Even the most ardent American fans of Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai (In the Mood For Love, 2046, My Blueberry Nights) are unlikely to have seen his 1994 epic Ashes of Time. It was made at the height of the glory days of Hong Kong cinema, and took two years to film at an astronomical budget. If you’ve heard of it at all, you probably know it for the story of how Wong, frustrated at the difficulties of editing this movie, decided to take a break from it to clear his mind. He made a film on the sly, shooting at night without permits on the streets of Hong Kong with a script that he made up in the daylight hours. That film was the delightful Chungking Express, which went on to become an international hit. The completed Ashes, while a hit with Hong Kong critics, was a commercial failure that was never released outside of Asia.

A sequel to a lousy 2004 movie notable only for the bizarre sight of John Travolta, as the film’s bad guy, acting as if he was in a film adapted from Shakespeare instead of Marvel Comics, Punisher: War Zone is so godawful that it makes you wish Joe Bob Briggs was still reviewing movies.