01-07-2007, 11:48 PM
A Disney martial arts film. We ran a review of it on KFM:
http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/ar...rticle=669
DM had to get past a Japanese and a Thai/Hmong playing Chinese (at least it wasn't David Carridine), then the fact that he met Shin and thought he was ridiculous (he came to the office with a poseur fake monk, asked to be on the cover repeatedly, and gave DM this hideous fantasy knife that only ED might relish - DM sold it to our senior graphic artist for a penny), and then the other fact that he hates Suite Life (Brenda as an Asian Paris Hilton - eeeewwwww), and the rather overdone message about how we can't lose our Chinese heritage (that really didn't work coming from a lot of non-Chinese actors, along with the fact that this heritage just meant eating moon cakes in this film), but after all that, DM was amused, mostly because T said she would like to start kung fu after watching it.
The choreography wasn't bad, lots of wire work, with a fair progression of the fight plots, stuff that would have been revolutionary in the early eighties, but is now 'been there, done that.' Lots of barrel rolls, flying kicks and leaping about. No real impact to any of the hits, a lot like Power Rangers (Shin was a one). DM felt the fight in the prom dresses had a lot more potential. There was this really weird homage to Shaolin Soccer in the middle of the film. For CF and LCF, Shin does the opening to BSL#5 in a training sequence and Brenda does wubuquan a few minutes later. The five animals, foreshadowed in the beginning, don't pan out at all, tho. All in all, an odd, unambitious film, so squeeky clean that Disney would run it. No blood, of course. It cemented and broke the mold at the same time, just because it was a Disney spin on the genre. It could be sequelled, but isn't set up so necessarily, unless you see the 'alternative ending' so touted on the cover box (it was only a few minutes long and even T thought it to be a rip off).
DM will probably review it for KFM and he'll have to be all nice about it, because we're very involved with Disney and Brenda might even make a guest appearance at our finals this year...
http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/ar...rticle=669
DM had to get past a Japanese and a Thai/Hmong playing Chinese (at least it wasn't David Carridine), then the fact that he met Shin and thought he was ridiculous (he came to the office with a poseur fake monk, asked to be on the cover repeatedly, and gave DM this hideous fantasy knife that only ED might relish - DM sold it to our senior graphic artist for a penny), and then the other fact that he hates Suite Life (Brenda as an Asian Paris Hilton - eeeewwwww), and the rather overdone message about how we can't lose our Chinese heritage (that really didn't work coming from a lot of non-Chinese actors, along with the fact that this heritage just meant eating moon cakes in this film), but after all that, DM was amused, mostly because T said she would like to start kung fu after watching it.
The choreography wasn't bad, lots of wire work, with a fair progression of the fight plots, stuff that would have been revolutionary in the early eighties, but is now 'been there, done that.' Lots of barrel rolls, flying kicks and leaping about. No real impact to any of the hits, a lot like Power Rangers (Shin was a one). DM felt the fight in the prom dresses had a lot more potential. There was this really weird homage to Shaolin Soccer in the middle of the film. For CF and LCF, Shin does the opening to BSL#5 in a training sequence and Brenda does wubuquan a few minutes later. The five animals, foreshadowed in the beginning, don't pan out at all, tho. All in all, an odd, unambitious film, so squeeky clean that Disney would run it. No blood, of course. It cemented and broke the mold at the same time, just because it was a Disney spin on the genre. It could be sequelled, but isn't set up so necessarily, unless you see the 'alternative ending' so touted on the cover box (it was only a few minutes long and even T thought it to be a rip off).
DM will probably review it for KFM and he'll have to be all nice about it, because we're very involved with Disney and Brenda might even make a guest appearance at our finals this year...
Shadow boxing the apocalypse