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After seeing the piss-poor Rush Hour 3, and seeing the rather despondent face of Jackie Chan, I began to wonder whether we will ever see any genuine “innovation” in action movies…

I’m wondering, after the Die Hard 4.0’s and the Rush Hour 3’s of this world, whether action movies are destined to be teenage-friendly, or filled with cartoon violence which doesn’t amount to much.

Of course there is the odd exception to the rule, “The Bourne Identity” triology immediately springs to mind. But apart from that, I can’t think of another action movie that really breaks the boundaries of the “template action movie”.

Naturally when raising such an article, one would often point to the “Kung fu” genre. The “Hong Kong movie industry” (an umbrella term to cover movies coming as far away as Korea, Japan, Philippines and Thailand), is awash with kung fu action movies – most of which have generic plots, or action sequences that don’t push the boundaries.

Part of the problem is piracy, which is endemic of the Chinese mainland and the surrounding countries. Even as Jackie Chan himself has noted, piracy is getting worse; and is affecting movie production, resulting in studios pumping out template action movies surrounding the “John Woo” school of gun-play, which is almost 10 years out of date, or the inclusion of mafia’s, triads and gangsters.

Fortunately this doesn’t mean there aren’t people out there trying to do something different, or be innovative.

One could easily point to Tony Jaa of Thailand. His bone-crunching action really set the world talking in 2003 with “Ong Bak”; but Jaa’s movies any real plot. And the world has yet to see if Jaa can bring anything else to the world other than missing Buddha heads (Ong Bak) and missing Elephants (The Protector)…

Jet Li, who’s new upcoming film “War” should be a hoot; but will it bring anything new to the table? I think War will be a good action movie – and of course the long awaited “Jackie Chan vs Jet Li” movie, “The Forbidden Kingdom” will soon finish production – but I have a feeling this won’t be as good as everyone expects.

So, the only one left is Donnie Yen. His latest movie, “Dao huo xian” (AKA: “Flash Point” or “City Without Mercy”) is really cleaning up at the box offices in the east – and it has already been picked up by International studios. Billed as a “sort-of” sequel to Yen’s massive “SPL”, Flash point is almost all about innovation – especially with the inclusion of MMA (or mixed martial arts) which Yen last used in the movie “SPL”.

I do like Yen’s ability to innovate, and I think MMA could be one of the missing ingredients; that said – any movie, be it action or otherwise, needs a good story, good characterisations and that quintessential “X-factor”.

That said, I think action movies do need to change. If anything “The Bourne Identity”, “SPL”, “Die Hard” and “Flash Point” styles of movies should the reason to believe that change is not only inevitable, its happening.

Links and resources;

• Donnie Yen’s “Flash Point” official website, trailer #1, making of…,
• FlashPoint article on “Kung fu cinema”
• Donnie Yen’s “SPL” on Youtube
• Jet Li’s “War” trailer on Youtube
• Jackie&Jet Project: The Forbidden Kingdom
• Donnie Yen talks about “Flash Point”

“Rush Hour 3, AKA: Chris Tucker: The Movie”

“Rush Hour 3” is by-the-numbers summer action movie, but by the the time you’ve left and revisited the other prequels, you’ll soon realise just how shallow, empty and pointless this movie really is.

Caught up in development hell, script rewrites and complex salary negotiations, “Rush Hour 3” was always going to be a complex affair. The word was that Chris Tucker wanted $20 million and top-billing for his part.

It seems that his bargaining worked, because instead of a fun summer action movie, we got Chris Tucker yelling, screaming and zinging everyone in sight with his huge voice and overpowering everyone with his ego.

Yes, Chris Tucker in this movie was funny. But he was in almost 90% of the movie… and it seemed it was I was watching “Chris Tucker: The Movie”.

The plot of this movie is that the Ambassador of the first Rush Hour is shot by a sniper; leaving clues that ultimately lead to Paris – where Lee and Carter get mixed up with the Triads and Lee’s brother.

The plot of this movie is very similar to that of the first “Rush Hour” movie, indeed the Ambassador, his daughter and the whole secretive Triad Mafia all make an appearance in both Rush Hour and Rush Hour 3, indeed – the plot twist at the end (a plot twist that you can see coming a mile off) is even ripped off from the first movie.

Asides from the ripped-off plot and Tucker’s loud voice, Chan is left to do very little; there is none of the trademark Chan stunts, none of the flashy martial arts — Chan is Tucker’s “Kato”, a sidekick to Tucker’s movie; Asides from a few “freerunning” parts and a few fight sequences, Chan doesn’t do very much at all!

There is also a heck of a lot of CGI in this movie, the para-sailing stunt is so obviously CGI enhanced, and the fight on the structures of the Effiel Tower..

Maybe it was the budget, maybe the film was very rushed (it certainly felt that way), maybe the studio didn’t want high octane stunts and wanted it more “family friendly”… maybe Chan is getting very old and can’t do the same stunts that his fans expect from every movie he does — whatever the reason, the fact that Chan’s role is diminished and reduced is really depressing, annoying and frustrating – given that you’ve paid good movie to see a good action movie.

Sometimes I wonder if audiences will get bored of the family-safe action movies such as Die Hard 4.0 and Rush Hour 3… I hope that audiences will demand real action, and not this kind of template mess, which I feel does not add value to either action, or comedy movies.

Yes, “Rush Hour 3” is funny, there are some really good sequences, but asides from Tucker’s loud, egomaniac character; there is nothing to see in this movie, and I would advise you to watch it when it comes available to rent.

Overall: 3/10

“A fun, enjoyable summer movie…”

I had reservations about a Simpsons movie, mainly because I feared it couldn’t match up to the cartoon TV series, also I had worries that the script wouldn’t be as crisp as the early cartoons.

But I can certainly say I did enjoy this movie. It was funny, enjoyable and was a good summer watch. Although the movie was very short and didn’t have as many gags as I’d like it to have, it was still good to see the Simpsons had a lot of ideas and was still as funny as on the small screen.

I remember seeing a late night TV arts programme with a panel of upper class people sitting around talking and reviewing movies, books, arts, etc; but when it came to the Simpsons, they spend something like 10 minutes trying to psycho-analyse The Simpsons… I mean, com’on – it’s a cartoon, not Shakespeare!

All in all, its a fun movie – but go in, switch your brain off, and have a good time.

Overall: 7/10.

“An enjoyable summer blockbuster action movie”

When I was first heard about Die Hard 4, I was initially sceptical about it. I was worried that its star, Bruce Willis, was only doing it for the money; and that the Die Hard series was going to fall victim to the ‘cookie-cutter’ action vehicle that the original Die Hard movie helped create.

I was also concerned that the toning of violence from an UK certificate 18 to a UK certificate 15 was really going to harm the movie.

Fortunately, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this movie, as it is a thoroughly enjoyable summer blockbuster action movie.

The movie has Bruce Willis reprising his role of Detective John McClane who must escort and protect a computer hacker whilst the “entire connected society” is systematically targeted by a group of computer hackers, leaving the country electronically crippled.

In the meanwhile Willis must dodge countless bullets, bombs, explosions, flying cars and so forth. The action is fast, furious and sometimes quite intelligent.

Whilst this movie is a great popcorn action movie, I felt that the CGI action was too over the top to be believable, almost turning McClane into Spiderman or something.

I liked the numerous references and homage’s to the old Die Hard movies, such as the techno-wizard kid, the musical interludes, the “wrong man in the wrong place” line, and so on – but I felt that even with all these references, the movie – well, was just a template that could have easily been filled by another actor and we, the audience, probably wouldn’t have noticed.

Bruce Willis had gone on record saying that this Die Hard is just as smart as the first one, and just as enjoyable; whilst I agree that the movie is very enjoyable, and much better than Die Hard 3 and Die Hard 2 – I just don’t agree with the “smartness”, rather I feel this Die Hard has fallen into the “bear trap” of being yet another CGI action movie – almost to the point where you could probably take out Bruce Willis, replace it with another actor and you probably won’t see any real difference.

I felt the plot was good, as it brought up the issue of the inter-connected, always online society – although the methods were questionable and, at times, implausible; however, the main villain also seemed equally light, the lightest villain in the entire Die Hard action saga.

1989’s Die Hard is regarded by some to be the daddy of modern action movies. The movie spawned many clones, even Die Hard sequels fell to Die Hard’s template of action; but the question is – does Die Hard 4 set a new template for action? My answer to that is no.

The reason is; the movie is just a cookie-cutter action movie that has an equally replaceable actor.

Would this movie have been better if it were an 18? If it had more cursing? If it had real stunts instead of CGI trickery? Maybe, if the villain had a bit more gravitas? I don’t know, somehow, I feel that post-Die Hard, any movie that held the title “Die Hard” would be shelved in the “clones of Die Hard” and left to gather dust.

I think overall, this is a great summer action movie blockbuster, filled with explosions, over the top stunts and a good rounded plot, but apart from the title – this is Die Hard in name only.

Overall: 7/10