''Brush with Danger'' is an American

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

film produced and directed by

Livi Zheng Livi Zheng (born April 3, 1989) is an Indonesian producer, director, actress, and stuntwoman. She began her career as a stuntwoman at the age of fifteen and has since produced and directed '' Brush with Danger'' (2014), ''Bali: Beats of Paradise ...

. The film stars Ken Zheng, Livi Zheng, Norman Newkirk, Nikita Breznikov, Michael Blend, and Stephanie Hilbert. The film was written, produced, and directed by a brother-sister duo from

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, Livi Zheng and Ken Zheng, who after pursuing martial arts and filmmaking separately, came together to create this martial arts action thriller. The film was released in theaters in the United States on September 19, 2014.

Synopsis

Siblings Ken and Alice become entangled with Seattle criminals who want to exploit their talent as martial artists.

Cast

* Ken Zheng as Ken Qiang *

as Alice Qiang * Norman Newkirk as Justus Sullivan * Nikita Breznikov as Nick Thompson * Michael Blend as Marcus Gilani * Stephanie Hilbert as Elizabeth St. Clouds

Production

''Brush with Danger'' was shot in Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles, California.

Release

The film received a limited release in the United States on September 19, 2014, and in Indonesia on November 26, 2015.

Reception

The film was critically panned and holds a 20% score on

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website

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. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it holds a score of 22 based on four reviews. Anita Gates of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote "One of the many strange things about this genre-confused film is that Alice and Ken, who are fictional siblings portrayed by real ones, never say where they’re from. Instead we get numerous references to Asia in general and the occasional sentence beginning, 'In my country.'" Gates added that "the script consists of singularly unoriginal dialogue" and called the screenplay "colloquial". Giving the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, Marc Savlov of ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

'' wrote that the film "is ultimately hobbled by a paucity of credible acting" and that while "the Zhengs might be people to keep an eye on", the film "isn’t the most promising of starts". Simon Abrams of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' criticized the action scenes as "poorly choreographed" and that they "do nothing to extenuate the film's offensive characterizations". Michael Rechtshaffen of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' praised the cinematography and said that while the storytelling was not sophisticated, the film was "undauntedly upbeat".

References

External links

* * * * {{Metacritic film 2014 films American action films 2014 action films Films shot in Washington (state) 2010s English-language films 2010s American films Films scored by Garry Schyman English-language action films Films set in Seattle Films about siblings