Flashpoint

Two days ago I watched Flashpoint... after the rather rather disappointing Disturbia I was hoping for something more exciting...



Quite frankly the only reason I watched disturbia was because of Shia lebauf.. the same guy who helmed the transformers lead. I only watched transformers once.. am I the odd guy out? haha I mean It's been showing for a month plus... even the ads are no longer advertising 'arriving or blasting into cinemas' but 'STILL showing in cinemas nationwide'. First time I saw this change in tagline...



Ok back to disturbia... The beginning was a shocker... but it didn't meld with the storyline significantly, except it did help in the process of landing Shia in house arrest, causing him to sprout fungus allover and started playing with binoculars... which made his eyes land on a cute girl (is that carrie ann moss from the MAtrix? I mean I tot she was 30 or something oh god. Blame the ubiquitous shades and the hairstyle or was that his mom? hmmm)



Anyways to shift the guilt of spying on her EVERY move, his bud made up the story of using the bi-s to keeping an eye on the suspicious serial lady killer next door..... the whole story leading to this relevation took almost an hour of draggy story-telling. Maybe it was necessary maybe it wasn't. Either way I hoped that the slow cooker process would result in something delicious... but I only felt bloated at the end, not really finger-licking full... just bloated with gas...like after 5 soft-drinks?



Ok ok... to the directors credit everything in the story made sense... every bit was placed nicely to make the whole scenario plausible... yet I'm not impressed. SHia didn't get to flex his acting muscles, the motives of the killer wasn't all that clear, nice jolts and jokes were thrown in- the part where he got back at his neighbours kids playing tricks on him was cool- but still It lacked something.



KK..nuff bout disturbia- which I think is a short form of disturbing suburbia- and onto FLash point!



Flashpoint stars action-hero Donnie Yen (from hits like Hero, SPL, Highlander 4 and the old iron monkey movies and misses like Dragon Tiger gate and seven swords) and the oh-so-tan Louis Koo. IT features Action, romance, and brotherly camaraderie... tho on a less-than fantastic plot (less as compared to SPL but then not that bad)



A cops vs robbers, triad Vs triad story played out right b4 the return of Hong Kong to China (I dun get the significance tho) it reveals the comradeships between a short-fused inspector and his triad-mole partner when the going gets tough.



Thumbs up- A lot of effort has been done to make the movie. Everything made sense in the movie, down to every fight scene where they chose to trade punches and kicks instead of 9mms. Even the destructible environment theme made sense. How do I illustrate this...hmmmm. One fight scene occured in a dilapidated skeleton of a house. The run down place has rubble all over. There, breaking tiles and pots of water made sense, correctly portraying the strength of the blows. Now, Compare that to (sorry bout this but I'll be giving this example because of its extravagance) The Matrix where all blows break walls but do not break bones and having Keanu act like he was fighting and you get what I mean.



And Donnie seems to dig wrestling!!! Throughout the movie he threw submissions and hurricuranas(a move made popular by many wrestlers, including my IDOL REY MYSTERIO!!!!!!! Come back REY!! I miss you!!!) and he did all of them in style.



Also it illustrates why big brother is big brother. While the younger brother in the triad is often sent off to do all the dirty work, he is all brawn and no brain.

The older brother, has both and that’s shown when he is able to counter off the same moves donnie used on the younger bro. That's what I call excellent Martial arts choreography!!! ANother point to note... the fighting involves street fightning styles, where grounding your opponent and doing cumulative damage counts- which reflects real-life fights. In real bouts, you don't get people trading blows one by one, that you get in a boxing ring. To me, that's an eye-opening plus point.



The whole second half of the movie was a thrill ride. Made me hold off the call of nature for an hour it did.



I note donnie and the executive director did the companionship arc quite well too. Buddies sticking their neck out for the chopping board in good taste.







Thumbs Down- One actor I was hoping to see strut his stuff decided to hide his skills in the closet. (maybe not his time yet...but I'll wait!) If you watched Kung Fu Hustle, then there's this guy who was all legs? one of the three hidden masters- one all hands and brass rings, the other a master of the bo stick, and the third would be him. K, he played the youngest brother of the triad. Throughout the movie I was hoping he would show his moves and when the point of inevitable showdown came I sat up straight and waited... and waited...and he DIED. Gah! What a waste. I really dunno what went wrong there...



Overall It's a real entertaining movie... for suckers of choreography especially..like me! Hmmm.. there was also too little fight scenes... or maybe they were censored.. hmmm...



OK.. That's all folks! Wait for my review on Jet Li's outing with Jason Stathom from 'The Transporter'!