Wolf Pack (2022) Max Zhang & Jiang Luxia

[One Armed Boxer]

Originally intended to be a Jackie Chan produced vehicle for Liu Ye under the title 'Career as a Mercenary', this project eventually ended up involving neither of them, and instead arrives onscreen under the title 'Wolf Pack', offering up a starring role for Max Zhang. I gave it the full review treatment over at COF - 

https://cityonfire.com/wolf-pack-2022-review-career-as-a-mercenary-review-max-zhang-jin/

[laagi]

I didn't have high hopes for this tbh, especially after the (mostly) terrible trailers. So not totally surprised this is just a mediocre affair.

What's baffling to me is these career choices (is it?) by Max Zhang. The guy clearly's got the talent but man has he been in a bunch of stinkers lately!

I sincerely hope his next output will bring him back to form. Else is just another talent gone to waste.

@One Armed Boxer Thank you for your review. I'll still check it out of course as I always do.

[DiP]

5 hours ago, laagi said:

I sincerely hope his next output will bring him back to form. Else is just another talent gone to waste.

This was the same exact thought I had towards Wu Jing after his successful turn in SPL: Kill Zone. What happened? Wu Jing regulated himself doing subpar or conventional action movies that hasn't done much for his career, despite producing and starring in his most successful action movie to date with Wolf Warrior 2.

This pattern was unsurprisingly also paved for both Xing Yu (Kung Fu Hustle) and Fan Siu-Wong (Ip Man) -- brilliant MA actors in their own right. Then when Max Zhang got all of our attention with The Grandmaster, and especially Ip Man 3, there was still hope for Hong Kong action movies being entrusted to someone else other than Donnie Yen, the last of the OGs. The result? The exact same thing as all aforementioned names.

When you see unique talents such as these guys not advancing their careers doing the total opposite of bigger and better, that begs the question... Why aren't they as famous and recognized by now? The answer: Go back and watch all of their movies after the one(s) that made us pay our attention to their talents in the first place. They are still stuck doing the same thing, and not evolving as overall actors.

Edited October 3, 2022 by DiP

[thehangman]

I really Like Max but he does appear in some crap,shame really as he could be a massive star

[laagi]

Disappointing! That pretty much sums up the entire movie. The three leads above all Max Zhang are totally wasted.

This movie is all bark and no bite. Too much talking back and forth and too many sub-stories that seemingly lead nowhere. And if they do you can see the inevitable conclusion a mile away.

Story wise the movie also doesn't have much to offer. I somehow lost track or interest half-way through. It doesn't help either that (once again) there's some truly horrible english dialogue. At least sometimes underlined with some unintentional humor with the changing accent(s) from some of the western actors.

Also several problems in modern action accompany the entirety of Wolf Pack. Everything looks squeaky clean and I have to ask why!? Our band of mercenaries look more like a bunch of models presenting the latest fall collection. Where's the dirt, the grit, the roughness?

Than there's the action, when did it become standard to always zoom in. It's annoying af! This is especially noticeable when the camera finally (alas) decides to pan out. It looks so much better almost instantly!

Speaking of which while the action was mostly captured poorly. They did manage (for some reason) to capture some pretty nice landscape shots throughout.

Not to mention this is so extremely bare bone, it feels almost insulting at times. The highlight dare I call it that to me was a brief scene involving a car, a chase thru a market which resulted into a short fight between Aarif Lee and his opponent.

While Max Zhang gets to do something at the very end which is also the longest fight of Wolf Pack, the camera work manages to pretty much just ruin it.

It's astounding and quite frankly infuriating that Wolf Pack couldn't deliver anything worth while. The talent and budget would've been clearly there but apparently nobody knew what to do with it.

Last but not least I'm baffled that Well Go USA would pick this up!? While at the same time ignoring other titles.

[One Armed Boxer]

On 10/5/2022 at 5:59 AM, laagi said:

Last but not least I'm baffled that Well Go USA would pick this up!? While at the same time ignoring other titles.

My theory on this one is it was a "Buy the US distribution rights for 'Project Wolf Hunting', get the US distribution rights for 'Wolf Pack' free!" kind of deal.

[Yihetuan]

On 10/5/2022 at 11:11 PM, One Armed Boxer said:

My theory on this one is it was a "Buy the US distribution rights for 'Project Wolf Hunting', get the US distribution rights for 'Wolf Pack' free!" kind of deal.

Well Go did pick this up and it's being released on blu ray later this month on the 24th.

 

[DarthKato]

I feel like I've seen this, but I cannot remember. It must not have been all that great. 

Edited January 3 by DarthKato