Review of Part One:
KUNG FU KILLER is a TV movie that seeks to win viewers by re-teaming two stars of Tarantino's KILL BILL films, David Carradine and Daryl Hannah. The result is a mostly unsuccessful little feature that lacks excitement or intrigue, happy instead to follow well-worn plot routes instead of carving out new territory.
The biggest flaw with this film is the pacing. The film's frankly boring, a little action here and there not doing anything to change that. The film is book-ended by a couple of half-decent, large scale battles – owing much to the graphic climax of Stallone's RAMBO in terms of editing and choreography – but throughout the middle section, little occurs. David Carradine is playing pretty much the same character as he did in his television series KUNG FU, but he's a lot older here. Watching a guy in his 70s fight is not exactly something I enjoy doing, but Carradine acquits himself well and shows he's still got it. Sure, he's doubled on occasion, but I found his fight scenes more convincing than those in a recent Steven Seagal movie, for instance. The supporting cast don't make much of an impact, and Daryl Hannah, doing her own singing in the role of a, well, singer, is frankly terrible.
KUNG FU KILLER's biggest strength is that it was actually filmed in China, so a lot of the scenery and locations are authentic. Sadly, these do little to distract from the ho-hum storyline. This was originally conceived of as a two-part miniseries, and a sequel, KUNG FU KILLER 2, follows the same characters in a new story. To add insult to injury, the version I saw was the heavily-edited children's version, which omits ALL of the graphic violence and bloodshed. This is another good reason for me not to like it.
Review of Part Two:
KUNG FU KILLER 2 is the second part of a miniseries that was broken down into two separate feature films for television release. The first in the series was a middling period martial arts would-be epic that had plenty of wasted potential; much the same can be said of the sequel. As the story kicked in I realised I was enjoying this a lot more than the first movie. There's a stronger storyline, even if it does follow the basic 'journey' template meted out by countless kung fu flicks of old, but it has incident, character, and extremely attractive surroundings. Added to that, the fight choreography seems slightly better and less choppy, too.
Sadly, things fall apart in a big way at around the halfway mark, so much so that the film grinds to a halt and only lifts slightly for a lacklustre climax. There are heroes, villains, and some characters mid-way between the two, but by this time we can't really care about what's going on as the director has long before lost us. All of the first film's lead actors reprise their roles to middling effect, and of the new cast members, only Anya makes an impression as a layered villainess; she's great in the part.
There isn't much of note here. Carradine hangs around and is surprisingly decent in the acting stakes, but he does little. Daryl Hannah is a complete waste of space, again. There are one or two genuinely decent fights, one or two bizarre interludes (such as the bits where the party fall foul of some killer courtesans and angry lepers), some lesbian undertones, and a muddled, gloomy ending. It's not absolutely awful, and the money's up on screen, but as with the first film, this could have been so much more.
KUNG FU KILLER is a TV movie that seeks to win viewers by re-teaming two stars of Tarantino's KILL BILL films, David Carradine and Daryl Hannah. The result is a mostly unsuccessful little feature that lacks excitement or intrigue, happy instead to follow well-worn plot routes instead of carving out new territory.
The biggest flaw with this film is the pacing. The film's frankly boring, a little action here and there not doing anything to change that. The film is book-ended by a couple of half-decent, large scale battles – owing much to the graphic climax of Stallone's RAMBO in terms of editing and choreography – but throughout the middle section, little occurs. David Carradine is playing pretty much the same character as he did in his television series KUNG FU, but he's a lot older here. Watching a guy in his 70s fight is not exactly something I enjoy doing, but Carradine acquits himself well and shows he's still got it. Sure, he's doubled on occasion, but I found his fight scenes more convincing than those in a recent Steven Seagal movie, for instance. The supporting cast don't make much of an impact, and Daryl Hannah, doing her own singing in the role of a, well, singer, is frankly terrible.
KUNG FU KILLER's biggest strength is that it was actually filmed in China, so a lot of the scenery and locations are authentic. Sadly, these do little to distract from the ho-hum storyline. This was originally conceived of as a two-part miniseries, and a sequel, KUNG FU KILLER 2, follows the same characters in a new story. To add insult to injury, the version I saw was the heavily-edited children's version, which omits ALL of the graphic violence and bloodshed. This is another good reason for me not to like it.
Review of Part Two:
KUNG FU KILLER 2 is the second part of a miniseries that was broken down into two separate feature films for television release. The first in the series was a middling period martial arts would-be epic that had plenty of wasted potential; much the same can be said of the sequel. As the story kicked in I realised I was enjoying this a lot more than the first movie. There's a stronger storyline, even if it does follow the basic 'journey' template meted out by countless kung fu flicks of old, but it has incident, character, and extremely attractive surroundings. Added to that, the fight choreography seems slightly better and less choppy, too.
Sadly, things fall apart in a big way at around the halfway mark, so much so that the film grinds to a halt and only lifts slightly for a lacklustre climax. There are heroes, villains, and some characters mid-way between the two, but by this time we can't really care about what's going on as the director has long before lost us. All of the first film's lead actors reprise their roles to middling effect, and of the new cast members, only Anya makes an impression as a layered villainess; she's great in the part.
There isn't much of note here. Carradine hangs around and is surprisingly decent in the acting stakes, but he does little. Daryl Hannah is a complete waste of space, again. There are one or two genuinely decent fights, one or two bizarre interludes (such as the bits where the party fall foul of some killer courtesans and angry lepers), some lesbian undertones, and a muddled, gloomy ending. It's not absolutely awful, and the money's up on screen, but as with the first film, this could have been so much more.