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Reviews
Shuang ma lian huan (1979)
Mystery of chessboxing
Ninja Checkmate, or The Mystery of Chessboxing, is a little gem of late 70ties kung-fu. Lee Yi Min plays the young man how is very good at dodging swords and taking beatings on his search for a kung-fu teacher that will enable him to get revenged over the Ghost-Faced Killah, the kung-fu master who killed his father. The Ghost-Faced Killah, played by Mark Long, runs havoc across the land, searching out and challenging a string of kung-fu masters, overwhelming them with his superior five elements style in many amazing fights throughout the film. These fights are creatively choreographed and extremly entertaining, and break up the film in a very nice way, so there is always something fun going on. The problem otherwise is that the first half of the film containing Lee Yi Min is fairly irritating because of his senior students who continously hound him. There are two very good scenes though, one when he meets the cook who will become his first teacher, played by Siu Tien Yuen, father of Yuen Woo Ping, and a scene in which he juggles ricebowls thrown at him from every where. Lee Yi Min gets kicked out of school, but meets up with the kung-fu and chess master played by Jack Long, a kung-fu master in hiding from the Ghost-Faced Killah, who agrees to teach Min the five elements and combines them with the art of chessboxing so Min can help him fight the Ghost-Faced Killah. The big finale, where Ghost-Faced Killah first fights Jack Long, then Lee Yi Min and finally both of them, is long, elaborate and most of all, great fun. Despite some bad editing and strange clips, and the everpresent at times irritating humour of these type of films, this is a very entertaining kung-fu film, and one of the best of that time. Clearly a pearl for everybody interested in the pure elegance of kung-fu!
The Mummy Returns (2001)
plot loses to bigtime action
Even if the stars do a great job, the action is definitely the biggest star in this film, as in the others in the series, and therefore the story has it faults. But if you go for a rollercoaster ride, do you expect subtlety? I hope not, and with that in mind, a lot can be forgiven in this kind of movie, but some things just plain bug me. Like how ** SPOILER WARNING** Anck-su-namun would leave her beloved because she is afraid of a little raining stone! This girl killed a god (or at least a man perceived as one) for Imhotep, and she has already been brought back to life, still she freezes in fear while our brave (and beautiful) Rachel Weizs races to the rescue. **SPOILER END** And most times we are going directly from the one big action scene to the other, without any pause or development of plot. Mostly because of the lack of it. Still, the film could be really good for what it is attempting, cut the brakes and full gas and all that stuff, but then at least they should have gotten the special-effects right so the scorpion king didn`t look like a plastic doll. Back to the rollercoaster example. It is often the slow ride before you plunge, where you hold the breath and wait in excitement that makes the moment, but here you just keep on going downwards from the cool beginning to the more and more excruciating ending.
Enemy at the Gates (2001)
a misplaced focus
This film is a bit of a disappointment. They try to make a realistic war-movie about one of the turningpoints of WWII, and end up focusing completely on two single snipers. The opening scenes of the film are very well done, its all realistic and horrible, showing how terrible war can be, but its not put into context, and from then on, it all just slipslides away into obscurity.
The war more or less disappears, and the conflict is now between Jude Laws and Ed Harris characters. Law does an okay performance, and Harris is stone cold and good, and the scenes when they "hunt" each other are the only real suspense in the film, but all the silly coincidences and escapes they have to make up to make the hunt last through the film gets to stupid.
**SPOILER** and when Harris is killed in the end, its just another stupid moment. This guy, who is so smart that he doesnt go for Pearlmans decoy, after shooting a guy who suddenly rises up in his view, thinks he`s gotten his adversary and crosses this huge open space. Yeah right. **SPOILER END**
It is to much focus on things that doesnt help the story or ads to the suspense. The love story seems like an add on to attract viewers. There is never any question who gets the girl, the question is only why. The question about socialism and equality is entirely left out, even if that is why Weisz is in the war. The fact that this was the coldest winter in years and years is completely left out. Almost all historics are left out. The film is in part interesting when the two snipers chase each other, but the rest of the film can`t really decide if it is a war-movie or love-story, and there just is to many weak points.