Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Movie Review: Silver Hawk

A typically-cheesy Chinese martial-arts/superhero film. Michelle Yeoh stars as the billionairess orphan by day, barely-disguised motorcycle vigilante by, umm, day. All of the requisites surround her - the perky assistant back at the base to guide her around; the friendly cop who has a past with Silver Hawk but can't tell who she is past her, ahem, disguise; the scientist with the amazing invention; and the Dr. Evil clone who kidnaps the scientist for his own nefarious ends. Silver Hawk manages to defeat him through a cunning mix of gadgets, wire-fu and quick edits.

This film is an overlong mess. The action scenes were hard to follow and not very interesting, despite the effort to "Gen-X" them up (fighters on bungee cords, fighters on roller blades, etc.). The big bad guy, Alexander Wolf, is written and acted horribly. The cop doesn't actually seem to do much police work. Everyone in the film overacts (even relative to other Chinese action films, not always known for subtlety).

I kind of though Michelle Yeoh would be past this kind of thing, having elevated to "real" films like Tomorrow Never Dies and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But seeing as how she executive produced this film, I guess this is what she wants. She can have it. One star.

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