She Shoots Straight
Review
Format: VCD
Stars: Joyce Godenzi, Yuen Wah, Sammo Hung, Agnes Aurelio
This is a girl cop film. It's fast. It has good stunts. It has Yuen Wah. It has a good story. It has believable characters. It has emotion. It has some fast action, though not enough of it. The plot is about Godenzi's revenge for her husband's death due to a Vietnamese gang led by Yuen Wah.
Ok, I'll point out right now that Joyce Godenzi can do some awesome things. She does her own stunts, and the lady can move better than most men I've seen on film. In fact, I'd go as far as saying she's one of the best looking fighters/stunt peoeple I've ever seen, up there on the top. She does her own bike stunt, riding over a car, and she can act too, so there's a double wammie for you. Her partner, Carina Lau, is also pretty good, but sometimes they sped up the film because, well, some people just can't handle it.
Though the stunts were well done, the real action didn't come in until the end of the movie. Godenzi moved all over the place inside a ship, and rode another bike, and had a good looking duel with Aurelio. And Yuen Wah is one of the most agile people on film, easily rivaling any of those people at the Peking Opera School. Hell he shows it in maybe 2 stunts that were the high points of the entire film. The first one, he rolls out of a building, onto a canopy, down that, onto some crates, all in one cut. THEN, he does a stunt at the end that makes me wonder if it's gonna kill him. He rides a motorcycle off the lip to a HUGE sand pit, jumps off, and lands maybe 20 feet below, with the motorcycle tumbling after him. GREAT!! Awesome, those 2 stunts, like I said, were the high points for me. I jumped out of my seat screaming at both. I'll be sure to post them both. Then Godenzi fights Aurelio, and both of them do some great looking bootwork. Aurelio does a triple kick in the air (which may have been wirework, but it was still good looking), and Godenzi does a bike kick that tops my list of kicks. So, Yuen Wah will obviously have a great fight next, right?
NO!!!
WHAT'S WITH THIS 20 SECOND FIGHT SCENE FOR YUEN WAH!?!?!?!!!!! SAMMO HUNG DIRECTED THIS, WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING?!!?! HE WENT TO THE SAME OPERA SCHOOL!!!! WHY DIDN'T HE REALIZE THAT YUEN WAH, WHO CAN DO THE BEST FLIPS IN THE WORLD AND IS UP THERE IN AGAILITY WITH YUEN BIAO AND POSSIBLY EVEN BETTER, NEEDS AT LEAST 5 MINUTES OF FIGHTING IN A MOVIE!?!?!? Damn!! Idiot. I was pissed. Totally mad. Talent wasted, once again. Wah is underlooked, just like he was in Dragons Forever. "2 stunts, Mr. Wah, and some shooting scenes, and you get to brawl a little while, but that's all ok?" Wah should have KICKED Sammo for doing this.
Rating: 4/10 for the movie
Rating: 10/10 for Wah because the guy is so good that he is EQUAL OR BETTER THAN all the Opera kids. He and Biao are so overlooked that I wonder whether or not the HK cinema knows how the hell to use the MOST TALENTED ACTOR rather than the MOST POPULAR ACTOR. Wah, you deserve more than this. So do all the underrated HK stars. These underrated stars are the ones I like, and the more I like them, the more I dislike the ones who get all the attention.
SAMMO, you didn't have any good fights for Jackie in Mr. Nice Guy, and then you go and do this. Hopefully you can make better use of your stars if you do another movie.
UPDATE - 8/20 - I've thought about it, and I think there must have been a reason Wah didn't get the time he deserved here. Still, I keep the rating, but I don't entirely blame Sammo for this. There must have been something else. Sammo knows damn well that Wah can do better. Hell they went to the same school. So, I apologize for being so harsh. I'd like a reason, somehow, though.
And I've also heard that Sammo didn't direct this movie anyways. He helped produced it. Thanks to Chad Opitz.
UPDATE 10/9 - Rating System Change
2/5
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