Yeah..."Trailer Park" was fun 'n' nasty. Groovy soundtrack too.
"Flashpoint"
Donnie Yen vehicle that has highs and lows.
Lows are the lack of any action scene over a minute long until about 55 minutes (Yen's first real action scene!) in with 30 minutes to go. This seems to be a problem with many newer Hong Kong actioners.
HK used to make action films that had (perhaps melodramatic, but hey) solid and interesting plots but still managed to cram in numerous, memorable (even iconic) smaller set-pieces into the running time at strategic places.
They didn't used to leave almost everything until the last 20 minutes.
This seems to have changed recently, with straight action films seemingly 'below' HK film makers so much so that they feel the need to only make serious drama/thrillers for 60 minutes and only succumb to full on action film making until the finale because they have to.
Woo's "The Killer" had a layered, solid, melodramatic plot-line but contained numerous action scenes, that have gone one to be classic, even before the jaw dropping church finale.
It remained a pure action film throughout the entire running time...As did the likes of "Tiger Cage 2", "In the Line of Duty", "Full Contact", "Iron Angels" etc etc.
This skill at combining lots of action within a still solid plot seems to have been thrown away.
That being said, the action that there is is well done and nicely bruising and the finale features some top class Donnie Yen (looking and moving extremely well for his age) martial arts mayhem that looks bone crunching and thudding and grounded in more reality then normal.
Yen may never reach the heights of "Tiger Cage 2" again...but he's looks damn impressive here. and he has some nice support from all involved.
The finale is let down a bit by a lack of 'canon fodder' characters though and so we have only around 6 bad guys for the big showdown. Again...HK seems to have moved away from the glorious excess that made its very name.
What we have is entertaining, is superbly made and very impressive at times, but it is a shame the action is so sparse and the unashamed, wonderful, excess that made Hong Kong action cinema so unique has been toned down and forced to 'mature' and put a suit on. The fact is, for all the rough edges sometimes as far as budget and equipment went, the glory days of wildly entertaining excess and abandon were better days for the audience.
 |