The New Police Story and Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
As I write the reviews for these 2 movies, I realise that the people who does movies reviews for a living must really be very very passionate about movies and writing. I say this because I find it difficult to write about movies that I am not passionate about. Benny Chan’s The New Police Story and Alexander Witt’s Resident Evil: Apocalypse seems to fall into this category as they don’t seem to leave a deep impression in my mind. I have almost forgotten the plot even though I just watched them yesterday and the day before.
What comes to my mind is that the 2 directors seemed to have shared notes when they made these 2 movies. Both stories are similar in the sense that they are both:
1) sequels,
2) related to computer games,
3) have cops as the main characters,
4) engages in lots of gunshots and explosives and also bare-fist fighting,
5) have dramatic car accident scenes, and
6) displayed elements of the current fashionable vertical “catwalk” stunts where the actresses walk down vertically from the buildings!
Despite the similarities, I must say that both this movie have done a great job in keeping the viewers entertained from the beginning of the movie till the end.
As both are sequels, the leading cast have been retained, i.e. Jackie Chan and Milla Jovovich (can’t help but think she looked like Kylie Minogue). Some of the casts are pretty funny to me, especially in Police Story where I just can’t help but think that Jackie Chan made this movie as a charity towards his “unemployed” friends. The casts for Police Story are all made up of old “has-beens” who hasn’t appeared on the big silver screen for a long time or newbies who can’t land a contract due to various reasons. Having said this, I am not implying that their skills are compromised. Nicholas Tse and DanielWu gave one of their best performances. Cant say the same for Wang Chieh and Charlie Young though.
Nevertheless, it was a good production, with elements of love-hate relationships, friendships and good ethics and moral education (cops always win, so don’t be the bad guys). Of course, the good old fashion Jackie Chan funny fighting styles and jokes are still present but served in small portions. In fact, I think this is the best Jackie Chan movie since Shanghai Noon and perhaps the best Police Story among the 5 sequels (although it would be perfect if Maggie Cheung would make a comeback in this movie). Worthwhile watch at the movies. Definitely no regrets if you open up your mind to accept over-exaggeration (it seems that every Police Story have him stuck in the most impossible situation and yet he just cant die! In this edition, he’s not even hurt nor did he bleed when he ran out of an exploding building). Some may say that the ending is anti-climaxed, but I find the ending where he chatted with the little kid was extremely touching. Shall not reveal too much, go find it out yourself.
I would say that Resident Evil is also a good watch too. Perhaps my views are biased as I have not watched the predecessor. I have always associated Zombie movies with low budget B grade movies (due to bad experience with old zombie movies which was so bad that I can hardly remember their names). However, this movie has changed my perception. Well, yeah, the zombies are still low-tech and the fighting scenes are a bit blur. Nevertheless, the game-concept incorporated into a movie, where the humans have to shoot the zombies in the head to survive each stage, seems pretty new and entertaining to me.
This show gives a glimpse into the possibility of us living in a game-world where certain individuals possess extra powers to fight zombies and aliens that are all out to eat us alive! A very well choreographed movie, which is entertaining if you don’t mind exaggerated storyline. Well, zombies-based movies were never famous for their storylines anyway, it’s the number of zombies that matters and yes, body counts are high with this one. Very violent and not for the under-18s and the weak hearted.
Till the next edition, have a nice weekend at the movies,…
Kelly Rivers. (1 October 2004)
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