Reviews

I must admit that I quite enjoyed the first film. Not the best martial arts flick in the world, but by no means the worst. However, compared to this, its a damn masterpiece!

1) There are WAAAAAY too many characters. In the first, you had the four heroes (Cage, Sonya, Kang, and Raiden), and about five villains (Kahn, Kano, Sub-zero, Scorpion, and Goro). This meant that at least some amount of time could be spent building on characters. Thus, before we see Sub zero,Goro and scorpion fight, we know who they are , and their reputations. This doesnt happen with a single character in MK:A because it is too busy trying to throw as many characters from the games at you as possible that it often doesnt even have time to mention who they are (e.g. Smoke, Cyrax, Rain, Baraka, Mileena).

2) It's had a $30 million budget, yet seems to have spent on completely the wrong things. I would have much rather they had halved their SFX budget and hired a decent fight choreographer. Put it this way: Iron Monkey cost less than $4 (if I remember correctly) for the entire film, and there isnt a single fight in MK:A that comes close to the worst in that film, which leads on to the next point.

3) The direction is TERRIBLE!! Especially during the fights!!! Watch any decent fight sequence, and generally the cuts are kept to a minimum. It both makes the fight easier to follow, and shows off the skill of the participants more. Its rare in this film that any flow between moves occurs without cuts. During one move, there are actually about five cuts!! No cuts would have looked much better!!

4) Its hard to decide which is worse, the script, or the acting.

5) The SFX heavy final battle is perhaps the lamest thing I have ever seen.

There are people who will defend this film saying that "its just fun!", or "Its not meant to be deep and meaningful or anything". Which works for some films. And those films can be fun. Or not deep and meaningful, but still enjoyable. This isnt. Its bad. It hasnt got one redeeming feature that I can think of. Possibly the worst film. Ever.

First, here in England we always refer to it as football, no-one calls it soccer. Just thought I'd say that as I know that a lot of Americans call it soccer, and to them a football game is a totally different game (and I will almost certainly use football instead of soccer in this review). Anyway, in a nutshell, the plot revolves about Stephen Chows attempts to package Shaolin Kung Fu in a way that a mass audience would take to. With the help of an ex player, now a cripple after an accident that happened after taking a bribe, he attempts to recruit his former Shaolin brothers to help him form a football team.

I watched this film based on recommendations, which mentioned the football matches themselves, but I didnt see one that said just how funny the thing was. I will admit that there are a lot of moments in the film that you will either find horrendously cheesy, or hilarious (for example, the two forwards of the team they face in the semi's - a pair of girls disguised as men). The brothers provide a lot of the comedy, some of which is priceless (I defy anyone not to laugh at part of the training involving some eggs). Of course, each brother brings there own skill to the team (fat guy who can jump incredible heights, guy with iron head, guy with powerful stomach), and of course the star Chow, who has an incredibly powerful shot.

As for the action, the film is good, but really kicks into gear during the final match against the steroid pumped Evil Team (great name, you know that the film isnt taking itself too seriously). This is where the film goes into full on OTT mode including shots at goal that leave scorch marks, balls turning into pumas, and shots that literally tear peoples clothes off. Its a fantastic climax to the film, brilliantly directed and worth seeing the film for this part alone.

I recommend seeing this. The film is already available on DVD, and is region free, so you have no excuse for not getting it (its a Hong Kong DVD though, but all the extras have subtitles, and I doubt that the film will get as good a DVD treatment in the west - there's even a "follow the white rabbit" style feature and a DTS track - which is awesome!).

Very good - 8/10

Firstly, the photography in this film is beautiful. The sound is excellently used. The black and white photography adds to the atmosphere created.....yet I didnt like this film? I'll try to explain;

1) The main character. I absolutely HATED her! Know that she's supposed to be repressed, but she was just soooo empty, almost to the point of being a zombie.

2) The scary scenes are well done BUT they are used to frequently in my opinion. I dont mean that there are to many, but if you look at the start, very little happens. Then, things start happening every five minutes to her. Something happens, it then cuts to a scene in which she acts as if nothing has happened to her, and then something else happens. Repeat for about twenty minutes. The scare scenes are too condensed, in my opinion it reduces their impact after a while. Which is a shame, since when she first swung the mirror round in the bedroom (dont want to give away what happens!), I actually noticably sat up more.

3) Why does she stay in the flat? WHY?

4) The film is very imbalanced. Hardly anything happens in the first half, quite a lot happens in the second.

5) Did I mention that I hated Catherine Deneuve's character?

The film is not without merit. The atmosphere created is nicely eerie, and the scares can be effective. I'd say its worth a watch, purely to form your own opinion. Mine is that the film is very well made, but ultimately empty, similar to its main character.

I actually quite liked this film...except for the aliens. They looked like crap. But it had some nice scenes in it. They just were too ambitious with the special effects. As for the guy on here complaining about the credits n stuff, so what? Its a TV movie, and as such aint gonna get the publicity Blair Witch got, so its only right the people who did it get the credit they deserve. Besides, its a movie. MOVIES HAVE CREDITS!! Sure, in the movie they're gonna say it was real, but I doubt the producers ever tried to convince anyone it was.

Hard Boiled was John Woos swansong from Hong Kong cinema, and its fair to say that he went out with a bang. Indeed, the first twenty minutes alone, a stonkingly good and incredbly orchestrated shoot out set in a tea room contains more action than most Hollywood action films do through there entire running time. Woo sets his stall out early, and then freewheels from one heart-pounding set peice to the next. It is fair to say that the plot is flimsy, but who cares when the action`s this good? However, there is more to recommend this than action alone. Chow Yun Fat is as ever awesome, Tony Leung is more than capable in the support role, and Phillip Kwok is suitable menacing as Mad Dog. There is almost always more to Woos work, and most dissertations of it will blab on about thig such as the underlying themes of loyalty and duty, the complex friendship triangles that ocur, often between people on different sides, and the ultimate resolution of peace through violence. These may be true, but dont detract from the twin pistol, rip snortingly good shootouts. As has been mentioned, the acting is stellar, but Woo is the real star of the , injecting the action with both a staggering energy, but almost poetic grace. Indeed, the gunfights are better than anything previous, or since. Not only does he stage one running gunfight that lasts the best part of 3/4 of an hour, he has the audacity not only to include steadycam shots that last for a couple of minutes, they include complex stunts, and explosive squibs gong of! All in one take!! It would be easy for m=e to rant on about how good this film is forever, but I couldn`t do itjustice. Possibly the best action film ever made. Almost certainly the best film to come fromHong Kong.