Short Review: Crappy Tiger, Napping Dragon


Visually, this is an absolute stunner... the rest of the film, well, it is a tad spotty. I've gotten more coherent storylines out of my three-year-old daughter after she has stayed up too late because had too much sugar.

The film will suffer from translation issues for many Western audiences - by that I mean cultural translation, not dialog. This is a Chinese film and its approach is from that worldview. There are many elements that may be out of sorts for Westerners. Even pardoning the cultural divide, this story is still a bomb.

The recognition of a good plot is innate in all people, despite their cultural and geographic background. It doesn’t matter where the story comes from. If the story speaks to the human condition, it will speak to anyone who watches it. This story suffers from a slack central conflict which leads to a soulless final act.


Attention Jet-Li, it's time to go. Yeah, he can kick his legs and hops up and down, big deal. If he were making cheesy martial arts movies like he should be, I wouldn’t care. He’s been given some big movies however and this guy can’t act and has zero personality. He actually makes watching a human being beat the living snot of another human being boring. I’m not a film producer and I’m not an expert in marketing, but I’m certain you want the fight scenes to induce some sense of excitement in your audience.

Bottom line, when I see Jet-Li fighting I always end up wanting to see him beating up his acting coach.

If you have to see this thing, rent the DVD and turn off the sound. There is no other way to enjoy this film.


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Labels: Chinese cinema, Donnie Yen, film, Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, movie review, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Ziyi Zhang

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You Are What You See and learn
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Labels: Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, film, Giselle Itié, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, movie trailer, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Sylvester Stallone, Terry Crews

It obviously has some good design work. The presence of Jet Li brings any interest I have to a dead stop. Expect plenty of fancy anti-physics fighting and a dearth of anything meaningful. I will be the first to admit I'm wrong but there has to be a reason why the ad for the film is all fighting and no character.



Screenwriters: Tin Nam Chun, Junli Guo, Jiping He, Jianxin Huang, Oi Wah Lam, Lan Xu, Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui and James Yuen
Directors: Peter Chan (3 Extremes II) and Wai Man Yip (Anna in Kung-Fu)
Actors: Jet Li (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers), Takeshi Kaneshiro (Red Cliff) and Jinglei Xu (Letter from an Unknown Woman)






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Labels: Andy Lau, film, Jet Li, Jinglei Xu, movie trailer, Takeshi Kaneshiro

Click on the link below and watch the trailer and then come back. No seriously, go on.


Welcome back.

The whole production from inception to execution can be summed up in one element: Abominable Snowmen.

There is a point where film makers seem they’re just putting crap in to see how much an audience can take. Why not throw in some pirates and a giant bunny that spits lava? No, how about a fifty foot Chinese baby with a flaming skull for a head that can shoot nuclear warheads from its fingertips? That’ll be cool! This film actually sparks an interesting conflict. Is it reasonable for an audience member to expect anything from a movie like this? Is it fair to expect the filmmakers to actually give a crap? Content-free films like this are the cultural equivalent of a small kid who spins around in circles until they’re dizzy. There’s no greater goal involved in seeing this film other than achieving a few fleeting moments of being so distracted. And just like getting intentionally dizzy, it ends with the possibility of someone puking.


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Labels: Brendan Fraser, film, Jet Li, Maria Bello, Michelle Yeoh, movie review

Screenwriters: Alfred Gould (Shanghai Noon) and Miles Millar (Shanghai Knights)
Director: Rob Cohen (The Skulls)
Actors: Brendan Fraser (Bedazzled), Jet Li (Unleashed), Michelle Yeoh (Sunshine), Maria Bello (The Cooler), Luke Ford, and John Hannah (The Hurricane)

Labels: Brendan Fraser, film, Jet Li, Maria Bello, Michelle Yeoh, movie trailer