Moving on to another entry for the month that shall be called Kickass-uary (TM), it’s another action movie, this time with Jet Li as one of the leads! With the fists and feet flying, it’s time to Dissect this big action……spoof?
Wait, what?
The Story
When a series of eerie murders erupt across Hong Kong, two trouble making cops are assigned to the case. Young maverick WANG is a reckless risk-taker, and grizzled vet HUANG is fed up with cleaning up his rookie’s messes. After discovering all the victims were former boyfriends of aspiring starlet LIU, the detectives (one now posing as her lover) are caught in a deadly game to lure the killer out.
The Cast
–Jet Li as Huang Fei Hong, A veteran inspector on the force. News on whether or not he may or may not be too old for this remains in the fact finding stage.
–Wen Zhang as Wang Bu Er. A rookie detective partnered with a veteran in
–Michelle Chen as Angela, Huang and Wang’s boss, who is surprisingly not bald or black.
–Liu Shishi as Liu Jin Shui, a female star with an impressive body count of dead exes.
The Dissection
First off, don’t let the name, the cover, and the fact Jet Li is in this film trick you into thinking this is gonna be some badass martial arts film, or even an action comedy in the vein of stuff like RUSH HOUR or SHANGHAI NOON. It’s a spoof or parody film, which the action being very comedic in their fights. There still is some serious moments, but it’s not natural in the film, and the scenes stick out, instead of weaved in naturally.
Huang Fei Hong (Jet Li)
The aspect of the movie that it focuses on, the comedy, is very much hit or miss. It’s mostly to do with the movie not exactly sure how it wants to display it’s comedy. One minute, it’s just poking fun at the nature of buddy cop movies, next it’s doing movie parodies, plus some POLICE SQUAD! style jokes with popular Chinese celebs dying in a cameo. And another issue is a good number of the jokes, well, just don’t come off well. Not a gap in translation, but they just aren’t funny. When it comes with the story, it’s kind of just….there. It’s kind of a basic story that just blends into the other aspects of the film, to the point where there’s a point in the film you honestly forget it.
To move on, the fight scenes are very ridiculous, Anime style fighting in the air, and over the top wire work. The fights are pretty good, though a few points are lost since Jet Li doesn’t do a good number of his own fights. Even out of the fights, Li doesn’t really seem into it. Now, Li has never been the most intense personality, but even here, he’s just going by the numbers. The rest of the cast is not bad, but they are hampered by the material.
As extras go, there’s a making of documentary that goes into a lot of details of the film, as well as a separate behind the scenes video. Also, the DVD has the trailer for the film, plus trailers for other movies by the company, WellGo USA, on start up.
"So, just killing time until Forbidden Kingdom 2, huh?"
The Verdict
When it comes to movies of this type, it’s an overall miss. There are interesting bits and pieces, but it gets overshadowed by the poor aspects of the film in general. There are better movies out there that would blow this out of the water. The filmography of Stephen Chow for one. Just skip it.