Featured arts: To suggest that there is actually any influence from kali may be somewhat hyperbolic. However, there is this pretty neat final fight scene with close range handgun grappling. Sayoc, Pekiti-Tirsia kali and Lameco all have something similiar called “tapping” (as do other Filipino arts), typically applied to knives. The similarity is notable but slim.
Overview: In a futuristic world, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. Cleric John Preston (Bale) is a top ranking government agent responsible for destroying those who resist the rules. Whe he misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-altering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce the strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes the only person capable of overthrowing it.
Rating: 5.9 (of 10) – Words like “ridiculous” and “melodramatic” come to mind – the movie is not even a proper B-film in its quality. It has a few interesting moments and might have been a good story if a bit more work was done on it. In many respects, the concept of the grammaton cleric who has a handgun-based martial art seems to have been the entire motivation for the film.
(Re-produced under fair-use and with credit)