KCR: Shaolin (2011, Movie, Martial Arts, China)

Image by inspbylife via FlickrShaolin, i.e. "New Shaolin Temple" is a 2011 movie starring Andy Lau as a man who seeks redemption. As a deputy of one of the warlords, he holds absolute power over all in the city... in the land next to the Shaolin Temple. He has the guns, he has the soldiers. When he tried to kill his boss, his subordinate decided to kill them both. He barely escaped, but his daughter died, and after a bit of self exploration, he chose to become a monk and trained as Shaolin. When his subordinate, now "general", decided to steal Chinese treasure and sell them to some foreigners for weapons. Can the Shaolin monks save the population, and defeat the evil warlord?

The movie is heavy on redemption, and the meaning of zen and all that. There are some funny moments, as you know when Jackie Chan's involved. Who knew cooking can be used as kung fu? There's a ton of sacrifice, tons of backstabbing, and so on. Evil is truly evil... but there is redemption. Really.

Shaolin vs. guns? There will be a lot of death, but the Shaolin give more than they get, that's for sure. Still, bring knives and sticks to a gunfight? Hmmm...

Still, it's worth watching. Really.

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.

Related articles

• KCR: Triple Tap (movie, shooting, Hong Kong) (crankyreviews.blogspot.com)
• KCR: Black Mask, starring Jet Li (movie) (crankyreviews.blogspot.com)