Mr. and Mrs. Incredible

[GeneChing]

神奇侠侣 (Mr & Mrs Incredible) 预告片 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYPipOmgoRY)

Mercury Man (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53022)/Mirageman (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48393) meet Kung Fu Hustle (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28036)? Or is it Real Life Superheroes (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53865)?

Here's another trailer
神奇俠侶 Mr.& Mrs. Incredible 最新電影預告(台灣區) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeTbseb5j-A&NR=1)

[GeneChing]

Just like KFP2 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1075960#post1075960), M&MI has put together a CNY trailer.

《神奇俠侶》最新預告片 2011年 農曆新年 喜戲洋洋 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjNar288zSU)

[GeneChing]

Mr. and Mrs. Incredible: Film Review (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/mr-mrs-incredible-film-review-279318)
12:06 AM PST 1/7/2012 by Maggie Lee

The Bottom Line
Lightweight family entertainment with two spunky leads.

Director-Screenwriter
Vincent Kok

Cast
Sandra Ng, Louis Koo, Wang Po-chieh, Li Qin, Wen Zhang

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" meet "The Incredibles" in a Hong Kong context.

HONG KONG – A fantasy-adventure about a pair of retired superheroes’ attempt to regain their mojo in bed as well as in the martial arts world, Mr and Mrs Incredible is Hong Kong director Vincent Kok's (whose writing credits include CJ7) refashioning of Mr and Mrs Smith and The Incredibles into a Chinese context. Neither as sexy and as high-powered in action as the former, nor as witty and as creative as the latter, it just about sustains it thin, nonsensical plot with two charismatic leads. Where it soars is wondrous, exotic visuals, especially the well-honed CGI.

Winsome but not laugh-out-loud funny, it is a moderately enjoyable diversion for family viewers. Even if it didn’t perform superhuman feats at its main markets of China and Hong Kong, it remains a credible choice for any fantasy or children’s fests beyond Asia.

In the eyes of the townsfolk of a hilly village far from the Imperial Capital, Flint (Louis Koo) and Rouge (Sandra Ng) make an inconspicuous married couple. But five years ago, they were known as Gazer Warrior and Aroma Woman -- superheroes whose paranormal power made them so in demand they decided to retire. The flashbacks to their crime fighting and meet-cute episodes display the childlike, fantastical quality of comic books. Gazer’s defeat of the “Evil Pests” (bank robbers who transform into reptilian monsters) is choreographed with acrobatic verve but is also grotesque in a wacky, cartoonish way.

However, the comic and romantic rhythm gradually goes out of whack for want of any new ideas. With the two leads’ breezy chemistry already well-established, the couple’s urge for a child and to rekindle their passion in the middle section have a universal resonance that could rise above the film’s level of sight gags and verbal showmanship. However, the screenplay cops out with a pedestrian love triangle that recycles a plot twist in Kok’s own Forbidden City Cop lock, stock and barrel.

The anything-goes manner in which Kok switches genres from light comedy to love issues to action is driven home in a martial arts ranking tournament that combines all these elements. The final extended showdown with the arch villain (whose identity even a tyke would have guessed) is a fanfare of lightning and laser beams. It is certainly noisy and zappy but the quality of the CGI is the least refined in the whole film and the action choreography (consisting of actors just lurching at each other) is inferior to the elaborate movements in the earlier scenes.

Supposedly set in ancient China, the prettily-wrought production design and inventively tailored costumes transport one into something more magical, like a Chinese theme park. The lush color textures and mellow light-and-dark contrasts enhance the fairytale impression.

Venue: Hong Kong Filmart Industry Screenings
Sales: We Distribution Limited
Production: We Pictures
Cast: Sandra Ng, Louis Koo, Wang Po-chieh, Li Qin, Wen Zhang
Director-screenwriter: Vincent Kok
Screenwriter: Fung Min-hang
Producer: Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Director of photography: Peter Ngor
Production designer: Cyrus Ho
Music: Raymond Wong
Costume designer: Yee Chung Man
Editor: Chung Wai Chiu
No rating, 105 minutes.


Imagine Mr. and Mrs. Smith, except they are medieval Chinese masked superheroes, trying to be retired from crime fighting and grappling with middle age (I can so relate). It's a comedy. Very colorful and silly, with a lot of special effects. The version I saw was in Cantonese which made it really hard for me to understand. Cantonese comedies rely on a lot of puns and word play that just goes sailing over me. So there were large chunks of dialog with goofy expressions that made no sense at all. I think it was better that way, because if I knew what was going on, I doubt I would have been that amused. There was this bald giant pinhead - seriously, an actor suffering from microcephaly and giantism - who made to completely incongruous appearances, sticking his weirdly-shaped head way too far into shot. I never figured out what that was about, but it was just as well. Stuff like that kept me watching - just barely. There was a lot of poaching from Kung Fu Hustle (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28036), including a toad fu villain that puffs up when he croaked. That was actually one of the high points of the film. In fact, it desperately needed more of that. The female lead, Sandra Ng Kwan Yue, is a more ordinary version of Michelle Yeoh. This is an odd film for sure, but is totally skippable.