GeneChing
12-06-2013, 03:39 PM
This film made me nostalgic for those old cheesey films with paper mache caves and latex prosthetics. Because that's what this film is...and it was made 2010. :confused:
The plot: Some circus entertainers discover a Japanese chemical in a paper mache cave that turns them into mutant psycho hulks with latex prosthetic heads and muscles. A ne'er-do-well from the circus gets dosed too, but he's not evil like the rest. There's this thing about being the King of Flying Daggers, which means there are a lot of lousy CGI daggers flying around. There's a duel where the daggers are thrown to deflect other thrown daggers. Gotta luv that. The fights are superhero style, leaping over cars on the highway stuff, mostly done by some tricky yet fake looking wire-work.
Collin Chou is again the villain. Shu Qi is the damsel in distress. Jackie Wu Jing is the cool cop investigating Japanese mutants. The lead ne'er-do-well is Chik Mo-chan, who is really irritating. Benny Chan directs so there's a lot of floaty fighting, the kind of choreography that ruined his anticipated Shaolin (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?54940-SHAOLIN-the-2011-film), IMO. Floaty fighting works a little better with superhero fightin', but it lacks impact. I would have enjoyed this more had it been made in the 90s. Given that it was so recent, it was rather disappointing. Benny Chan is starting to really bug me. He has so much resource and then delivers silly movies. He did some odd Jackie Chan flicks - Who Am I? is the standout one but more for Jackie's insane finally stunt which Benny didn't every shoot that well - and I think that messed up his cinematic sensibilities.
The plot: Some circus entertainers discover a Japanese chemical in a paper mache cave that turns them into mutant psycho hulks with latex prosthetic heads and muscles. A ne'er-do-well from the circus gets dosed too, but he's not evil like the rest. There's this thing about being the King of Flying Daggers, which means there are a lot of lousy CGI daggers flying around. There's a duel where the daggers are thrown to deflect other thrown daggers. Gotta luv that. The fights are superhero style, leaping over cars on the highway stuff, mostly done by some tricky yet fake looking wire-work.
Collin Chou is again the villain. Shu Qi is the damsel in distress. Jackie Wu Jing is the cool cop investigating Japanese mutants. The lead ne'er-do-well is Chik Mo-chan, who is really irritating. Benny Chan directs so there's a lot of floaty fighting, the kind of choreography that ruined his anticipated Shaolin (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?54940-SHAOLIN-the-2011-film), IMO. Floaty fighting works a little better with superhero fightin', but it lacks impact. I would have enjoyed this more had it been made in the 90s. Given that it was so recent, it was rather disappointing. Benny Chan is starting to really bug me. He has so much resource and then delivers silly movies. He did some odd Jackie Chan flicks - Who Am I? is the standout one but more for Jackie's insane finally stunt which Benny didn't every shoot that well - and I think that messed up his cinematic sensibilities.