Blood Money

Don't get excited like I did and mistake this for some kick-ass Hong Kong actioner. It's actually an Australian cheapie which just so happens to be shot in Hong Kong. It stars the unknown actor Zheng Liu as a fighter who gets involved in a battle against the usual drug runners. I know little about Liu, except that he trained at the real-life Shaolin Temple, but his acting is woefully bad and any martial talents he possesses are hidden by poor choreography which all too often employs the unwanted shaky-cam. The plot is cookie cutter stuff, Gordon Liu's cameo is wasted, and the CGI explosions take bad FX to the next level. It's pretty tiresome, if I'm honest.

When you see a tag-line like the star is the next Bruce Lee that does make you want to watch Blood Money. Now I know that tag-lines can be wildly exaggerated. Zheng Liu really does have very impressive martial arts skills, but I couldn't properly enjoy them with such lifeless choreography and choppy editing. And really Blood Money is really a disaster that has only Liu's martial arts skills as its saving grace. Visually, it was very confused and tried to do way too much. With the different colour schemes, the constant rapidly-shifting location changes, choppy editing and fast camera work, it never came together and it had a very dizzying effect when watching. The soundtrack is monotonous and forgettable and the dialogue, further disadvantaged by some very stilted line delivery, is just dreadful with clumsy attempts to be cool and iconic. With the story, even with the IMDb summary(interestingly written by the director), I still don't have a bloody clue what was going on in the movie, it was not just formulaic and dull but had a stopping-and-restarting effect and had the feel of the beginning of the movie actually being the middle. The characters are undeveloped and just as incoherent, these characters just come and go with no explanation and when you sometimes don't entirely know who the heroes and villains are you know there's something wrong. In regard to the acting, Liu's martial arts skill are fine but his lead performance on the acting front is a total blank. Pitbull is out of place, Gordon Liu brings some dignity but his character seemed to come out suddenly from another movie so it jarred and in general there was a lot of painful overacting going on. Overall, a disaster. And the comparison to Bruce Lee is exaggerated and most likely a marketing ploy(apologies for the possible cynicism to whoever reads this), Liu is good and promising in his strengths but nowhere near as charismatic, and in regard to Lee's movies while they were somewhat silly at least I could tell what was happening and who was who, an effect I didn't get at all with Blood Money. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Nothing wrong with a good, silly, action packed Kung Fu flick but this movie unfortunately has very little going for it.

First of all, I had an incredible hard time ever getting into this movie. Not necessarily because it was doing some silly things but more so because of its story. For most of the I had absolutely no clue what was going and who was fighting who and what for exactly. OK, so it's all drugs related I got that but please don't ask me what the main plot line was supposed to be all about. But what was even worse, was that I had absolutely no idea who the main characters was and what or who he was fighting for. The movie does an overall poor job with handling and explaining its story, which brings me to another point.

The movie really isn't all that well directed. Gregory McQualter is a first time director, that might be a good excuse but fact remains that both the storytelling and overall flow of the movie are far too lacking. It's obvious McQualter had more eye and passion for making a Kung Fu flick with plenty of action in it but he had no clue how to tell a good and compelling story as well, which got us involved with its characters and events happening on the screen. Not that the story itself seemed to be anything too solid either but I still have the feeling that in the hands of a more capable and experienced director this movie still could had worked out and at least would had become something more fun and entertaining to watch.

At first I thought it was a bad move for the movie to not let its main character, played by Zheng Liu, speak a lot. It made him uninteresting as a character and it was something that could had still worked out with a far more charismatic person. Then he however started to open his mouth more and suddenly I started to wish that he stayed mute for the entire movie. He really can't act and all of the dialog that's coming from his mouth sounded awful.

This obviously wasn't a very expensive movie to make and in that regard it's still being a bit of an accomplishment. It has a good look to it but I did also wished that I held back on its special effects a little bit more at times. It isn't always that convincing looking and it took away some from the movie its action as well.

The action is still some decent stuff. I at least feel and think that the genre lovers will still get some kicks out of it. Zheng Liu is obviously more talented in that department as well, though he most certainly ain't no Bruce Lee of course, which this movie desperately still tries to let you believe.

I was certainly glad when the movie finally was over.

4/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

When I first saw this movie advertised, I checked the reviews here and it had a great score so I figured it would be worth a look... How wrong I was to keep trusting this site. The movie is disjointed, poorly acted and directed and not worth the time or money to watch.

Admittedly, it's a low budget flick but that doesn't make up for how bad this really is.

It's a disjointed mess. If you're looking for a good action movie, with martial arts, go for Bruce Lee "Enter the Dragon". It will be a bit dated than this film but so much more enjoyable.

I think it's now time for me to start using www.rottentomatoes.com for my movie searches; it's not a back-end for amazon trying to sell garbage like this.

I understand were all different. We all see things in a unique perspective-our own.

Having said that, I cant believe for one second that someone sat through this whole movie and thought to themselves, 'wow!'. I cant believe it.

I wanted this to be good 'cos I was bored and hoping it would sit nicely. I was wrong. Its very confusing and feels like its trying too hard to be something its not-exciting and plot-driven.

Im sorry. There is no way someone thought this movie was above a 5, let alone an 8!

The ratings at IMDb cannot be trusted. Come here to get the plot idea about the movie but put no faith in the ratings. They are garbage. Either that, or the site has nothing but 12yr old 'pitbull' fans posting their reviews.