|
This Flick Does Not Disappoint! by 0007 TPG
Per Tiger's recommendation I'm starting this thread and hopefully there won't be a thousand
separate ones (wishful thinking probably). If I'm the first reviewer, shame on you, for I had
a 107 degree fever as of yesterday (that Viking player who died of heat exhaustion had a body
temp of 108, and the doc let me go home after like 5 mins, what's up with that? Perhaps Ziyi
cures diseases now?). Anyway on to the movie.
Eager fans, fear no more, for this flick does not disappoint (as if anything with Ziyi in it
can?). At long last in this lousy movie summer we have something that actually entertains. The
plot was tight, never bogged down for even a moment, and contained a satisfactory number of
twists and turns. The action was a little on the lite side, more acrobatics than actual fighting,
but you can't expect a man to go on breaking cement blocks until his 50's. However when Ziyi's
on screen it always tend to kick up a step. All the acting were perfectly acceptable, though you might get the feeling that Chris Tucker
personally spoke 90% of all the dialogue. His character was always skitting on the line of being
comical and being obnoxious; to be fair I'd say it was 50/50. To even the score Jackie gets more
than a few good lines, he also gets the girls.
Ziyi was about as visible as a supporting role can be, and there's something sublime in watching
her beating up Jackie Chan, the proverbial martial arts expert, though the filmmakers also sought
to derive humor from high contrast by overmatching her against Tucker. She has more spoken lines
than you'd expect, but most are in Chinese. I found it somewhat of a detraction that sometimes
what the characters say in Chinese were not subtitled. Despite the fact that there's not too
much depth to her character, it is a role she has fun with, and I'd say all in all it should be
another success that'll increase her Hollywood profile. Roselyn Sanchez is the other femme fatale of the movie, and you'll come to wish that Ziyi would
show as much legs. :-) And yes, Ziyi fights her. As a trivia Ziyi's character's name in the movie
means fox, a rather cliched handle in HK gangster circles, I'd think.
So, go see it, as your duty demands of you. Surely it's money more worthwhile spent than Planet
of the Apes or JP3.
Discussions
Are you a fan of Zhang Ziyi and/or her films and would like to contribute a fan review?
If so, then please feel free to post your review in a new discussion topic in Zhang Ziyi Films.
|
