Cult classics reminiscent of Enter the Dragon helped change Hollywood. Its rising reputation compelled filmmakers to adopt martial arts into the method of the “motion flick.” By way of the eighties and nineties, spectacle thrillers were anticipated to deliver “the fight moves”, even when it was just a few primary strikes supported by some stuntmen and wires. Motion movies turned spectacles that required equal blends of story, drama, tempo, “kung fu”, special effects and improbable plot twists.
All leads to a maddeningly unsatisfying ending, as it supplies us with every little thing except a proof. When a thriller goes this …