Director:
Mathieu Kassovitz
Year: 2008
Rating: 5.0
Year: 2008
Rating: 5.0
After
catching up on the Jet Li films made in the West, I was curious to see if
I had missed any films of Michelle Yeoh post her Hong Kong career. Quite
a few actually that I had never heard of. That got me here. Michelle is having
a moment in cinema which for a near 60-year old woman is rather astonishing.
Of course, she has had a few moments in her life. At the bidding of Sammo
Hung she went from model to actress to action star and in a short period
of three years from 1985 to 1987 made three classic action films - Yes Madam,
Royal Warriors and Magnificent Warriors. And then she married and retired.
Married to a wealthy man and assumed that was the end of her short career.
Five years later with divorce papers in hand she returned to make Police
Story III with Jackie Chan in which she matched him stunt for stunt. She
followed this up with Heroic Trio I and II, Project S, Tai Chi Master with
Jet Li and Wing Chun with Donnie Yen.
Then came the third stage - Hollywood and Ang Lee with her Bond film and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Those two films made her a global name and then she sort of disappeared - back to Hong Kong for some of her less regarded films, a few Hollywood films like Far North, Sunshine, The Lady, Mechanic: Resurrection and Morgan that were either quickly forgotten or in which she had a small part. In her mid-50s, I would have thought that was it. A few mother roles perhaps. Well yes. One in Crazy Rich Asians which got her great reviews and then Star Trek: Discovery where she plays an evil power hungry Empress in a parallel universe, Shang Chi and the Everything Everywhere film that everyone seems to love and I hope gets here to Bangkok. She is everywhere. If you look at her on IMDB she has so many films in production - including The Witcher and Avatar 2, 3 , 4 and 5! Holy cow. How does she find the time. Having been a big fan of hers since I saw Heroic Trio and Yes Madam in a film festival back in the early 1990s, this is great. Two other films that sort of slid by but are terrific are Reign of Assassins in 2010 and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny in 2016.
So that brings us to this film which she made in the period of forgettable films. The director of this Mathieu Kassovitz had this to say about the film "pure violence and stupidity". He hated what it ended up being after Fox got done with it. And he is spot on. Lots of violence and a whole lot of stupidity. But that doesn't necessarily make a bad film. In fact, there are some amazing scenes in this film with big sets, hundreds of extras and a dystopian world that feels all too real. But that doesn't make a good film either. If you take it scene by scene without being concerned about connecting them or understanding them it is an interesting film but it is nearly incomprehensible. At 90-minutes it seems likely that a lot ended up on the editing floor. The part that explains what the hell is going on. The audience is thrown into this dystopian world and there is never an explanation why. And why is America so different. And how will this girl change the world. And what the hell was that ending about. This could easily have been fixed with fifteen minutes added but Fox just tossed it into theaters without any previews for the press. It still did ok because it stars Van Diesel who has a built in fan base and here he basically plays Van Diesel as he does in every film and his fans like it just like that. And admittedly so do I. Here he is interchangeable with Riddick or Dominic Toretto or Xander Cage. I take it from reviews that there is another version out there that is better and more comprehensible but not sure I could sit through it again.
It begins in Russia. A country in total collapse where warlords and thugs seem to run cities or neighborhoods, in which gun-toting men walk the streets shooting whoever they want, where terrorist attacks take place daily, in which people are just trying to survive or immigrate. Clearly this takes place after the Biden Sanctions take effect. Toorop (Van Diesel) is a mercenary living in some broken down city in an even more broken down apartment when his door explodes and men grab him to come speak with one of those mini-Warlords, Gorsky played by Gérard Depardieu. He looks like a gargoyle and it is hard to tell what is Depardieu and what is make-up since he is as close to a gargoyle as you can get these days. Gorsky offers Tooroo a job. Pick up a young girl at a convent in the middle of nowhere and deliver her to New York City. He accepts.
The girl is played by French actress Mélanie Thierry and at first I took her for ten but as the film goes on you realize she is older. A nun tells Tooroo that wherever the girl goes so does she. Sister Rebeka is Michelle. Tooroo offers her a gun. She refuses. She says she won't need one. She doesn't. Apparently, this convent teaches martial arts and she wades through a group of men a few times. The journey is chaotic, the crowd scenes claustrophobic and the camera whizzes and swoons around like it is on speed. The girl is special and men try and catch her but why Tooroo keeps asking. She reminds one of Leeloo from the Fifth Element but that was a great film and this isn't. None of it begins making sense. The final 40 minutes is just as the director said violent and stupid. Everyone is trying to kill them. It makes no sense. But there are some cool bits to hang on to and Van Diesel is Van Diesel and Michelle manages to keep her dignity throughout and kick a little ass.
Then came the third stage - Hollywood and Ang Lee with her Bond film and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Those two films made her a global name and then she sort of disappeared - back to Hong Kong for some of her less regarded films, a few Hollywood films like Far North, Sunshine, The Lady, Mechanic: Resurrection and Morgan that were either quickly forgotten or in which she had a small part. In her mid-50s, I would have thought that was it. A few mother roles perhaps. Well yes. One in Crazy Rich Asians which got her great reviews and then Star Trek: Discovery where she plays an evil power hungry Empress in a parallel universe, Shang Chi and the Everything Everywhere film that everyone seems to love and I hope gets here to Bangkok. She is everywhere. If you look at her on IMDB she has so many films in production - including The Witcher and Avatar 2, 3 , 4 and 5! Holy cow. How does she find the time. Having been a big fan of hers since I saw Heroic Trio and Yes Madam in a film festival back in the early 1990s, this is great. Two other films that sort of slid by but are terrific are Reign of Assassins in 2010 and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny in 2016.
So that brings us to this film which she made in the period of forgettable films. The director of this Mathieu Kassovitz had this to say about the film "pure violence and stupidity". He hated what it ended up being after Fox got done with it. And he is spot on. Lots of violence and a whole lot of stupidity. But that doesn't necessarily make a bad film. In fact, there are some amazing scenes in this film with big sets, hundreds of extras and a dystopian world that feels all too real. But that doesn't make a good film either. If you take it scene by scene without being concerned about connecting them or understanding them it is an interesting film but it is nearly incomprehensible. At 90-minutes it seems likely that a lot ended up on the editing floor. The part that explains what the hell is going on. The audience is thrown into this dystopian world and there is never an explanation why. And why is America so different. And how will this girl change the world. And what the hell was that ending about. This could easily have been fixed with fifteen minutes added but Fox just tossed it into theaters without any previews for the press. It still did ok because it stars Van Diesel who has a built in fan base and here he basically plays Van Diesel as he does in every film and his fans like it just like that. And admittedly so do I. Here he is interchangeable with Riddick or Dominic Toretto or Xander Cage. I take it from reviews that there is another version out there that is better and more comprehensible but not sure I could sit through it again.
It begins in Russia. A country in total collapse where warlords and thugs seem to run cities or neighborhoods, in which gun-toting men walk the streets shooting whoever they want, where terrorist attacks take place daily, in which people are just trying to survive or immigrate. Clearly this takes place after the Biden Sanctions take effect. Toorop (Van Diesel) is a mercenary living in some broken down city in an even more broken down apartment when his door explodes and men grab him to come speak with one of those mini-Warlords, Gorsky played by Gérard Depardieu. He looks like a gargoyle and it is hard to tell what is Depardieu and what is make-up since he is as close to a gargoyle as you can get these days. Gorsky offers Tooroo a job. Pick up a young girl at a convent in the middle of nowhere and deliver her to New York City. He accepts.
The girl is played by French actress Mélanie Thierry and at first I took her for ten but as the film goes on you realize she is older. A nun tells Tooroo that wherever the girl goes so does she. Sister Rebeka is Michelle. Tooroo offers her a gun. She refuses. She says she won't need one. She doesn't. Apparently, this convent teaches martial arts and she wades through a group of men a few times. The journey is chaotic, the crowd scenes claustrophobic and the camera whizzes and swoons around like it is on speed. The girl is special and men try and catch her but why Tooroo keeps asking. She reminds one of Leeloo from the Fifth Element but that was a great film and this isn't. None of it begins making sense. The final 40 minutes is just as the director said violent and stupid. Everyone is trying to kill them. It makes no sense. But there are some cool bits to hang on to and Van Diesel is Van Diesel and Michelle manages to keep her dignity throughout and kick a little ass.
