Police Story (product link) Martial Arts / Comedy This is my personal favorite JC film. It's got it all. Big fights, big stunts, and the best collection of outtakes. I don't believe any of JC's other movies have ever topped this one. It's simply un-toppable!
In the wake of endless trash coming out of what was once the center of innovative film making, SPL has breathed life back into Hong Kong's seemingly crumbling film industry. The film stars Simon Yam as Chan, a terminally ill police detective trying to nail notorious crime boss Wong Po (Sammo Hung) for murdering the parents of his adopted daughter. In an act of desperation, Chan and his cohorts frame Wong Po for the murder of an undercover agent. Their intentions, however, don't sit well with Ma Kwun (Donnie Yen), a strict by-the-books detective who'll be taking over for the retiring Chan. But their actions would prove deadly as they are each brutally hunted down by Jack (Wu Jing), Wong Po's knife wielding personal hitman. A bloody showdown is imminemt.
This movie is entertaining and surprisingly original. The story is simple yet very complex. For an action film, the characters are really well developed with real problems and emotions. The acting is top-knotch. Simon Yam is good as usual. Both Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung turn in great performances (possibly the best either of them have given). The action is truly astonishing! Donnie Yen's choreography is ingenious showing he has talent behind the cameras as well. The highlight of the film is the amazing alley "knife fight" scene between Donnie and Wu Jing, along with a couple galons of blood. This scene alone proves how really underrated Donnie Yen is. The fact that he can't get the big Hollywood leading roles that often go to Jet Li or Jackie Chan is a travesty because he is clearly the better actor (and his english is better too). Neither Jackie or Jet could have done what Donnie does in this film!
"Hero" was a great movie. But I didn't admire it for the dazzling kung-fu battles (like most fans of the genre might have) as much as I did the look, the photography, the storytelling and the over-all style of the movie. The fight scenes took a backseat to all those nice things. Where "Hero" fails, this movie succeeds. "Flying Daggers", I thought, had way more exciting and energetic fight scenes that get better and better as the movie progresses (my personal favorite was the bamboo forest scene). The movie, like "Hero", is great to look at. Great use of colors and great visuals. The CG assisted camera-work was also very cool. The story is a little conventional with a couple of twists and turns but moves quite fluidly (although I have to admit that the pacing of the movie is a little off, but that's forgivable). Reguardless, I thought this was a fantastic movie experience. Fan or not a fan, you'll love "House of Flying Daggers".
Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children (product link) Animation / Science Fiction Waaaaaaaay better than the first "Final Fantasy" movie! The computer animation is absolutely stunning! The action scenes are literally dizzying and I loved it! The best direct-to-DVD release Sony has ever released!
Fearless [2006] (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure This is by far Jet Li's best Chinese film in years! It ranks up there with "Fist Of Legend" and "Fong Sai Yuk 1", two of my absolute favorite Jet Li films!
One could easily be misled to thinking this movie is the sequel to Ong Bak. To be quite honest it is just Ong Bak (replacing the Ong Bak head with two native elephants and Bangkok Thailand with Sydney Australia). The plot is definitely B-movie material but who cares! If you're watching this movie for the acting or story then turn it off and go rent Forrest Gump because thats the best you're gonna get. The action scenes are fantastic. They make recent Jackie Chan movies look like after school specials and it's only fitting as Jackie even makes a hillarious (but maybe unintentional)"blink and you'll miss it" cameo. Though not as intense as Ong Bak, these fight scenes seem to be more stylized and contemporary, reminescent of such classics as Police Story and Rumble in the Bronx. In an amazing scene at the Tom Yum Goong restaurant (thus the film's title)there is a whole fight scene going up a flight of stairs with stuntmen getting pummeled left and right, falling off the balcony, lasting maybe 5-10 minutes, all done in one take! Lets see Jet Li do that.
Tony Jaa totally kicks ass and if you only have room for only one action movie this season make sure you pick this up. It's definitely worth the price. Get it before the "AXE" brothers prevent you from doing so.
NOTE: There is a piss-poor bootleg DVD of this film floating around that seems to have been sourced from the VCD. DON"T BUY BOOTLEG DVDs! Save your money and buy the VCD from here. It's a killer deal.
The Forbidden Kingdom (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts Unexpectedly enjoyable and fun. The best Hollywood film yet for both Jackie Chan or Jet Li. Features some good fight choreography and a decent kid actor. It will make you forget about "The Tuxedo" and "Cradle 2 The Grave" for sure.
The Host (product link) Horror / Thriller WOW! I went into this movie expecting nothing and walked out pleasantly surprised! This is one of the best, most original and one of the most scariest monster movies in a long long time. Highly recommended!
Wedding Crashers [DTS] (product link) Comedy / Romance Funny, funny, funny! I loved this movie! Vince Vauhn and Owen Wilson are damn hilarious! You will laugh your nuts off!
Thunderbolt [1995] (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts The last time I saw this movie was about ten years ago when it was first released. I didn't really like it then, but I like it now! The car-chases were well done and the fight scenes (though there weren't many) were just kick-ass perfect!
Born To Fight [2004] (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts This is no 'Ong Bak' but believe me, it's just as insane! Some of the best stuntwork I've ever seen! Oh, and it's super violent!
Flash Point (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts Admittedly, I am a bit disappointed with this film considering it was supposed to be the big follow-up to SPL, one of my favorite films of recent memory. I didn't like the story, didn't like the characters, didn't like the dialogue, didn't like the acting and all that cool stuff. With that said, I did however love Donnie Yen's fantastic fight choreography. The finale with Donnie vs. Colin Chou is great.
When I walked into the theatre to watch this movie, I already knew this wasn't going to be the movie I'd been waiting to see all these years (10 years to be exact). Something's gotta be wrong when your local newspaper has no review for it right? Sadly that was the case because the movie really sucked. Okay, it has action. It has special effects. It has some violence. But it ultimately fails to establish what the original "Predator" and "Alien" movies did. Those movies have become classics and the characters themselves are icons in their own rights. Director Paul W.S. Anderson tries to concieve a smart storyline leaning towards myth and legend rather than comic book material, but at only 87 minutes, there just isn't enough time set aside to make it any more interesting.
It's 100 minutes I'll never get back and [money] that could have been spent on something else. This movie will never be a classic and I'm betting most people have already forgotten about it. But you get what you pay for. Atleast there were Aliens and Predators in it.
Rob-B-Hood (product link) Action/Adventure / Comedy I'm fairly disappointed with this one. Stupid plot, stupid characters, and the movie drags on for over 2 hours!!! The action scenes are forgettable. The jokes are dead. Daniel Wu's Brokeback Mountain gay joke was NOT funny. Leave the gay jokes to Kevin Smith or anyone else who can write funnier gay jokes. I'm a huge fan of JC's so as you can imagine, it's hard for me to admit it when one of his movies sucks. Rob-B-Hood is waay too cute for its own good.
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I agree with some of your statements but I liked it a star better.The"joke" was tacky but it's certainly not the worse thing he has done. And I have every movie Jackie has made except for a couple horrible ones.This was just toooooooo cute!
I agree with Mr Giodanella. The US version is a very accessible Jackie Chan film for those who are not kung fu comedy purists. I have a large collection of Chan movies and this is the only one that had my family literally roaring with laughter. Thumbs Up!
Normally, nobody hates Jackies comedys more then I do, but I actually enjoyed this one. Not one of Jackies best movies, but worth sitting through. Also, the brokeback mountain joke was just a one liner, nothing to get all shook up over.
Fatal Contact (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Where do I even begin? This movie left me extremely confused and infuriated. Is it an action movie? Is it a melodrama? Or is it a Shakespearean tragedy? I don't know!!! This movie tries to be all of those in one movie and it fails miserably! The film opens quite strong with Wu Jing showing off his wu shu skills while a gang leader looks on hoping to recruit him to join his underground fight club. From there, we get some pretty darn good fight sequences. I personally loved Wu Jing vs. the dude with nails imbedded in his shoes and gloves; cool stuff. The third and final act just completely falls apart. Everything gets more and more rediculous. Without giving anything away, I'll just warn you that this is NOT the feel good movie of the year. For the fight scenes alone, I'll give Fatal Contact an extremely generous 2/5.
Volcano High (product link) Martial Arts / Fantasy Wow, what a boring movie! I'll admit that the story is pretty interesting however I just feel that I (a normal person with absolutely no experience making movies let alone write a review about one) could have done it better. The action, the special effects and the "Hip Hop" dubbing [available on the US DVD] all sucked. The original Korean version was worse. It was even longer! Big disappointment.
Silver Hawk (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts It really is a damn shame. I love Michelle Yoeh but this movie just completely SUCKS!
The fight choreography was terrible. They try way too hard to be cool but guess what, they weren't. The acting is terrible. The english speaking actors act especially crappy. The special effects are lame and cheesy. The storyline and the dialogue, I thought, were the worse thing about this movie. Bottomline, stay away from this movie, even if you are a fan of Michelle's. Stick to some of her better movies.
Shadowless Sword (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts This movie is terrible. It rips off just about every movie from "Lord Of The Rings" to "Crouching Tiger" to "House of Flying Daggers" to "Braveheart" and it goes on and on like this. One of the worst and most generic Korean swordplay films ever.
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Insanity. Maybe nothing super new or innovative, but, oh yes, entertaining. Fabulous wirework, mythical powers, great fighting. And you can't put HOFD up there with those other movies.
Spirited Killer (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure [Note; This review refers to the US DVD by Brentwood.] This movie is utter CRAP! Do not, I repeat, do not let the attractive box art fool you. This movie is advertised with large image Tony Jaa right on front with a freeze frame from Tom Yum Goong plastered right below the main image. Yes Jaa does appear in this film...for about 10 minutes. Yes, only 10 minutes! Plus the voices are terribly dubbed and out of synch (even the Thai track). This is basically a blatant B-grade release to capitalize on Jaa's recent success with Ong Bak and Tom yum Goong. Don't expect the same quality of those 2 films with this one. This movie SUCKS! Save yourself some money and just skip out on this one.
Black Mask 2 (product link) Action/Adventure / Martial Arts Quite possibly Tsui Hark's worst movie. Just imagine Power Rangers but way more silly. Not even Yuen Wo Ping's choreography can save this movie. Please just avoid it.
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