Stay Puft
02-01-2017, 04:05 PM
KUNG-FU YOGA
Dir. Stanley Tong
http://i.imgur.com/epZmxmR.jpg
IMDb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4217392/)
Stay Puft
02-01-2017, 05:40 PM
At once a throwback to 90's era globetrotting adventures (think Who Am I? and First Strike) and a modern mainland studio film (think Chinese Zodiac), this is nothing if not an absolute mess of filmmaking cooking ingredients, for good and bad. The script is bad, no surprise there, and most of the actors struggle their way through bad English dialogue and painful (albeit sincere) attempts at lighthearted comedy. For a while, I was groaning. But, eventually, I was smiling. Even laughing. The film is so silly and good-natured it eventually started to win me over. I gave in around the time Chan was engaging in a high speed car chase with a CGI lion tagging along for the ride. It didn't really add anything and it didn't really make any sense. But, damn, I was having a lot of fun watching it all unfold.
It helps that I saw it with a crowd of Jackie Chan fans who were all laughing along and enjoying themselves. This is a family friendly crowd pleaser, and a fun (if modest) reminder of what makes Chan such a great entertainer. The dude still has it, even if he's looking really fucking old now. Chinese Zodiac was only four years ago - and Railroad Tigers was only two weeks ago! - but he looks a decade older than all of that here. He's noticeably slower, and most of the action is intercut with the younger cast doing their own thing, with all of the action being cut closer and quicker than usual (though that's also in keeping with the style of modern Chinese films, which often try to dazzle and overwhelm at the expense of craft and logic). But there's still plenty of fun and funny sequences throughout, and Chan's creativity as a choreographer, and the way he melds the physicality of it all with humor so effortlessly, is on full display (the final showdown is a particular highlight, and has one of my favorite moments in any recent Chan film). The film even manages to capture the spirit of the Armour of God films at times better than Chinese Zodiac could (though it does play more as a follow-up to Tong's own The Myth, overall). Perhaps a part of me is just wistful, latching onto the very few remaining adventures that I know Chan has left in him, but this is also a relentlessly positive film, the kind that ends with everybody learning valuable lessons, having the good guys and bad guys join together for a huge Bollywood dance number. (Though of course it's a mainland film so it does squeeze in a couple scenes that exist solely to offer uncritical praise for Chinese national policy, because of course.)
A mild yay. It's fun, though obviously not a classic Jackie Chan adventure by any stretch.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.