Michael Jai White leaps and spins and kicks, flying through the air, in direct contrast to his morose personality from the opening of the film. The gangsters all wield guns or swords, and Falcon only has his fists and a hard briefcase that he swings around like Thor's hammer. There's one great fight where Falcon takes on five Japanese gangsters simultaneously. The fight scenes are numerous, and often feature Michael Jai White in a position where he is totally outnumbered. It's a good performance, unsentimental, spare, and almost thoughtful. He takes time out of the investigation to sit by his sister's bedside in the hospital, lost in his own world of pain and revenge. Her compassionate outlook stands in stark contrast to Tiagho Santo ( Jimmy Navarro), a Rio cop with a messianic complex who refers to the people in the favela as "animals" and savages", guilty until proven innocent.įalcon, still so jittery from PTSD that he pulls a gun at the sound of a car backfiring, manages to take on the entire police force, not to mention a roving band of evil Japanese gangsters running a child prostitution ring. She knows everybody and tries to build trust with the residents. Falcon teams up with Officer Da'Silva ( Millie Ruperto), who works security in the favela. It is a crowded and suspicious community, harassed by the police force, and untrusting of outsiders. A throwback to 1980s action films, with strong men at the center going up alone against an unambiguously evil foe, "Falcon Rising" is an entertaining film with a thrilling physical performance from Michael Jai White.īarbarash thrusts us into the chaotic and colorful atmosphere of the sprawling favela in Rio, little kids playing soccer, teeming warrens of fruit stands, little shrines for the dead stuck in the walls, blue-green waves crashing on the beach at the end of every alley. Falcon begins his own investigation into his sister's attack, asking uncomfortable questions in the favela, and uncovering a corrupt system that goes to the highest levels. Falcon flies to Rio, calling in help from an old war buddy ( Neal McDonough) who works there in the U.S. That all changes when his sister ( Laila Ali) is beaten nearly to death in the favela in Rio de Janeiro where she volunteers as a social worker. He suffers PTSD flashbacks of the carnage he saw in combat. When we first meet John "Falcon" Chapman ( Michael Jai White) in "Falcon Rising," (the first installment of what is clearly meant to be a franchise, directed by Ernie Barbarash), he is playing Russian roulette with himself in his hovel of a New York apartment, all as brightly colored fish swim around in a tank behind his head.
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