Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, 1.5 out of 4 stars

Kristin Kreuk as Chun-Li in "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li". Does she look like a street fighter? No, she just a girl who know how to fight well, that's all.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is an action film based on Street Fighter video games and the story is about the character Chun-Li's history and more. The film is directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak who previously directed "Romeo Must Die" in 2000, "Cradle 2 the Grave" in 2003 and "Doom" in 2005. The film begins with Chun-Li as a child, she was interested learning Wushu from her father. So, her father teach her a lot of Wushu and some dicipline. Her father is a businessman. One day, her father has been attacked by Bison (Neal McDonough) and Balrog (Michael Clarke Duncan). Years later, Chun-Li (Kristin Kreuk) now is a popular pianist. One day, she received a scroll with an Ancient Chinese text in it. After a while Chun-Li found out that she must find a man named Gen (Robin Shou). After Chun-Li met Gen, Gen told her that he can find her father who has been trapped in Bison's prison. So, Chun-Li must learn some martial arts and learn how to control her anger in order to safe her father. First of all, this is one of the worst movie so far in 2009. There will be a lot of street fighter fans who really felt disappointing after watching this. The whole movie doesn't focus on Chun-Li at all. Chun-Li doesn't has a lot of screen time in this movie. It shows that Chun-Li is not a street fighter at all. She just a girl who know how to fight well, that's all. Besides that, the story telling is not good, it too focus on both of the investigators, Nash (Chris Klein) and Maya (Moon Bloodgood) who investigate some murderer in that particular places, and in the end they team up with Chun-Li to fight Bison. It just pointless. And the dialogue between both of them are stupid and very unnecessary. Besides that, the movie is just 1 hour and 30 minutes long. Audiences don't want to hear both of them just talking crap, but what they want is to see a lot of action. Other than that, I personally think that Kristin Kreuk is just a miscast. She can't speak mandarin well. It feels very weird when you see it. From the beginning of the movie, Chun-Li as a child and she can speak mandarin very well. But why when she become teenager she can't speak well? It just wrong. Despite that, there will be a few of fighting scene which I think is not intense enough. The fighting scene is not unique and no excitement at all. And also there will be a lot of gun fighting scene which is more than fighting scene. The gun fighting scene also very unnecessary in the movie, it just too long and pointless. Or should I say the whole movie is pointless. Some of the action scene are dragged too long just for making the movie long enough to see. I personally don't know what is wrong with the director, his previous work for example "Romeo Must Die", the fighting scene is very unique and very fresh although it looks very fake, at least it has a lot of fun. There is one thing that I can promise you which is you can't get any fun from this movie. Overall, "This movie contain a lot of cheesy dialogue, draggy, pointless, and in the end it just wasting of your time."

Punisher: War Zone

Punisher: War Zone, 2.5 out of 4 stars

Dominic West as Jigsaw in "Punisher: War Zone", and you don't want to mess with him because he will cut your throat by using a wine glass.

Many people thought "Punisher: War Zone" will be another bad movie since "Max Payne", but it's not. This movie is better than I thought it might be. I'm quite surprise actually. This movie is directed by Lexi Alexander. The film begins with Billy Russoti (Dominic West) are having a party with mob boss Gaitano Cesare. Then Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) has infiltrates the party. Russoti escaped to the recycling plant. Castle then infiltrates the recycle plant and accidentally killed an undercover agent, Donatelli. He died on the spot. After having a fight with Russoti, Castle thrown Russoti in to a glass crushing machine and Russoti ended up disfigured. After recovered from injured, Russoti called himself 'Jigsaw' then regroup his gang and frees his brother Looney Bin Jim (Doug Hutchison) to have a revenge on Castle. On the other side, Castle team up with his partner, Microchip (Wayne Knight) to investigate the next target of Jigsaw. After that, Castle found out that in the past Donatelli has in charge of Jigsaw's money. So, Castle must quickly prepare everything and stop Jigsaw from harming Donatelli's family before it's too late. First of all, this is not a bad movie actually. This movie delivers a lot of fun. Fun means a lot of action. The action sequences in this film is unique and stylish. Other than that, the action sequences sometimes contain a few humor in it. There is a few part where makes me laugh out loud and I really enjoy the laugh. Besides that, there is a lot of action film which using shaky camera technique for the action scene so that the action scenes are intense, but this film doesn't have it. The film cinematography is good. It doesn't use shaky camera technique for the action scene but still the action scenes are very eye popping and intense. Besides that, the performance delivered by Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle is great. He is a perfect fit for this character. Although the overall acting is acceptable, but his performance is great, he really shows the characteristic of Frank Castle. In my opinion his performance is better than Thomas Jane as Frank Castle. Other than Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle, Dominic West's performance as Jigsaw also very good. His acting is very top notch and really put effort in it. Wow, this film seems great huh? Although it is a good movie but in my opinion, the story telling in this film is not very well. Sometimes it's too focus on other character which is not important instead of Castle. What safe this movie is Donatelli's wife and kid. If both of them doesn't exist in this movie, the movie will be suck. Besides that, this movie is just too much blood and gore. There is a lot of blood and gore, for example a wood impaled a person eye, Jigsaw piercing a guy's throat by using a wine glass, Looney eating a guy's kidney and more. This is a short review actually because I don't know what to write about this movie anymore. So the overall for this film, "This is a good action movie which gives you adrenaline rush, but it is bad when it comes to plot and character development."