The Accidental Spy (2001)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
The Accidental Spy (2001)

A strangely forgettable Jackie Chan romp, one of his overseas cash-in varieties that is poorly dubbed and has him playing a character called ‘Jackie’. This one is particularly misguided – more First Strike than Mr. Nice Guy – only not half as enjoyable. Chan starts off as a suited businessman working in Hong Kong, and ends up embroiled in some convoluted slapdashery involving the US government who are trying to crack an opium racket between Korea and Turkey. A succession of gun fights, explosions, kung fu and car chases make up the rest – brilliant eye candy, but with a …

Read More

Above the Law (1988)

Posted in Reviews
1 Comment
Above the Law (1988)

In his debut feature, Seagal plays Nico, an Italian immigrant with an aikido background, recruited by the CIA to fight crime on the mean streets of Chicago. He’s fluent in many languages, a devout Catholic and family man who served in Vietnam and is now determined to put right everything that stinks in this godforsaken world. The story concerns an assassination attempt on a US senator from undercover drug dealers who fear their cover may be blown. But the film detours into an explosion at a church, torture scenes and numerous fisticuffs and car chases. Seagal strides calmly amongst the …

Read More

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

With this sequel, the kung fu chops of Po the Panda (intrinsically voiced by Jack Black) and his buddies, the Furious Five, take another step closer to officially replacing Shrek as DreamWorks’ default family franchise. The cuddly Po wears his heart on his sleeve, and the sequel follows suit, straining at times to be taken a little too seriously. The first film’s strengths came from its world-building and Po’s illegitimate journey from zero to hero, eventually becoming the ‘Dragon Warrior’ through some funny kung fu movie references and neat fortune cookie philosophy – all touchingly played-out for the benefit of kids and …

Read More

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Kung Fu Panda (2008)

“Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend.” And so begins DreamWorks’ kung fu movie homage, set in an animated version of turn of the century China, with residents replaced with talking pigs and bunny rabbits. Po is a panda – overweight, downtrodden and directionless, yet hopelessly optimistic and passionate about the martial arts. He daydreams about leaving his ostrich father’s noodle shop and meeting the Furious Five – a group of highly trained fighters encompassing all five of the Chinese animal styles: mantis, tiger, monkey, crane and snake. During an attempt to …

Read More

Reign of Assassins (2010)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Reign of Assassins (2010)

Newbie director Su Chao-bin, who first cut his teeth on horror-led fare like 2006’s Silk, receives high-concept tutelage from action veteran John Woo in this surprisingly accurate homage to the sort of Shaw Brothers pulp that Gu Long used to thrash out: dramatic storytelling, a thousand characters, clunking big weapons and treacherous double-crossing. The villain even wears a hood and disguises his voice. You would maybe expect something a bit more sophisticated from Woo, who may have lost his way in recent times, but can still turn an action scene into something resembling poetry. Michelle Yeoh is effortlessly engaging, slipping …

Read More

Fearless (2006)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Fearless (2006)

By playing Hou Yuen-chia, Jet Li can lay claim to three of the most vital roles in Hong Kong cinema, alongside Wong Fei-hung and Fong Sai-yuk (four if you include his ode to Bruce Lee in Fist of Legend). Yet in Li’s hands there is very little to distinguish between them. His upstanding portrayal of Chinese virtuosity is a trait he wears well in any costume. But never has a Jet Li film looked so sycophantic, and glitteringly western in its sensibility, than this one.

Fearless is a huge kung fu biopic made in the Hollywood style with elaborate sets, rousing …

Read More

Wing Chun (1994)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Wing Chun (1994)

Yuen Woo-ping’s historically inaccurate, mildly moralistic film is at best charming and comic, and at its worst safe and sickly. Close-combat master Yim Wing Chun (Michelle Yeoh) lives a quiet life with her boisterous auntie and an unfortunate runaway, Charmy (Catherine Hung Yan). The trio own a market stool selling bean curd, which catches the eye of luring men folk like Waise Lee’s pervy nobleman, Scholar Wong. They also attract the diligent presence of travelling country-boy and smart fighter, Leung Pok-to (Donnie Yen). Pok-to and Wing Chun are revealed to have been childhood sweethearts, but they haven’t seen each other in …

Read More

The Tai Chi Master (1993)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
The Tai Chi Master (1993)

Jet Li and Chin Siu-ho play lifelong buddies born and bred the Shaolin way until Chin is expelled for harming a student. Jet continues to help his brother in the secular world, eventually crossing the path of Michelle Yeoh who plays the leader of a rebel force set to bring down an evil eunuch. Jet sides with the rebels and Chin enrolls in the military, rising quickly to become lieutenant. A sword scrap between Jet and Chin leaves our hero mildly insane, becoming a kung fu idiot and an expert in Taoist ways. Luckily he invents the soft tai chi …

Read More

Tiger Claws III (1999)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Tiger Claws III (1999)

The final instalment (thank god) in the Tiger Claws trilogy is the craziest. A psychotic property developer (played with great gusto by Loren Avedon) resurrects a trio of thousand-year-old kung fu spirits at a wine and nibbles event. Cops Tarek (Merhi) and Linda (Rothrock) step up when the evil dead cause havoc with their blue laser skills and start blowing up the guests, including Linda, who kops it very early on leaving Tarek to manage proceedings. Only the Black Tiger style can defeat them, apparently, so Tarek befriends Carter Wong and hides in a snowy Toronto barn to learn the …

Read More

Police Story 3: Supercop (1992)

Posted in Reviews
No Comments
Police Story 3: Supercop (1992)

Possibly the best of Jackie Chan’s police adventures, Stanley Tong matches the tone and formula of the previous films very well, replacing Jackie in the director’s chair and allowing his leading man to handle the majority of the action.

The filmmakers crowbar in cataclysmic explosions from rocket-propelled grenades, car and bike chases and a grand finale involving Chan suspended from a flailing ladder attached to the undercarriage of a moving helicopter.

With kung fu and white-knuckle stunts aplenty, this sequel has more of a global quality about it, designed to appease Chan’s expanding international and commercial following. Tong decides to leave the …

Read More
« Previous Page
Next Page »