An Inside Look from the Movie Business
AGENT CODY BANKS
Agent
Cody Banks is a well-written, well cast pre-teen movie that's also enjoyable
by parents. The action although not unique, is very script-appropriate.
The director did an excellent job of blending his characters and action
into an entertaining story with age-appropriate jokes and action. The actors,
Franky Muniez and Hillary Duff were amazing for their ages. Although none
of the stuntwork was cutting edge, it fit well into the plot and enhanced
the story and characters. From
a technical perspective, some of the visual effects came across as fake,
but overall it made for a very enjoyable shared viewing experience with
my young co-viewers.
Overall score of B+
SHANGHI KNIGHTS
Shanghi
Knights is a rejoining of the great chemistry of Jackie Chan and Owen
Wilson from Shanghi Noon. The main theme of the film is the dignity of
the Chinese and British cultures and the irreverance of American Owen
Wilson's character to both. This puts our heros in a lot of comical and
action-filled situations. Where the script misses the mark is overly corny
jokes that were a carry over from the end of the last film, which did
work, but in the sequel, the slapstick humor and corny character tie-ins
went over the top. The love interest in the film blossoms between Chon
Wang's (Jackie Chan) sister Chon Lin (Fann Wong) and Roy O'Bannon (Owen
Wilson), which puts Jackie in the position of the overprotective big brother.
The best fights and action actually center around Jackie's sister. The
biggest disappointment of the film was in the climax where they essentially
recreated the setting of the clock-tower scene from the movie Project-A.
This would have been passable except instead of redoing the phenomenal
highfall stunt which was probably one of the greatest stunts of all time,
they retreaded it with a CGI, cartoon highfall with the badguy "falling
to his death." We all go to Jackie Chan films to see real stuntmen in
real situations not computer generated cartoon stuntmen taking the place
of the real thing.
Overall score of B
THE TUXEDO
The
Tuxedo was an attempt to find a new vehicle for the fabulous skills and
charisma of Jackie Chan. Jackie's main problem with his personality and athletic
ability is finding a script and character that will allow him to do what he
does best. While Drunken Master was perhaps that perfect vehicle, The
Tuxedo could have been the new vehicle to allow Jackie to be Jackie. Sadly,
a briliant director, Kevin Donovan was hamstrung by a horrble script written
by committee. The action, which should be the easiest thing to accomplish
in a Chan film was again hamstrung by Dreamworks' insistance on shooting the
show in Canada to get the Canadian government's labor subsities provided to
any American film shot in that country. Dreamworks also denied the director
his choice of people to put together the stunts and made a huge mistake in
hiring Greg Michael as second unit director instead of the proven choice of
a stuntman turned action-director. The end result is forced action no where
near the potential of what this film should have been.Overall score of C -
Watch the Tuxedo fight training video...
