I had never been a huge fan of Donnie Yen honest. I always deem him as an inferior martial arts actor compared to the likes of Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah and Jet Li whom I had grow up watching and idolizing. I never really liked him, not even in the excellent Wilson Yip directed SPL (a.k.a Sha Po Lang) in which IMHO is great because of Simon Yam, Sammo Hung and the then-HK-movie-industry-rookie Wu Jing in which he plays a cold blooded silent assasin for the triads which will even make Luca Brasi feels like a n00b.
Then came Dragon Tiger Gate, a flick which the trailers feels much more cooler than the movie itself. True, I must admit that the movie's redeeming point is none other but Donnie Yen himself but his GODMODE-ON in nearly all his scenes is a huge turnoff for me.
Fortunately for me, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and decided to catch his latest flick which is currently showing in the cinemas now called Flash Point. Ok to be honest, its not really that benefit-of-the-doubt bullshit that got me buying tickets for this flick. Its the trailer of this movie that got me excited about this movie. Because in the trailer, there is zero dialogue, zero cliched-plot-revealing-flashing-words-on-the-screen and is very straight to the point by telling you this is a martial arts flick because all you ever see in the trailer other than the movies title are kicks, punches, armbars and a beautiful executed german suplex. And being the huge sucker for martial arts movie I did not seem to care about the lessons I learnt from Dragon Tiger Gate and just rush to get the tickets to the movie as soon as I have the free time to watch it once it is released.
Ok so now, on with the movie's review. Ok here's a brief synopsis of the plot. Donnie Yen plays a no-nonsense cop, just cop who is ruthless when it comes to catching criminals (which in other words is a 100% total opposite of Malaysian cops) and is trying hard to catch a band of villainous ruthless Vietnamese brothers. While Louis Khoo plays the undercover cop as the lackey of these villains. Well if you ask me, the plot is nothing but a build up to a huge one on one brawl towards the climax. The movie started at a slow pace for the first 45 minutes to 1 hour with time given for "plot development". After that it is a non-stop martial arts fest which is perhaps the most realistic looking fight choreography that I had ever seen in a movie. Instead of using traditional kicks and punches that is used in most martial arts movies, Flashpoint uses MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) which is much more rawer, intense and realistic.
In most martial arts film when guy A kick guy B to the floor, guy B will bounced back up almost immediately or guy A gives him enough time to do so. But not Flashpoint. A strike that takes down the opponent is usually followed up by more punches, kicks or even submission holds such as the deadly armbar. In other words the fight scenes is done very nicely in a very smooth uninterrupted flow of punches, kicks, throws and locks which I had never seen before in any martial arts flick and all these are directed by Donnie Yen himself.
Well despite its flawless fight scenes I do have a few major complaints about this movie though. Donnie Yen and Louis Khoo just doesn't have on screen chemistry. Both of them don't seem to "connect" with each other at all. Also Fan Bing Bing in the movie serves no purpose other than being a very sweet eyecandy. Not that I mind or anything, but she's being cast into the wrong role IMHO.
Overall Flashpoint is a must watch martial arts movie for all fans of this genre. I give it an 8 out of 10 stars.
P.S: To those who have no idea what MMA is, try searching for it on Youtube.
Then came Dragon Tiger Gate, a flick which the trailers feels much more cooler than the movie itself. True, I must admit that the movie's redeeming point is none other but Donnie Yen himself but his GODMODE-ON in nearly all his scenes is a huge turnoff for me.
Fortunately for me, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and decided to catch his latest flick which is currently showing in the cinemas now called Flash Point. Ok to be honest, its not really that benefit-of-the-doubt bullshit that got me buying tickets for this flick. Its the trailer of this movie that got me excited about this movie. Because in the trailer, there is zero dialogue, zero cliched-plot-revealing-flashing-words-on-the-screen and is very straight to the point by telling you this is a martial arts flick because all you ever see in the trailer other than the movies title are kicks, punches, armbars and a beautiful executed german suplex. And being the huge sucker for martial arts movie I did not seem to care about the lessons I learnt from Dragon Tiger Gate and just rush to get the tickets to the movie as soon as I have the free time to watch it once it is released.
Ok so now, on with the movie's review. Ok here's a brief synopsis of the plot. Donnie Yen plays a no-nonsense cop, just cop who is ruthless when it comes to catching criminals (which in other words is a 100% total opposite of Malaysian cops) and is trying hard to catch a band of villainous ruthless Vietnamese brothers. While Louis Khoo plays the undercover cop as the lackey of these villains. Well if you ask me, the plot is nothing but a build up to a huge one on one brawl towards the climax. The movie started at a slow pace for the first 45 minutes to 1 hour with time given for "plot development". After that it is a non-stop martial arts fest which is perhaps the most realistic looking fight choreography that I had ever seen in a movie. Instead of using traditional kicks and punches that is used in most martial arts movies, Flashpoint uses MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) which is much more rawer, intense and realistic.
In most martial arts film when guy A kick guy B to the floor, guy B will bounced back up almost immediately or guy A gives him enough time to do so. But not Flashpoint. A strike that takes down the opponent is usually followed up by more punches, kicks or even submission holds such as the deadly armbar. In other words the fight scenes is done very nicely in a very smooth uninterrupted flow of punches, kicks, throws and locks which I had never seen before in any martial arts flick and all these are directed by Donnie Yen himself.
Well despite its flawless fight scenes I do have a few major complaints about this movie though. Donnie Yen and Louis Khoo just doesn't have on screen chemistry. Both of them don't seem to "connect" with each other at all. Also Fan Bing Bing in the movie serves no purpose other than being a very sweet eyecandy. Not that I mind or anything, but she's being cast into the wrong role IMHO.
Overall Flashpoint is a must watch martial arts movie for all fans of this genre. I give it an 8 out of 10 stars.
P.S: To those who have no idea what MMA is, try searching for it on Youtube.
