Runtime:
95 minutes
Directed
by: RZA
Starring:
RZA, Russell Crowe, Rick Yune, Dave Bautista, Byron Mann
From:
Universal
Here
is what I did late last night instead of watching the latter half of
the election results. I decided to go to the cinema to forget about
all of that for a few hours and to try and have a good time. I had
heard rather mixed things about this film, and even the people who I
suspect would hold the most interest in it had differing opinions. My
knowledge of this sort of movie is rather limited as I haven't seen
too much in the genre; Lord knows that RZA has like a million times
more knowledge of it than I do, so I hope he would deliver something
appropriate. To steal a line from somewhere, it was more like a movie
you would see in a Grindhouse 2 that will never happen rather than a
classic Hong Kong film from the 70's, but...
The
plot isn't exactly complex: there are various clans in China in the
19th century. A bad man known as Silver Lion takes over
his Lion clan and they look to hijack a shipment of gold from the
Emperor. They try to do it in a small village (Jungle Village...
oh-e-oh-e-oh) where RZA is a blacksmith (and yes they actually do
explain how he ended up in China), he has a lover (Jamie Chung) and
there are other personalities that get involved, including a huge
ripped dude with magical powers (Bautista), the head of a brothel
(Lucy Liu) and a British soldier (Crowe).
The
story is a mess and you can tell RZA is not what you'd call an
experienced director at all, this being his first feature film. But,
despite its warts, how the action isn't always filmed the best
(although thankfully it isn't that shaky-cam crap) and overall it
does seem slight and not as awesome as it could have been, I did
manage to enjoy this wacky, strange film where judging by the
performances and the story they had to be going for camp and
silliness. I certainly wasn't bored, which was a complaint I heard on
a site. It was so weird, I had no idea what to expect next so that
kept my interest. It was a colorful world, for sure, and also a
bloody one. You see a #lot# of blood throughout. As others have said,
Crowe is the highlight as the brash opium-smoking Jack Knife. Yes,
that's what he calls himself. Then again there are people known as
Silver Lion and Brass Body, so there you go.
I
do not know if I'd recommend seeing this on the big screen in a
first-run theatre but maybe it's best for a dollar joint or a Redbox
rental. I am glad I did not hate it after some of the bad reviews I
heard. Even the odd mix of songs/score work for it for the most part.
I could have done without hearing a Kanye West song but that is
mostly because I've always thought of him as a loathsome human being.
I am surprised a 20 million dollar wacky kung-fu film got made and
released by Universal in 2012; that was a ballsy move and I don't
know if it'll work out in terms of the box office. I am glad it
happened given that most of what the big studios put out I could not
care less about.
I'll
be back tomorrow night.
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