind the acting (which is uniformly wooden, stiff, and unnatural)...how are the fights? I'll give the movie this: both of the "heroes" are supple and fluid in their moves and techniques. Once in a while there will be a nice leg sweep or lunge punch, etc., done with some panache. But boy, do the bad guys ever fall down unconvincingly. You can actually see the stunt men thinking "Well, this fight scene is over, time to lie down again."I'm making it sound as if I hated this movie...but I didn't. It was mildly enjoyable, the equivalent of popping a chunk of bubble gum in your mouth and chewing on it. But I seriously think that I may have put more mental effort into writing about this film than the crew put into filming it.
