January 17, 2006
Jason Statham and Jet Li team up again
Oh I am so excited about this news, Jason Statham and Jet Li are teaming up for Rogue where Statham is once again chasing the elusive Li. I am so excited about this news because Statham rocks...but there are some very bad things about this film.
They appeared before in The One, which wasn't awful and had some pretty cool scenes in it, so that's one thing to add to the good pile. Then there's the fact that Statham rocks and his screen presence is superb, as well as his action hero status, and he's not half bad in fight scenes either. Then there's Li, who can be stunning in action sequences. Sounds like a great setup for an action thriller, and let's take a quick peek at the blurb from Empire:
The plot focuses on Jack Crawford (Statham), whose partner Tom Lone and Lone's family are killed by an assassin for the Chang crime family. Crawford becomes obsessed with finding the elusive and brutal killer, Rogue (Li).
Okay, so that's the good pile, sounds pretty fab so far. Corey Yuen is set to direct and choreograph the action sequences, and to remind you he did that for both Transporter movies...yes, Transporter 2. That's the first HUGE problem for me. Some of those action sequences were good, but a good few absolutely stank and were laughable...they even raised laughs in the audience.
Second, and final big deal. Music video director Philip G. Atwell is set to break into directing features with this movie. His previous work has been for 50 Cent, Xzibit, Eminem, and an episode of The Shield. Actually that doesn't sound too bad, but there's no movie experience in there.
So with all that are we expecting huge, unbelievable and often laughable action sequences with pumping music and fast cuts? This seriously has the needle in "oh dear", but there's hope in the form of that one episode of Shield and the first Transporter, as well as Statham...What do you think?
Posted by at January 17, 2006 01:50 PM
Comments
Posted by: ChrisP at January 17, 2006 07:57 PM
There's a distinct difference between entertainment and laughable stupidity.
Posted by: Richard Brunton at January 18, 2006 01:56 AM
Jason Stratham? Is that the guy who was once considered being a talented actor and choosed to work with Uwe Boll?
Posted by: dave at January 18, 2006 06:43 AM
Richard,
Perhaps it's about expectations, also. My co-worker told me to turn off my brain before watching Transporter 2 and that it's all out "cheese". So I turned my sense of logic off and I found it pretty funny. It certainly has questionable taste and I didn't see it until it came out on DVD, because I definitely would not pay to go see it in the theatres.
I save the "laughable stupidity" category for movies like Ecks vs. Sever, which takes itself too seriously for movie of very questionable taste.
Posted by: ChrisP at January 18, 2006 07:32 AM
Excellent news that Mr Statham is making another action movie. I think his style and definitely his ability to fill the screen with his presence are entertaining as hell. Mr Li is no slouch either.
Would like to see less "upside cars soaring 250m through the air into steel girders which turns off a light switch with a glass fragment deflected by a fart from scared seagull" type stunts though.
Cheese is great entertainment as is corn, but when you mix cheese and corn together then indigestion is the end result.
Posted by: pablo at January 18, 2006 08:30 AM
Jason Statham started off pretty good, but after making so many crappy movies recently (Transporter 2, Dungeons & Dragons, The One, Cellular) he definitely seems to be on a downward spiral.
Posted by: Stuka at January 18, 2006 02:34 PM
This is totally cool. Not since DeNiro and Pacino squared off in "Heat" have I been this excited. Just to put some fears to rest. The buzz I've heard is that this is going to be a totally different Jet Li than we're used to seeing, very dark and very intense. A friend of mine said he read an early draft of the script and he said it ROCKED!
Posted by: Bud C. at January 19, 2006 06:50 PM
Transporter 2 was supposed to be an "all-out-stupid-and-proud" type of movie. I think it definitely worked just as well as Charlie's Angels (the first one), in regards to entertainment. Nothing wrong with that.