Safe

I like Jason Statham movies.  Or, rather, I liked Jason Statham in a movie, when he wasn't in every one of them.  The enjoyment of his performance on screen was lessened when he was packaged into one of this generation's few action heroes.  (The generation gap between him and the rest of the Expendables cast always throws me.)  Still, films like Safe satisfy a need for mindless action.

Mei, a young math prodigy with a perfect memory, is brought to the U.S. to manage the numbers for a Chinese crime syndicate.  Meanwhile, Luke (Jason Statham) finds his wife murdered by the Russian mafia when he fails to throw a fight.  Rather than kill him, too, the Russians promise to kill anyone he approaches or talks to, leaving him a homeless outcast.  Just when he's had enough, Mei steps into his life.  The Russians tried to grab her, to get a code from her head, and now they, the Chinese, and the dirty cops Luke used to work with all want to get her back.  With nothing left to lose but her, he does everything he can to keep her safe.

Safe
2012, 94 minutes, directed by Boaz Yakin

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

Tang isn't a very good hero.  He's a demon hunter, sure, and he's good at finding them, but his book of children's nursery rhymes don't seem to stop them so much as turn him into a laughingstock, especially when an action-oriented demon hunter or two show up and steal the show.  Far more, then, about his inner demons, the film shows a comedic slapstick journey to become one with Buddha.  And fight the Monkey King.  It's pretty cheesy, yeah.

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
2013, 110 minutes, directed by Steven Chow and Chi-kin Kwok

Man of Tai Chi

Sometimes it's genuinely difficult to separate the film from the film-watching experience.  See my disappointment with Kick-Ass.  With that in mind, consider my review of Man of Tai Chi biased in favor of awesome.  Keanu Reeves is seated just in front of me, to the right, with Alex Winter to his left and Tiger Hu Chen to his right.  I see Marco Zaror in the front row.  How awesome is that?

The film.  It's a respectable, presentable martial arts action film, but it's not about the fighting.  It's about the path a young man takes as he decides who he wants to be, how he wants to live, and what he believes.  Oh, and yeah, there's a lot of awesome fighting.  I just wish there was more meditation - the buildup for that never releases.

Don't let my opinion bias you.  See it yourself November 11.

Man of Tai Chi
2013, 105 minutes, directed by Keanu Reeves

Seventh Moon

Ugh. Shakey-cam. I should have seen it coming. What else should I expect from the director of the Blair Witch Project.

The was a "good" film. It hits all it's marks. It just didn't do anything unexpected. Everything was by the book. Is it worth seeing in the theater? Absolutely if you can stomach shakey-cam. Just don't expect brilliance.

Seventh Moon
2008, directed Eduardo Sánchez

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy franchise is designed to milk the same story over and over. The first problem is that the story isn't theirs - it's Indiana Jones with more guns. I've seen both of the previous films (and part of the spin-off Scorpion King). There's nothing that wrong with them, as cheese is fine when it's what I expect.

The issue this time was the setting and characters. Brendan Frasier just doesn't look old enough to have a twenty-something kid. Given that he's not even 40, he's not. A quick review shows that the first film was set in 1921, and the second in 1933. So he was 15 in the first movie? I guess they needed to hand the franchise off while Frasier was still under contract, and maybe that contract specified that he won't wear a little gray dye in his hair.

Anyway, this movie suffers from a common affliction among sequels: Too Many Characters. For every sequel you have to add a bad guy and sidekick. Too many of the characters saw far too little screen time, and the character development (such as it should have been, which isn't asking much) didn't have enough time.

One of my coworkers gave it the rating: "Beat's work." I think that depends on the work.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
2008, 112 minutes, directed by Rob Cohen

Flash Point

The first 45 minutes of dialog are slow and confusing. But then... WOW. If you have any interest at all in martial arts films, go see this one.

Flash Point
2007, 88 minutes, directed by Wilson Tip