Sunshine Cops (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

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CAST: Stephen Fung, Julian Cheung, Lee Sum Kit, Eileen Tung, Ken Wong
DIRECTED BY: Loh Kim Wah
HK MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://www.hkmdb.com/db/reviews/show_review.
mhtml?id=119
DURATION: 89 minutes
TYPE OF MOVIE: Comedy

The police force selects Lemon and Sammy as “Sunshine Cops”.  But the campaign is not met with the anticipated popularity.  They are sneered by the public and followed by paparazzi.  Two cops are getting very frustrated. The project has to be stopped. Later, they encounter a large scaled kidnapping action, eventually they can exercise the spirit of Sunshine Cops…

DVD EXTRAS:

*  English/Chinese removable subtitles

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I know of

DVD REVIEW:

I bought this movie after watching “GEN-X COPS”.  Stephen Fung is a cool dude and was hoping to enjoy “Sunshine Cops” as well.

While this movie is not serious or action-packed like “GEN-X COPS”, this movie is enjoyable if you don’t take it seriously.  The movie is similar to GX by taking two cops who are belligerent but yet cool and thus the purpose of the movie.  To take two cool dudes from the police force and use them as a PR stint to recruit more police officers.

So, the movie is a little corny but enjoyable.  Again, it’s not meant to be taken serious.  It’s one of those lighthearted, corny movies to sit back and enjoy after watching so many action or dark HK movies.  The movie does have a pretty cool action sequence near the end but the final minute before the ending credits is very corny.

The DVD quality is nice and the audio is typical for a dialogue movie.  Special features are hardly there.

THE MOVIE: C
THE DVD EXTRAS: C-
THE DVD OVERALL: C

My School Mate, the Barbarian (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

A fun, school brawl HK film starring “Gen-X Cops” stars Nicholas Tse and Stephen Fung!

Images courtesy of © 2001 Film Power Company Limited. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: My School Mate, the Barbarian

CAST: Stephen Fung, Nicolas Tse, Joey Yung, Samuel Pang Kit-chi, Missy Hyperbitch and Ng Chi-hung

DIRECTED by Wong Jing

TYPE OF MOVIE: Action, Fight

DURATION: 100 minutes

Note:  Viewed Deltamac DVD version with removable English subtitles

Edward (Fung) is a popular and intelligent student at his college. He comes from a rich family, a popular mother but one day he is framed by an ex-girlfriend and kicked out of school. Due to a miscommunication of putting him into the good school in HK known as DBS, he is put in the worst college in HK known as TBS which features thugs and people who must prove their self-worth through fighting. Stephen is not a fighter but he befriends Stone (Tse) who is the championship fighter at TBS but will not fight anymore since he promised his dying grandmother that he would stop. Will Edward survive at this dangerous college? A deal is struck, Edward helps Stone in school and Stone teaches Edward how to fight.

Ever since I watched GEN-X Cops, I have tried to catch any movie starring Nicholas Tse, Stephen Fung and Sam Lee. The majority of the movies are quite fun to watch and this movie is no exception.

The movie is like watching a video game with a pretty interesting storyline and featuring pretty cool people. If anything, this movie will hit home towards video game fans. Especially if they enjoy the school fighting video game “Rival Schools”. I won’t reveal what this game has to do with the movie but if you enjoy fighting video games and “Rival Schools”, you will enjoy this movie.

It’s interesting to see Nicholas Tse, Stephen Fung and even Joey Yung in a movie like this. It’s fun and entertaining and never intends itself to be taken seriously.

The DVD is from Deltamac and doesn’t feature too much in terms of special features. The video quality, looks a little faded like it’s an aged movie but I’m guessing this is due to the fact that it’s a low budget movie. The audio is ok since it’s mostly a dialogue movie.

Alas, this movie is not to be taken seriously but if you enjoy fighting video games with a dash of juvenile humor, this movie will definitely entertain you.

THE MOVIE: B+
THE DVD EXTRAS: D+
THE DVD OVERALL: C

2002 (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

The GEN-X guys team up once again for a supernatural sci-fi thriller!

TITLE: 2002

CAST: Nicholas Tse, Stephen Fung, Sam Lee, Daniel Graham and more.

DIRECTED BY: Wilson Yip

DURATION: 97 minutes

COMPANY:  Golden Harvest DVD version with Burned in English subtitles (All Region)

Special Unit “2002″ is a designated task force of SPI (Spirit & Paranormal Investigation) in the law enforcement department, ridding the human world of evil deeds of haunting spirits via an exeution team comprised of a man and a ghost. Being a psychic, TIDE (Nicholas Tse) is joined by SAM (Sam Lee) to the cause of law enforcement, but SAM’s time for reincarnation is approaching. TIDE is learning that WIND (Stephen Fung), a human being with the psychic power of supernatural vision, is destined to be..?

After watching “2002″, the first thing that came into my mind was “Silent Mobius” meets “Blade” meets “Men in Black”.

The plot is about a ghost hunter named “TIDE” of the special unit “2002″, a task force of SPI (Spirit and Paranormal Investigation). Tide believes he is cursed and that anyone close to him will die. Thus he has no friends and he can’t have a girlfriend. He teams up with a ghost named SAM (Sam Lee) who helps him out but since reincarnation is approaching, it is time for TIDE to find a new partner and so he finds WIND. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to WIND…to be a partner of TIDE, one will have to be dead.

The concept of cool ghostbusters or spirit hunters is pretty nice. The movie has nice special effects and really awesome fight scenes but the problem with the movie is that it tries to be serious and it tries to be humorous (like a manga). Although it’s nice to have the humor, for a movie like this…sometimes the humor seemed a bit out of place.

There are some parts of this movie that may confuse the viewer as well, so pay attention to the movie. A bright spot to this movie is to see the three guys from GEN-X Cops together again. Although their time together is limited, it was still pretty fun. Also, to see model Daniel Graham in this movie was pretty awesome and she did ok for her supporting role.

As for the DVD, The Golden Harvest DVD features a making of (Chinese subtitles only) that lasts around 10 minutes, a trailer and a character guide.

All in all a pretty solid DVD that was pretty fun to watch. Although it deals with the supernatural, there are no sick parts in the movie.

Check it out!

Avenging Fist (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

Loosely based on the “Tekken” video game, “Avenging Fist” is a fighting/action film with ups and downs.

TITLE: Avenging Fist

CAST: Lee Hom Wang, Ekin Cheng, Sammo Hung, Kristy Yang, Stephen Fung, Cecilia Yip, Yuen Biao, Chin-Kar Lok and more.

DIRECTED BY: Andrew Lau and Corey Yen

COMPANY: Deltamac DVD version with removable English subtitles.

Scientists experiment on Power glove are on the verge of success. Power glove is designed to active the unknown power in human’s brain to empower the force of human beings. Special agent Dark, Thunder and War 21 are the only survivors in that experiment. Ambitious War 21 gets evil. He captures Thunder with a power glove and disappears…He has become Dark’s fugitive for 20 years. Two decades later. War 21 comes back with brainwashed Thunder and his underground troop aiming to rule the world. Dark is failed to eliminate them but he realizes Thunder has a son who also has the DNA, which enable him to use the power glove to challenge War 21, eventually…

When I heard that “Avenging Fist” was going to be out on DVD, I had this grin on my face because of the “Tekken” hype surrounding the movie.

I finished watching “Avenging Fist” starring Ekin Cheng, Gigi Leung, Lee Hom Wang, Kristy Yeung, Sammo Hung, Stephen Fung and more.

Anyway, this movie has a lot of people you may have seen from many HK movies and a few big names which adds to the allure of the film. Also, the special effects are pretty cool and the futuristic look ala “Blade Runner” was very nice.

This movie is definitely not “Tekken”, it’s more like “Tekken”, “Street Fighter 2″ and “Dragon Ball Z” mixed together.

The only thing that “Tekken” has to do with this film is that it’s a fighting movie (ala videogame like fighting movie) and the main character (Leehom Wang, the guy who played Aaron Kwok’s partner on China Strike Force) has hair like Kazuya which is pretty cool. The only thing that “Street Fighter 2″ has to do with it is the fighting characters and Combat-21 (think M. Bison, or if you are in East Asia think Vega). The only thing that “DBZ” has to do with this is the ending segment which is reminiscent of how DBZ ended with Goku’s battle with Boo.

Anyway, the plot is humans can only use 10% of their brain. What would happen if humans can tap into the other 90% which is called the “Forbidden Zone”. Anyway in the past: Thunder was a guy who perfect the martial art of the “Avenging Fist”. As a police officer, he and two others – Dark and Combat 21 were chosen to test the power glove which would allow police officers to tap into the 90% but something goes wrong. Now it’s twenty years later and Thunder’s twins: Nova (Wang) and Belle (She was the female partner in “For Bad Boys Only”) are twins that have special talents. Nova for fighting and learning his dead father’s “Avenging Fist” and Belle with her power for producing heat. Nova never knew what happened to his father, his mother is not saying anything. Nova’s goal is to have a “Power Glove” for himself, not knowing what it’s for…just knowing that police officer’s use it to kick butt. The day of his birthday, his mom has a surprise but Nova and Belle are in for a surprise when their father Thunder reappears.

If anything, people who love video games especially fighting video games or anime will love this movie. As for the DVD, it only comes with a trailer. No special features which sucks. But this is the first time I seen a DVD featuring DTS 6.1 and Digital Dolby EX on a HK DVD. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t feature great surround sound like GEN-X Cops but it’s ok.

English subs are good but with the typical typos in HK film.

All in all a great film for those who enjoy video game fighting movies and anime. If you don’t enjoy these type of movies, then you may want to pass.