Final 15 films of 2010 to look out for. The Merdeka Marathon continues … check out the first post here if you missed it.

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen Poster

3. Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (23 Sept)

Of late, Donnie Yen seems dead-set on portraying as many martial arts legends as he can. First it was Ip Man. Now it’s a role once played by both Bruce Lee and Jet Li. (Chen Zhen was the most prodigious disciple of the wushu grandmaster Huo Yan-Jia.) I have zero complaints, because Donnie’s still in top form. If the trailer and behind-the-scenes footage are any indication, we’re in for a treat. And with the “Infernal Affairs” trilogy director Andrew Lau at the helm, this should have a little more depth than just cookie-cutter, chop-socky action.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

4. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (23 Sept)

Yes, this is a sequel to Oliver Stone’s classic tale of ’80s corporate greed. Yes, the said proponent of the “Greed is good” credo is back in all his reptilian glory. Yes, Michael Douglas still looks, sounds and feels very much like the old Machiavellian charmer Gordon Gekko. The not-so-good news is that the naïve young protégé is no longer Charlie Sheen, but current Hollywood It-Boy Shia LaBeouf. Hopefully, the Autobot-lover will tone down his try-hard schtick and give us a more matured performance. Meanwhile, Stone has also roped in the very cute and very natural Carey Mulligan, who lit up the screen in “An Education”. Re-setting Gekko in the 21st century is a dramatically juicy prospect: we’ll see what new tricks an old devil has up his sleeve. That applies to Stone as well.

… to be continued

LB: Storyteller by trade and dreamer by nature, Wai has been deeply nuts about the celluloid world since the first time he discovered he could watch a story instead of reading it. But he likes writing about it. Wai goes by a single name because he likes to avoid any “Imperial entanglements” (a.k.a. “conflict of interest with the powers that be” for those of you who don’t speak Star Wars) in his employment. Plus, cool people use one-word names.

Storyteller by trade and dreamer by nature, Wai has been deeply nuts about the celluloid world since the first time he discovered he could watch a story instead of reading it. But he likes writing about...

3 replies on “The LoyarBurok Movie Review: 4815 Merdeka Marathon – 3Legend of the Fist … & 4Wall Street …”

  1. Vaart, thanks for the feedback. I just watched "LotF" myself and sadly I have to agree that it wasn't a very good film. This preview was just a list of movies that either had received strong word-of-mouth or I thought had potential. In this case, the buzz turned out to be unfounded.

    The plot is terribly unfocused, meandering between ancillary characters that ultimately the audience doesn't care about. And i found Shu Qi excruciatingly annoying. You are right, there isn't much martial arts on display, but what little there is of the fight scenes are top-notch. The thing is, it's supposed to be all about Chen Zhen. But by the time Donnie Yen stepped into that recognisable "Bruce Lee" guise, with all the trademark screams and posturing, it was just too little, too late. Sigh. Coulda, shoulda, woulda…

  2. Wai. Just watched Legend of the Fist which was not very good. Few fight scenes only. Usual Chinese resistance v Japanese invaders plot. Ending too abrupt. Not up to the standard of Donnie's other fight movies.

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