Member galvatron1976 Posted December 5, 2010 Member Share Posted December 5, 2010 Movie review: 'The Warrior's Way' Jang Dong-Gun stars in Sngmoo Lee's martial arts/western mash-up. By Robert Abele, Special to the Los Angeles Times A master swordsman leaves his homeland of warring clans for the Wild West in the bloody wuxia/shoot-em-up hybrid "The Warrior's Way." But South Korean filmmaker Sngmoo Lee's debut feature is less a genre-spanning romp than a tiresome lab experiment in computer-generated tropes and green-screen oppressiveness. The human part involves quietly dashing Korean star Jang Dong-Gun as the stoic, blade-wielding nomad Yang, who brings his waylaid enemies' lone survivor, a baby girl he can't bring himself to kill, to an American frontier outpost made up mostly of circus workers led by a welcoming ringmaster named Eightball (the always appealing Tony Cox). There Yang takes over a laundry, grows flowers, teaches the spiritual side of knife-throwing to a lipsticked yet still grime-laden Annie Oakley type ( Kate Bosworth, working her own unfortunate hybrid of yeehaw and sultry) and tussles with a perverted colonel in a burn mask ( Danny Huston, all leer, sweat and tongue) who regularly terrorizes the locals, while Geoffrey Rush regularly terrorizes us with his clichéd town drunk. The real showdown, though, comes when our hero's none-too-happy master makes a third-act appearance with an army of black-clad assassins, who swoop ninja-style onto the rooftops like a murder — no, make that slaughter — of crows. The aforementioned image is an admittedly nifty only-in-martial-arts-extravaganzas entrance, cartoony but kicky, and appropriately pregnant with mayhem, which Lee then delivers with no lack of R-rated gusto. But for the most part, "Warrior's Way" — an outdoor story shot indoors, "300"-style — is a regrettable example of the cyclical nature of movie special effects. The digitized backdrops and blood sprays, physics-defying stuntwork and micro-slo-mo tours of traveling bullets and slashing blades is technically admirable, but this menu of action schematics has become as stultifyingly rote as rear-screen projection and stop-motion inevitably were to earlier generations of moviegoers. What's missing, like a hole, is a visionary personality — think Stephen Chow or Johnnie To — who can turn comically violent Pop art on its head. Lee's hunger to flamboyantly distract with his bag of tricks is never in doubt, but "The Warrior's Way" is a dead end and too often plays like a requiem for showoffs. Link http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-warriors-way-20101204,0,666958.story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Shaolin Chamber 36 Posted December 5, 2010 Member Share Posted December 5, 2010 With that said, it was a damn good time. My daughter and I enjoyed the hell out of it. It was nice to see Ti Lung on the big screen, especially since I never got to see him back in the Shaw days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member sen_pai Posted December 5, 2010 Member Share Posted December 5, 2010 It was a good and fun movie. It had everything in it. Action, blood, romantic comedy, family feel to it, cute, etc. You could be watching the movie and would totally feel that it's a g-rated family movie, and then you would see loads of dead bodies. And it worked! However, it's no Reign of Assassin. The fighting in this movie was cool, but simple. Nothing that was very well choreographed. You won't be rewinding back to fight scenes. More focus on story, but story was good and you didn't feel like "where's the action". Simple story...nothing that makes you think too hard. Very comparable to "Ninja Assassin", but I kinda hated NA...or Rain, but this movie was satisfying. Worth checking out...a fun movie...but not a Martial Arts film that would go down in history. Go there and have fun...just don't expect much. Oh, the movie set you up for a sequel....but I doubt there would be one. I think it's better to let this movie as it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member daisho2004 Posted December 6, 2010 Member Share Posted December 6, 2010 I also seen this movie today, and I did enjoy the storyline, but there was just too much CGI. I don't mind it but a lot of the fight scenes didn't show you anything you just seen Dead bodies and that was it, I wanted more action scenes to be shown. I mean you seen a glimpse of him in the smokey scenes slicing dudes up but I want to see it all. It was Great to see Ti Lung in a movie again, he was a bad ass, kinda like Sho Kosugi in Ninja Assassin. Jang Dong-Gun was really good as well he kinda reminded me of a young Chow Yun Fat. Overall I enjoyed this movie and I do hope that they make a sequel although I doubt they will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Studio 53 Posted December 6, 2010 Member Share Posted December 6, 2010 Here is an interesting interview.. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/12/05/2010-12-05_korean_heartthrob_jang_donggun_has_more_than_just_a_way_with_a_sword.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Karlos Posted December 7, 2010 Moderator Share Posted December 7, 2010 Sadly, this is already vanishing from ALL of my local cinemas, with the only showings after tomorrow being 10pm. Shame, as I was hoping to see it on the big screen. Guess I'll have to get the blu ray!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Space Posted December 7, 2010 Member Share Posted December 7, 2010 Sounds cool just for Ti Lung, but looks to be like a CGI mess. Shame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Bus Posted December 8, 2010 Member Share Posted December 8, 2010 saw the local people on tv trash the movie in a review..but most people told me it was good that i know that has seen it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Rhythm-X Posted December 8, 2010 Member Share Posted December 8, 2010 saw the local people on tv trash the movie in a review..but most people told me it was good that i know that has seen it.. It's good. Certainly not great, and WILDLY uneven tonally, but a fun way to kill a couple of hours. It'll find an audience on video for sure, and the smaller screen will certainly help mask issues with some of the, um, lesser visual effects. Plus, even if he doesn't have much to do, it's awesome to see Ti Lung with a significant role in a US theatrical release. Also, it shares an anime homage with the final shot of KILTRO. That was a trip to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Space Posted December 10, 2010 Member Share Posted December 10, 2010 Wait, so does Ti Lung speak English in this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Rhythm-X Posted December 10, 2010 Member Share Posted December 10, 2010 Wait, so does Ti Lung speak English in this? Yes. Because I need more characters to post the message, I'll add that it didn't seem like he was overdubbed, though I suppose it's possible that he might have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Space Posted December 11, 2010 Member Share Posted December 11, 2010 Yes. Because I need more characters to post the message, I'll add that it didn't seem like he was overdubbed, though I suppose it's possible that he might have been. Madness. I also need more characters to post that one word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member make believe Posted December 11, 2010 Member Share Posted December 11, 2010 Sounds cool just for Ti Lung, but looks to be like a CGI mess. Shame. Seriously. Just watching the trailer made my eyes hurt. It all looks so artificial and cheap. This cg look is going to look terribly dated in a few years. It sort of already looks that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member mpm74 Posted April 22, 2011 Member Share Posted April 22, 2011 Announced on Blu-ray and DVD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member daisho2004 Posted April 22, 2011 Member Share Posted April 22, 2011 Cannot wait to get this on BR... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member mpm74 Posted May 10, 2011 Member Share Posted May 10, 2011 I LOVED THIS MOVIE! =D Review cuming soon.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Karlos Posted May 10, 2011 Moderator Share Posted May 10, 2011 It's indeed a cool flick, bro. It got some horrible reviews and I honestly don't know why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member jmungus Posted May 11, 2011 Member Share Posted May 11, 2011 worth checkin out for the appearance of ti lung alone imo. otherwise its a more or less nicely entertaining movie. its general look/cgi may require some getting used to. i can understand ppl arguing it makes their eyes bleed; if they can manage to look the other way in regards to the cgi, they may find the warriors way to be a worthy entry in the martial arts action genre. not a must-see by any means. certainly not a waste of time. i for one would watch this x times over again before revisiting crap like wind blast, twins mission or fatal contact (tho props to ronald cheng`s performance and some of the wu jing fu at display) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.