A teenage boy who’s obsessed with Kung Fu movies spots this kick ass staff through a door in the shop where he gets his DVDs, and the old Chinese guy who owns it says something about a legend. He’s waiting for a man to come for the staff and take it to its rightful owner, as did his grandfather before him. So the kids on his way home where he gets picked on by some Guido bullies. They then bully him to take him to the old mans store so they can rob it that night.
And then the shoot the guy. He gives the kid the staff and he runs off, to be stopped on the roof. The staff then chucks him off the roof and into ancient China. It’s the staff of the monkey king who’s been….oh blah blah blah.
Frankly the plots kinda arse. In fact the whole film is a rather long hour and 40 minutes, which really isn’t that long. It sort of The Karate Kid meets Turtles 3, but not really as good as either of them. And the Monkey thing has always kind of irked me for some reason.
Don’t get me wrong, I LIKE old kung fu movies. Not Bruce Lee, he’s too damned untouchable for my liking. Jackie Chan. He gets beat the crap out of before coming back at the end. Like an Asian Bruce Willis. And there are reasons to watch this movie, or at least skip through it.
Jackie is a drunken master in this one. If you’ve seen the Drunken Master movies you know why that’s pretty kick ass. Also, it’s the first time that he and Jet Li have been in a movie together. That’s the Kung Fu equivalent of Sly and Arnie teaming up for a flick. And as any Marvel comics fan knows, when two heroes bump in to each other they have to fight before realising they’re on the same side. The fight is a good ten minutes long, looong takes cause its two guys who know what they’re doing. It’s great. Just skip to it, then skip to the end and you’ve seen a good 30 minute movie without some shaky dialogue and wonkaloid plot.
The action is choreographed by Woo-ping Yuen. If you’ve heard of any fight choreographer it’s that dude. If you don’t know the name, you’ve seen The Matrix. Or Kill Bill. Or Kung Fu Hustle. The guy does great action, though sometimes a bit heavy on the wires.
So those are the reasons to see this. Unfortunately it felt to me like the makers also skipped to the end a bit as Daniel San, can’t remember the characters name…JASON! Literally finished watching it 10 minutes ago. Anyway, he goes from having a few minor skills to being all Neo and kicking some major ass once it won’t ruin the plot. That’s a big flaw in my book as the great thing about those old films was the training. That wax on, wax off stuff is ground in a lot of old movies for good reason. Montage away, but don’t just skip it guys. Bit crap, some great action. Nuff said.
Next Up: The Proposal
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