vtdone Reviews

Asphalt Burning (2020)

An enjoyable ending to a creative series

[6/10 · 19 April 2022]

Lovable connected camaraderie characters. Spectacular scenery! Noisily fast historically recognisable cars in a great road trip to a bucket-list destination. Laughable moments that remind me of Police Academy series. What more could a car enthusiast want for a fast cars movie?

There are some unbelievable set-pieces not unlike the FF franchise. If you expect lots of wrecks you will be disappointed. The writer has a done a good job in staying true to the Norwegian spirit and not copycatting Hollywood blockbuster crash'n burn styles.

The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

Fantasy action martial arts flick marred by unrealistic wire-fu

[6/10 · 28 December 2020]

The union of Jackie Chan and Jet Li brings high expectation for fans of these great stars. And some of the actions do not disappoint me. However, I believe Yuen Wo Ping and director Rob Minkoff have allowed too many unrealistic and mis-timed wire-fu action shots which ruin the effectiveness of the story. Who would believe the lowly foot soldiers themselves are capable of such moves!!! The story itself is smooth flowing and all the characters seemingly connect with each other quickly. Costumes are well designed for the characters, however, the trend to over-dress the soldiers and warriors with heavily sculptured, molded and plasticky body armour seems to be common these days in Chinese releases after the rise of Yimou Zhang's movies. The Monkey King's invincible staff looks bendable in some of strike shots and lowers the viewer's belief greatly - Ip Man's wooden pole looks much stronger and more rigid than's Sun Wukong's legendary staff. Overall a passable side-take of Monkey Magic/Journey to the West franchise - enjoyable for young viewers new to the kung-fu genre.

Vanguard (2020)

Fast flowing set-piece action flick with heavy use of CGI for teens/gamers

[5/10 · 22 November 2020]

As a Jackie Chan fan I enjoy watching his movies for his onscreen actions and funny set piece fight sequences. Having said that Jackie Chan is taking a senior role in this movie, leaving most of the actions to the younger teen idols and rising chic stars.

I enjoy the exotic locations here - outside of western metropolises. The story/plot is very fast pace as this is an action film - and it makes heavily use of CGI. However, the physics of the CGI is a let down - they may be good in older computer games and the teens/younger generations may find it easy to believe, but for an older person like me... I caught myself saying "Aw that's not possible." (physics wise) a few times - and I still play computer games! The astute movie viewer can also spot a few pieces of Chinese propaganda thrown in to make the Chinese look good. However, that is obvious and expected of a Chinese state funded/sponsored film. e.g. Chinese taking an interest in shutting down African elephant poaching vs. ivory in black market demand, etc. It's also disappointing to not see anyone coming close to replacing Jackie Chan's action fight sequence, with his funny and smart use of the environment to his advantage.

The film makes up with beautiful exotic locations and costumes/customs, fast paced set-piece action (reminds me of the Kingsman series) fight/shoot scenes.

Overall Vanguard is good to burn time and generate a good amount of talk amongst youngsters and showcase what the mainland Chinese in partnership with the Arabs/Dubai are capable of. It is not for movie goers who expect deep meaningful plot with twists and turns and mysteries/romance. One thing is for sure... the Chinese may have some of the world's fastest supercomputers, but their CGI/special FX rendering in movies is still lagging way behind the other world famous VFX houses such as ILM/Weta Digital, in terms of physics and realism.

Iceman: The Time Traveller (2018)

Good looking movie without any impact

[4/10 · 1 January 2019]

Lots of special effects here but they can not help float a story with many flaws even with the appearance of one of my favourite actor Donnie Yen. If you're looking for kung fu martial arts by Donnie Yen, look elsewhere. If you're looking for time travel exploration applications look elsewhere as in my opinion the story writer and director have made a mess of in this movie. The logics don't seem to make any connection particular near the end. There are some sweet eastern romance scenes and the actresses did a good job. The sets do look very well designed and the costumes look great, but in the end the entire movie looks like multimedia college/university project. If you're looking for Chinese time traveller flicks, The Iceman Cometh (1989) starring Yuen Biao is still the benchmark.

Skiptrace (2016)

For hardcore Jackie Chan fans only

[6/10 · 10 September 2016]

I enjoy this movie but only because I've been a Jackie Chan fan.

The movie features his trademark comedy moves and gags, but as an action martial arts flick his moves against goons are now much slower than his past movies due to his age (respectfully so). The man is still doing his own stunts and the end credit routine showing the bloopers is always a treat for me.

Knoxville portrays a crook very believably well and the pair of opposite do attract and contrast sometimes to keep the story flowing.

Jackie Chan should join forces with all the other old stars such as Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and make united flick franchises like R.E.D., The Expendables...

In conclusion, Skiptrace is a bit like From Russia to Hongkong in 80 days, with some bits of China tourism ads/commercials thrown in, plus regular Jackie Chan favourite flavours. If you enjoy Jackie Chan, watch it to support him.