Description: Action director Ching Siu-Tung helms this fantasy film based on an old Chinese legend about an herbalist who falls in love with a thousand-year-old White Snake disguised as a woman. Jet Li stars as a sorcerer who discovers her true identity and battles to save the man's soul. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Siu-Tung Ching
Starring: Jet Li, Shengyi Huang, Raymond Lam and others
It definitely seemed a good move by Stallone to pass the torch on to
Simon West and let him sit on the director's chair this time. Seemed
that with the first "The Expendables" movie Stallone had a hard time
balancing things out. The result was a pretty disappointing movie, in
which not even the action come across as anything all that great or
exciting. This definitely improved with this movie and while it's being
far from a great one, it's being a pretty decent and entertaining genre
flick!
Please don't ask me what this movie was all about, since I simply
absolutely had no idea. But in all fairness, this often had been the
case with big overblown action movies and it really doesn't make them
any less spectacular or entertaining to watch. It's simply being a
movie to have a good and fun time with and not to take too seriously.
And luckily the film-makers and actors took things not that serious
either. It's the main reason why this movie works out much better and
is simply being more fun than its predecessor. The movie and its jokes
are more self aware this time around and they didn't just attempted to
create a big action flick but also one that delivers on a more
entertaining level.
So there is more fun, the action is better but those are not the only
things this sequel improved on. Thing I also really liked about this
movie was that it focused more on the team aspect. Everybody gets their
moment to shine in this and basically every cast member gets to show
off their action skills. Yes, even Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce
Willis get to do some serious action related stuff this time around.
And it really is awesome seeing them fight literally alongside, along
with Sylvester Stallone as well. It helps to make the final 30 minutes
basically a fan boys dream and it also are the movie its final 30
minutes that are being the movie its best minutes, which sort of makes
you wonder why the rest of the movie, as well as its predecessor,
weren't being more like this as well.
And the movie brings in even more big action movie stars from the past
this time. Jean-Claude Van Damme is being a pretty good villain, though
he shows up in the movie pretty late and also gets to do far too
little. Oh well, at least he was being good and enjoyable when he did
appear on screen and is still in pretty good form as well, even though
he is well in his 50's already. And I admit, it was also awesome to see
Chuck Norris in this. Yes, his character is quite pointless and just an
excuse to have Norris pop up in this movie but he perhaps was being the
most fun character out of the entire movie and I actually do hope they
bring him back and make him a part of the team for the next sequel.
It's sort of funny how I know basically everything about this guy and
his movies but this probably was being the first movie, in which he
stars, that I had ever seen. Perhaps it should be time to pick up some
of his earlier movies and have a blast with them as well.
Of course there are plenty of flaws in this movie, mostly story related
but I'm simply happy about it that this movie at least learned from
some of the mistakes it made with the previous movie and this one is
simply being a good and enjoyable genre movie to watch. Still not as
great and awesome as it by all rights should be but they are more on
the right track with this one and lets all hope "The Expendables 3" is
going to be the ultimate Expendables movie, that everybody is hoping
and longing for, ever since the first movie got announced.
Seems that this movie was a case of being one that everybody wanted to
like and love and therefore it's hard to admit for most people that
this just isn't being a very good movie. By all rights it should had
been a big, fun action flick, that could had worked as a throwback to
the '80's, with lots of the big action movie stars from that era in it
as well but it just doesn't works out as such.
So many problems with this movie, I don't know where to being. Guess
it's best to start of with the most obvious thing; the story. No, this
movie does not have a very good story in it. So what, you might say or
think. After all, this is a action-flick, who needs story? Well, you
always need at least something to base your action scenes around and
you at least have to be taken by its characters or its main plot. There
has to be a reason to root for the main characters and cheer when the
main bad guy gets killed and the hero(es) saves the day! There is just
however none of that present in this movie unfortunately.
There besides isn't really being a pleasant flow to the movie and its
story. It seemed as if some action scenes were simply thrown in and
don't serve a purpose at all. It actually in a weird way slows the
movie down and makes it somewhat of a boring one at times. I personally
couldn't wait for this movie to end, even though its only being 103
minutes short.
Perhaps it also was due to it that I just wasn't very impressed with
the movie its action. It was shockingly poorly directed at times! I say
shockingly, since the movie actually got directed by Sylvester
Stallone, who had no problems with doing action scenes before. After
all, this is the guy who also directed "Rambo", just 2 years prior to
this movie, which was an action movie that I absolutely loved and was
being everything that this movie should had been as well but just
wasn't.
So is it at least fun to watch all of the big action movie stars from
the past and present in this? Not really. It's at least not being
somewhat to get terribly excited about, even though it on paper looks
awesome. Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren,
Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke,
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis all in one movie, how could it
not work out as anything awesome? Well, mostly because most of them get
absolutely nothing to do in this movie. It tries to present itself as a
team movie but in fact the movie isn't at all about them working
together. All of the egos in this movie are far too big for that and
besides, the movie is mostly focusing purely on Stallone and Stratham,
who by far have the most screen time in this and are the only ones
doing some true action related stuff and have some character
development.
Reason why I also wasn't being very entertained by this movie was
because it just wasn't being a very fun one to watch. The supposedly
comical dialog for the movie was awful and the movie was also lacking a
good visual style to it. The movie is an incredibly dark one and I
couldn't even always tell what was going on exactly. It might sound
strange but a little bit more bright colors could had added so much to
the movie its fun and entertainment factor. Perhaps they were more
focused on trying to pass this as a legit action flick, while in fact
it seemed to be a more suitable thing for this movie to not take itself
as serious as it did.
A thing that worked also distracting for me was its Brian Tyler musical
score. It was some incredibly formulaic stuff, that sounded like it got
composed before the movie even finished shooting. It just didn't suited
the movie and its action sequences in particular all that well.
It really isn't a good throwback to the '80's and also far too lacking
as a genre movie in general. Lets hope the sequel does everything
right, this one did wrong! If that's the case, then its going to be
something absolutely awesome!
Mr. Church reunites the Expendables for what should be an easy paycheck, but when one of their men is murdered on the job, their quest for revenge puts them deep in enemy territory and up against an unexpected threat. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Simon West
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Liam Hemsworth, Randy Couture and others
(Review originally written at 9 September 2008) After "The Matrix" there were a lot of movies who suddenly ignored the fact that there is actually a thing such as gravity. "Romeo Must Die" was one of the first mainstream movies to feature this, after "The Matrix". To me it gives the movie more of a fake look rather than a spectacular one though. It's definitely a movie made for the MTV-generation. It's a noisy, fast movie with different songs like every 1 minute, that often don't even blend in with what's happening on the screen. It's like they had a quota of a certain amount of songs they had to put in the movie. Most of the songs are already sounding outdated by now, so just imaging how this movie would be like to watch in 10 years from now. Seems to me that all this Aaliyah gushing comes from the fact that she died in a plane crash one year after this movie. But lets be fair and objective for one moment, she just wasn't a very great actress. It's of course always a horrible thing when a person dies so young and under such horrible circumstances but it ain't exactly like James Dean has died here or anything like that. This movie was her acting debut and it was the only movie that got released during her lifetime. Let's not even get started on Jet Li...I already knew he just isn't a great actor and the only thing that gets him movie roles are of course his fighting skills, which certainly aren't lacking as much as his acting abilities. I'm getting kind of fed up with this great black actors appearing in these sort of productions, just because it's a 'black' production and they are helping their brothers out. I mean come on Delroy Lindo can get and certainly also deserves better roles in better movies than this. He's potentially an Oscar winner but he obviously won't ever win one if he decided to go on and play roles in movies such as this one. Same thing to a lesser extend somewhat also goes for Isaiah Washington. None of the characters really work out because of the messy storytelling, in which a main plot only gets vaguely visible not until halve way through. Lots of characters seem to be redundant and the movie seems to have a hard time keeping its main focus on one thing and one main character. But oh well when you have an actor such as Jet Li playing the main role, you of course also can't really trust on it to let him carry the entire movie on his own. But also just the story on its own is hardly anything interesting and seems to be very typical for an action movie such as this one. Perhaps its also due to the fact that Andrzej Bartkowiak was still an inexperienced director that the movie did not worked out so well, especially story-wise. This was actually the first movie he did as a director. Bartkowiak mostly got his fame for working as a director of photography on mostly well known action movies such as "Speed", "Lethal Weapon 4" and other fine movies such as "The Devil's Advocate", "Terms of Endearment" and "Species". Seems like the Polish born Bartkowiak has completely retired from camera-work now to completely focus on his directing career. With movies such as "Exit Wounds", "Cradle 2 the Grave", "Doom" and this one behind his name he hasn't had much success with it yet though. I was also expecting some more action from this movie, also not in the least since it had Jet Li in the main role. But because the movie has a hard time keeping its focus and let things evolve around the Jet Li character, he actually gets far too little to do action wise. I was just expecting some more good fight sequences from the movie, although the movie of course obviously still features action moments like this. The movie was just not like I was expecting it to be and it also had actually very little romance in it. I was sort of expecting more of a modern Romeo and Juliet type of story (like the movie its title also would suggest) but instead the movie is more about some rivaling gangs and the NFL...do I need to say more? Bad story flow, bad character handling, disappointing action and below par acting performances from most of the cast. Just an overall bad movie! 4/10 Watch trailer
(Review originally written at 20 August 2008) It's as easy as 1 + 1 = 2. This movie features a ridiculous concept and therefor the movie as a whole is a ridiculous one to watch. The title "Danny the Dog" should already say enough. Beats me why these fine actors ever agreed to appear in this movie. No, I seriously didn't hated watching this movie but I can't really understand either why so many people love this movie. Yes, well it is a different and original movie but its concept just doesn't ever make me take this movie seriously. The movie tries to blend material arts action with serious drama. It could had worked out and it does work out in several other, mainly Asian, movies but I didn't found the story of this movie to be gripping and believable and therefor it just didn't worked out for me. Two persons are taking Danny in their home and they don't seem to find it strange at all that he doesn't speak much and doesn't know and understand much of our world. Instead of finding out what happened to him and or where he comes from and don't notify the right authorities, like any other normal person in such a situation would do, they feed him and care him and take the time to learn him things about everything in the world and emotions and feelings. They adopt him like a son and brother, even though they know nothing about him. The movie begins fine and stylish but as soon as the drama and serious plot line of the movie kicks in the movie becomes quite dreadful to watch. After an hour it starts to take up pace again and the movie begins to get better to watch again when the action starts to kick in again. Louis Leterrier is obviously a capable action director as he also showed "The Incredible Hulk". This movie was his directorial debut, after working as assistant director in several big productions before. I must say that he could had done a lot worse directing wise. It's not the movie its style or directing fault that the movie isn't really a great or effective one. It the typical new French action and enjoyable style of directing, which also can be seen in for instance movies from Luc Besson, who also produced and wrote this movie and no doubt helped out fellow Frenchman Louis Leterrier, with who he had worked before on several occasions. You could say that its the action that still makes this movie good and interesting. Everything else is just blah. Of course it are also the actors that still makes this a watchable movie. Not that Jet Li is a wonderful actor but Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman are of course always excellent in any movie. Jet Li is mostly there to provide the movie with its spectacular action and he shows why he should never been given too much lines. A mixed bag but the movie remains mostly watchable thanks to its action sequences from Jet Li and directing style from Louis Leterrier. 6/10 Watch trailer
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