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Reviews
Gojira ni-sen mireniamu (1999)
Slight disappointment
The film has been well-improved in technical aspects but it still looks cheap and patched in some scenes. As usual, there are often some occasions that people just look on Godzilla's fighting scenes but it's already too boring to see this idea over and over in every sequel of the Godzilla. The Godzilla should be reborn in more fresh and creative ideas. If you watch most previous Godzilla sequels, you will realize that the film uses almost similar ideas. 1. Volcano erupts or islands are blasted to show that the Godzilla backs once again. 2. Troops and weapons are just helpless. 3. Rampaging a city(most likely Tokyo). 4. People get panicky and look on the rampaging and fighting.
5. The end relies on your imagination.
Shanghai Noon (2000)
It's great and exciting
Jackie's new idea to bring the Imperial China mixing with totally different elements such as the American west and American aborigines to the film is perhaps one of the rarest ones for us to see. His Kung-Fu is cool enough to make me excited when it's performed in the wild west of America and there is a lot of hilarity without a doubt. It's almost a faultless Jackie film ever. Great work for Jackie and it's really funny. I can endorse that(I saw that twice but I still don't regret). This will be a rare kind of Jackie film and holding a permanently good value for Jackie film lovers.
Zui gui Zhang San (1990)
Jet Li series are far better
I made the first touch about the legend of drunken tiger when I watched one of Jet Li's Once Upon a Time in China series. I realised that it was a regrettable curiosity after I watched this movie. Actually it isn't too bad but I don't feel it's any better than other popular Kung-Fu films.
The drunken tiger's Kung-Fu is rather sleepy and boring. There are little spectacular scenes that I often had with Jet Li films. The drunken tiger's Kung-Fu is improved when he begins drinking like a maniac but even after being fully drunken, his Kung-Fu isn't really cool enough to grab our attentions for a long time. It seems that the heavy drinking makes him a killing machine but he is still kicked, punched, and seriously stumbled.
Perhaps his girlfriend presents much better and far more skillful Kung-Fu than that of his. The girlfriend's Kung-Fu seems to outperform the drunken tiger in terms of agility, gusto, and accuracy.
The costumes and wigs of western troops are just ridiculous. Some Chinese extras wear blonde wigs and behave like a group of fools. I don't think it's quite convincing to be western allied troops and I don't believe all different allied forces wear same uniforms in same colour and different nationality, nor do they have any ideas to perform a kind of Kung-Fu with the drunken tiger. It lacks reality too much. Try "55 Days At Peking" if you are interested with checking the real history of the Boxers Rebellion in China.
I think the first half of the film is moderately exciting and convincing but the last half of it becomes just an inconvincing and tasteless show. Specially the end is just disappointing. It should have been better. I thought it would continue but it was surprisingly THE END. Who won? and to where do the drunken tiger swim with his girlfriend? No implication and no guesswork.