Hardrock69
12-05-2011, 06:02 AM
Saw this tonight. Had tivo'd it out of curiosity.
Story was 2-dimensional. Stupid plot holes big enough to drive a jumbo jet through. Jackie Chan as old maintenance man. Afro-American lady and 12-year-old son get transferred to China from Detroit for some mysterious "job", Kid gets picked on by bullies. Jackie teaches him Kung Fu. Somehow magically enough that kid competes in Kung Fu tournament and beats several kids who have been training since they were toddlers (of course under the tutelage of a fucking asshole).
Will Smith's son did really good for his first big flick.
He has a career in the fambly business ahead of him if he wants it.
Some nice scenery shot in China.
Predictable (of course).
Brought something to mind though, as I was watching this.
Out of the big 3 on the planet....US, Russia, China.....which 2 are all buddy-buddy? Which 2 are so interlocked financially now that our cultures seem to be on the verge of merging?
China and the US.
Bruce Lee was the first big Chinese action hero of the silver screen in the US. And the Hong Kong film industry saw a boost of viewership in the US in the 70s and 80s. But eventually, (especially in the past 10 years), the really big production movies have been made that were huge in America, like Crouching Dragon, Hidden Motherfucker and stuff like that. House Of Flying Daggers was a beautiful film, and one of my favorites.
But along the way, and parallel to the film business.....look at "business". Is the US setting up factories in Russia? No. Is the US importing tons of Russian made films? No. Is Russia really, really trying to do anything to try to interlock their business and culture with the US? No.
Really interesting how China and the US have become interdependent on one another.
What made me think of all this was that this film was produced by Jerry Weintraub. And I was thinking the overall vibe of the film was to show life in China amongst "common people" and in a sort of sympathetic way. Seemed to go out of it's way to portray Chinese people as "humans", with the same fears, hopes and dreams as anyone else on the planet. Rightly so, of course.
Once I figured that out.....the rest just sort of was obvious. Almost as if the film industry is doing what it can to brainwash the populations of China and the US to accept what is going on between our two nations, for better or worse.
I could see China and the US merging in less than 100 years. Russia is going to be left out of the picture.
Of course, in 100 years I am going to be long gone, unless someone develops some sort of immortality drug, lol.
Anyway, the film is mindless fun. None of the originality and inventiveness that was in the original, or even the first sequel. The second sequel was a lame piece of shit.
Jackie Chan is beginning to show his age a bit as well.
Story was 2-dimensional. Stupid plot holes big enough to drive a jumbo jet through. Jackie Chan as old maintenance man. Afro-American lady and 12-year-old son get transferred to China from Detroit for some mysterious "job", Kid gets picked on by bullies. Jackie teaches him Kung Fu. Somehow magically enough that kid competes in Kung Fu tournament and beats several kids who have been training since they were toddlers (of course under the tutelage of a fucking asshole).
Will Smith's son did really good for his first big flick.
He has a career in the fambly business ahead of him if he wants it.
Some nice scenery shot in China.
Predictable (of course).
Brought something to mind though, as I was watching this.
Out of the big 3 on the planet....US, Russia, China.....which 2 are all buddy-buddy? Which 2 are so interlocked financially now that our cultures seem to be on the verge of merging?
China and the US.
Bruce Lee was the first big Chinese action hero of the silver screen in the US. And the Hong Kong film industry saw a boost of viewership in the US in the 70s and 80s. But eventually, (especially in the past 10 years), the really big production movies have been made that were huge in America, like Crouching Dragon, Hidden Motherfucker and stuff like that. House Of Flying Daggers was a beautiful film, and one of my favorites.
But along the way, and parallel to the film business.....look at "business". Is the US setting up factories in Russia? No. Is the US importing tons of Russian made films? No. Is Russia really, really trying to do anything to try to interlock their business and culture with the US? No.
Really interesting how China and the US have become interdependent on one another.
What made me think of all this was that this film was produced by Jerry Weintraub. And I was thinking the overall vibe of the film was to show life in China amongst "common people" and in a sort of sympathetic way. Seemed to go out of it's way to portray Chinese people as "humans", with the same fears, hopes and dreams as anyone else on the planet. Rightly so, of course.
Once I figured that out.....the rest just sort of was obvious. Almost as if the film industry is doing what it can to brainwash the populations of China and the US to accept what is going on between our two nations, for better or worse.
I could see China and the US merging in less than 100 years. Russia is going to be left out of the picture.
Of course, in 100 years I am going to be long gone, unless someone develops some sort of immortality drug, lol.
Anyway, the film is mindless fun. None of the originality and inventiveness that was in the original, or even the first sequel. The second sequel was a lame piece of shit.
Jackie Chan is beginning to show his age a bit as well.