KCR: Future X-Cops (scifi / Hong Kong / movie)

Image via WikipediaFuture X-Cops is one of those shameless Hong Kong "homage" movies that manage to demonstrate how bigger budget doesn't add to creativity.

Premise: after his wife was killed protecting a VIP against half-machine assassins, this cop must don a mechanical body and go back in time to prevent the assassination of the VIP, who is critical to Earth's future. However, two of the assassins are there, and they have a showdown.

The society depicted was futuristic looking... though it's hardly utopia. Regular cops have no firepower against these half-machine assassins who are obviously inspired by various comic book villains, such as Dr. Octopus (from Spiderman), and others. I mean, bat wings, prehensile tail, lobster claw... heh.

The fights are obviously CGI ish and way too choreographed. How they managed to convince Andy Lau to do the lead role, I have no idea. The plot is pieced together from various major movies, like Time Cop, Black Mask 2, even a few bits from Asimov's stories (about the girl who didn't know she's a robot). Add bits from Jurassic park (hide and seek in the kitchen), Matrix (sky duel between the hero and villain), and a few bits from Superman (bad guy keep using innocent civilians to distract the hero), and you get a feeling that this is a chop suey of a movie.

And yes, Big S (i.e. Barbie Hsu) is the leading lady. Hmmm... Okay...

May be worth watching once.

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KCR: Tom Yum Koong / The Protector (movie)

Image via WikipediaThe protector is an action movie where Thai action star Tony Jaa shows off his Muy Thai skills against wide variety of opponents by taking on a subject dear to any Thai: elephants.

Premise: Tony Jaa was asked to recover the two sacred elephants of the village by his dying father, killed by the thieves. Tony Jaa tracked the elephants to Australia, where he met up with a Thai-descent policemen, and a beautiful Thai girl who may be part of the organization he is tracking. He digs deeper, he finds that the local Triad boss (Jing Xing) is invovled, and the front is... a restaurant.

This movie combines "fish out of water" premise, plus plenty of action as Tony Jaa knees and elbows his way through Sydney Australia against all bad guys, leaving most of them writhing on the ground in pain. The additional fighting against kapoera fighter, a swordsman, and a very big guy, is great. Later there's even MORE fighting. The non-stop action scene where Tony Jaa fights his way up 4 levels, lasting 5 minutes and dispatching 50+ goons, is probably one of the most interesting action scenes ever (without special effects).

Worth watching at least once.

KCR: 6th Day (movie)

Cover of The 6th Day6th Day, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of those movies that takes a high concept and takes it to the ridiculous extreme, but it sure sounds interesting. It's basically "The One" starring Jet Li, but in reverse, with more plausible sci-fi explanations.

Premise: in the near future, a secret cabal is "curing" almost lethal and disabling injuries and other problems by basically replacing the original with clones infused with memories from the original. A football star broken neck and life-threatening injuries? No problem... Zap his eyes to retrieve his memories, then kill the original, then activate a clone, reload the memories, and voila, he's "cured". Unfortunately for the cabal, this time, they cloned the wrong guy... And this guy will do all he can to protect his family... well... okay, THEIR family...

This movie has all the cliche plots thrown in, with lots of stupid one-liners. There's also more than a hint from Arnold's previous movie "Total Recall" which has a similar high concept: what if his entire life was a figment of someone else's imagination? Or as a critic puts it, both movie has that "Who am I really?" type of soul-searching.

It's also a bit funny about how those three assassins are really energizer bunnies... they keep going, and even when 'killed', comes back for some more. They are heck funny, even more than Arnold.

Not one of Arnold's best works (for that, I still say Commando or Predator) but watchable... once. Not quite enough to own.

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KCR: Doom the movie

Cover via AmazonLet's put it this way: you know this movie won't be a masterpiece when you go in. It is based on a GAME about shooting nasty things that came out many many years ago. And it's NOT directed by Uwe Boll. So it is not that bad... as long as you don't have too high of expectation for it.

Setup: some sort of nasty things have invaded the Mars research facility. The "marines" have been called in. In the dark research facility marines encounter mad humans, creatures from nightmares, and illegal experiments that should have never been done... something of pure evil... When even the marines started to die, there may only be one way out... through hell...

The Doom movie can be viewed as sort of a pastiche / sendup of action movies, and for that it ain't bad. The action is quite good, though the marines rarely hit something. There's also a lot of favorite weapons in Doom that didn't make it into the movie, like pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher, and so on. However, the "first person" sequence near the end is pretty cool. There's also some sci-fi mumbo jumbo about extra set of chromosomes, experiments on death row inmate, and so on.

It is worth watching once, if you like the game. Else, forget it.

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KCR: Black Mask, starring Jet Li (movie)

Black Mask is a Hong Kong action movie starring Jet Li dated 1996. Production values are lousy by today's standards, and plot is cliche. However, you watch this movie to see Jet Li fight, and it's good stuff.

The setup: A group of supersoldiers, who had brain surgery to sever their pain center, can perform nearly super-human feats. However, they are about to be betrayed by their government, so one guy distract the guards and the rest of the unit slipped out. That one guy is "Michael" (or Tsui Chik, according to IMDB), who settled down in Hong Kong as a simple librarian, trying to leave his past behind. Unfortunately, his old unit, now a crime syndicate, to rival all crime syndicates, is coming to Hong Kong... And they start by slaughtering all crime bosses in spectacular fashion, then bomb the police, all in a plot to steal the Interpol database (all of it). The only one who can stop them is, of course, "Michael", who, in order to conceal his identity, wears a "black mask". Together with detective "Rock" of HKPD, they may yet stop the bad guys...

The sci-fi stuff is minimal, and there are a lot of bull**** elements. They even borrowed the "railgun" from Eraser, except they decided to use something as simple as an Aug Steyr. It's laughable to any one who knows that the after effects are just "drawn" in.

Still, the fighting stuff is pretty good.

If you are interested, there is actually a sequel (not with Jet Li) that's actually not that bad.

KCR: Hanna (2011)

Hanna is an weird movie to rate. The premise is sorta borrowed from Le Femme Nikita, The Fugitive, the Pretender, and so on, yet the approach is fresh enough to be interesting.

Premise: a father had been training his daughter in the wilderness, away from any technology, since her birth, so she can be ready for a certain mission. Later, it was implied that her mission was to kill a certain person who was looking for her. Then she had to go on an adventure (fish out of water, wonder of seeing a world she had only read or heard about), except the bad guys are still around, and there's a big fight at the end, as expected.

The movie is quite well done, and the soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers is excellent. The viewpoint is a little shaky (not quite Blair Witch, but it ain't steadi-cam). The problem is a lot of plot points were simply not covered, like what happened to the family (you'll know if you watched the movie).

Still, it's worth one viewing, at least.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993842/