Reviews

A very interesting blend between the styles and strengths of Corey Yuen and Luc Besson. This movie combines more different types of action than you would expect. A Bond movie will have the great chase scenes, a John Woo film will have great gun work, and a Jackie Chan film will have great fight choreography and physical action. This movie does it all very well. You'd expect the great fighting from Corey Yuen, and you'd expect the stylistic action from Luc Besson, but it really comes together well, an excellent bridge between Hong Kong and Hollywood, emerging from Europe. Thoroughly enjoyable, although the ending seems somewhat flat. Some of the action work was astounding, all of it was good. If you are an action afficionado, see it big screen. I hope the DVD will have plenty of extras to show how the action scenes were done.

-Rick

I watched this on the premier night with some hope, the previews looked excellent. It's too bad the "movie" didn't live up to it. After it was over, I was disappointed with the overall effort. Billy Zane gave a decent performance, but the plot was too big, and some of the exposition was too trite to save the movie. The dialogue itself wasn't bad when it avoided explaining the plot, it was usually lively and modern with some "I know how this sounds, stick with me" flavor. Perfect for the places imbetween the explanations of the plot. Unfortunately, the plot was *so* drippy, existential, and convoluted, there wasn't a lot of time for entertaining dialogue because most of the dialogue (usually Billy Zane monologue) was devoted to trying to make sure people understood the plot. The plot needed a workover to make it more approachable by the typical viewer. The action itself was fine, except it always seemed one step short of being right. It seemed like the action was either being used to explain the plot, or it was just not quite enough to stand on it's own. The majority of the fight scenes were short (or the shots were short) and lacked detail. There were so many cuts and obvious stunt double replacements that it made it hard to suspend disbelief. Which is too bad because I know at least Byron Mann has martial arts experience, you would figure the other actors could have been of similar material, it's not like they were pulling a lot of big names for the "secondary" roles. I don't know, maybe it was too ambitious for a TV movie, it seems like they just needed more time to get the fight scenes right. The problem with the plot reminded me of the fatal flaw of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and the fight scenes reminded me of badly done Matrix, like a superficial Hollywood attempt of the Hong Kong style, most of the look with none of the feel.

This movie is quite simply....awful. There is almost nothing redeeming in it whatsoever. While some people claim it falls in the "so bad, it's good" category, I disagree. For that to happen, I believe a movie must contain a certain amount of "cheesiness". Parts where you laugh out loud because it was so obviously bad that you know the director has striven for that type of bad shot. However, when a movie is total cheese from beginning to end, it's not "so bad, it's good", it then becomes "so bad....period.". Maybe, just maybe, it is a good drunken movie experience, but for me, it wasn't even a good action vehicle for Jackie Chan. As a spoof, it might have been funny, but my cultural reference is so different I missed any humor aspects of it. This movie was chaos exemplified, and had no redeeming qualities. Don't bother asking about characters, plots, settings, direction, or cinematography. Even the action scenes are dull and relatively boring. Except for the fact that I might be missing the point of this film completely due to cultural differences, I believe I can safely say this is the worst movie I've ever seen.

The action is fairly standard, not super, not bad, definitely watchable. The broad plot is a standard one, involving finding stolen goods. However the details of the plot wander around the movie, mostly as vehicles for showing some action scene. They have the required comedic characters, as well as the Shaolin monk whose kung fu is so good that he can beat people with one hand tied behind his back. Overall it is a decent flick, although it doesn't have the attention grabbing action that usually makes these movies so memorable. The shots are fairly long, so at least you know that the action scenes are "real". The fighting style is not quite the "punch-pause" style, but it definitely isn't Jackie Chan speed.

Still, a fun and watchable "Samurai Sunday" style movie.

This movie is a low budget chop-sockey flick. The fight choreography is done in the "punch-pause" style. This style is where the fighting is done in a very stilted manner, i.e. punch/block - pause - kick/block - pause. So, instead of the Jackie Chan 123456 type of fighting, it is much more 1-2-3-4-5-6.

While the fighting scenes tend to be this older, less fluid style, some of the non-fighting action is tremendous. Some of the athleticism shown by the actors is as good as any other movie you might see. The wire work is very low key, which is a nice change from the normal genre of that period.

Overall it had decent action. Unfortunately it had the typically crappy plot, storyline and characterization that we expect from this type of film. At least the dubbed version bounced around enough that it made the storyline and the characters a little difficult to follow. Maybe the original audio makes more sense.

Tired of actors who look off-balance and rigid while doing elementary fight scenes? Mark Dacascos brings a fluidity and balance to both the fight scenes and his normal motions that lend his character credence. I find it hilarious watching TV or movies where the lack of natural balance of the actor makes it difficult to suspend disbelief when he engages in activities that require controlled body motion. When the stunt double is obvious, not through build, or looks, but rather because he or she demonstrates a gracefulness that the actor doesn't possess. The show itself is fine, not something I religiously tune in to, but entertaining enough. What makes it most enjoyable is the fact that Mark Dacascos sells being The Crow through his body language and attitude.

This is one of the better Dolph Lundgren movies, whom I believe to be one of the most overlooked action stars. The movie bumps along, but in the end the story hangs together. Dolph is the king of B action movies, it's disappointing he never got to get a chance to star in a major big budget film.

This show is one of the few that I attempt to regularly tune into each week. I'm not a die hard fan analyzing every sentence/glance/breath of every character, but I certainly enjoy the show. A person who says this show has poor acting or poor character/plot development is most likely disappointed by every TV series and not being fair to the genre. This show says more with a moment of silence than most shows say in an hour of dialog. It is impossible for a show that has run as long as this one to dot every "i" and cross every "t", of course there will be holes. But by and large the show remains true to itself and at the top of it's genre. The acting and action are appropriate, the plot works well enough to be create a suspension of disbelief and the character development is the best I've witnessed from any long term series.

Thank you for creating a thoroughly entertaining show, I will miss it greatly after this season.