For all the people that aren't hitting the jump to read my review, here's the short and skinny : It's retarded, please rent it.
Now for the more complex piece of this here blog.
I really REALLY wanted to like the movie. From the epic scenery and lush CGI effects, to the awesome crossover of Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Intresting note, they both played two seperate characters each, and the opening credits didn't put one above the other, instead it was displayed like so :
Jackie Chan
e
t
L
i
OK so that was corny. First red flag. Anyways.. I'm not much of a review for movies, and I don't do this too often, but I thought it should be known. The amount of money, time, script, and planning on this was wasted. Don't get me wrong, this would be a fantastic movie to take the kids to, but the "Karate Kid time traveler" plot was uncalled for, and the Monkey King character was ridiculously Saturday Morning Cartoonish. Remember, for the kids...
The fight sequences, the good stuff. OR so I thought. Most of the fighting in the beginning is Jackie Chan doin his drunken master thing. Fun stuff, loved every bit. Then we get to the kid and his training montage complete with cheezy backdrop music. The only fight worth seeing was Jackie and Li duking it out, but even then it was one fight, and too short to care. The rest from there on out are all wires and CGI. It was terrible.
For the Kung Fu enthusiast, you'll appreciate alot of the culture and fighting styles used, but you'll curse them for using CGI and wires. It's not even entirely a feel good movie, or a kung fu hussle, so I don't understand why this even had to been made apart from the crossover.
There's not much I can say without ruining the movie with spoilers, so just let it be know if you're going to take your kid to see this : Great. 3 out of 5 stars, and you'll probably enjoy taking him to see this than Kung fu Panda or whatever the hell is out now. If you're trying to see this to see some sort of action flick, I wouldn't waste my breath, or cash.
2 out of 5 Stars. Why stars anyways? Can I use Snails?
|
(# 0) on 04/21/2008 11:40
(# 1) on 04/21/2008 11:44
(# 2) on 04/21/2008 11:47
(# 3) on 04/21/2008 11:54
(# 4) on 04/21/2008 11:57
I was expecting Hero, or Crouching tiger Hidden Dragon. Not Karate Kid meets 3 ninjas surfs up.
(# 5) on 04/21/2008 11:58
Have no fear, though! There's been talks of them working together again, though, likely on their 15-year-old co-created script.
Here's to hoping it's a HK flick, and far away from Hollywood.
http://www.themovieblog.com/2008/03/jackie-chan-and-jet-li-plan-another-movie-together
(# 6) on 04/21/2008 11:58
(# 7) on 04/21/2008 11:59
Ignore that, here's the link!
(# 8) on 04/21/2008 12:01
Also, fuck gears of war. Shit game is shit.
(# 9) on 04/21/2008 12:02
I said if you're going to take your kids to see this, you'll enjoy it. If you're going to see an epic crossover between the greatest martial arts masters currently alive, don't bother and just rent it.
Thanks for the mini review there Cow.
(# 10) on 04/21/2008 12:11
(# 11) on 04/21/2008 12:13
(# 12) on 04/21/2008 12:15
(# 13) on 04/21/2008 12:15
WTF kung-fu movies do you watch? I'll stick with my Shaw Brother's and Golden Harvest films. Fuck off with this "fun" BS.
I want to see people on a mission of death... Either that, or an action filled comedy - and when I say action, I don't mean CGI and wires, and I definitely don't mean kids who shouldn't be allowed to talk, let alone make decisions.
/goes off to watch Tom Yum Goong and Last Hurrah for Chivalry.
(# 14) on 04/21/2008 12:34
I like seeing people being able to walk on a tree for no stupid reason
(# 15) on 04/21/2008 12:42
Crank 2 is in pre-production according to IMDB, btw.
(# 16) on 04/21/2008 12:45
(# 17) on 04/21/2008 12:52
(# 18) on 04/21/2008 13:00
Also for the Kung Fu heads, isn't it awesome that he looks like Old Dirty Bastard did in the original Drunken Master. Like he is now the Drunken Master since he is now old, and dirty, and a bastard?
(# 19) on 04/21/2008 13:21
(# 20) on 04/21/2008 13:31
Tony Jaa is slated to do a sequel to Ong-Back (in conjunction with Panna Rittikrai)! I hope it has at least as much variety as Tom Yum Goong, aka The Protector, though.
(# 21) on 04/21/2008 13:35
(# 22) on 04/21/2008 13:50
(# 23) on 04/21/2008 14:42
You obviously didn't pay attention to the trailers then, because that's exactly what it is and how they advertised it. It seems like most of the stars off of this are due to your dislike of movies targeted at 13 and under, though.
Tony Jaa could probably kill Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Nice mention.
Yes, please, more elbows to the head and high knee attacks... The fact is that none of these people are actual fights but choreographers and stunt men (excluding Jet Li). If we wanted to watch real men who can fight and win, we'd just watch MMA or YouTube videos of people beating the crud out of each other. But, it's rarely entertaining, let alone as entertaining, and typically ends faster than the 5 minute fight scene between Li and Chan.
(# 24) on 04/21/2008 15:36
(# 25) on 04/21/2008 16:39
You know you just made the most win movie evar right there?
thanks for the heads up, tho, Mr. Snail!
(# 26) on 04/21/2008 16:42
(# 27) on 04/21/2008 18:30
(# 28) on 04/22/2008 04:26
(# 29) on 04/22/2008 12:03
(# 30) on 04/24/2008 14:24
(# 31) on 04/24/2008 16:51
Should have grabbed some pictures got this online.
(# 32) on 05/02/2008 00:40