The Twins Effect II

This film reminded me of Halloween 3. Remember? The third film that had nothing to do with the continuing storyline of Michael Myers. Thats pretty much what this film does... takes the same title from an entertaining first film and slaps it onto a film with a completely different story.

Apparently, the Twins Effect films are not supposed to have any continuity because it's just a franchise vehicle to market these popular HK twin celebrities. Which is sad, because the first film was entertaining. This film is just strange and more so comedic. In laymens terms, women have taken over the world and an evil woman sorcerer wants to change all the remaining men in the world into women as well. I honestly found myself fast forwarding a lot in this film because I kept getting so disinterested with the plot. Which upsets me because I love HK films and rarely do that. I even bought this film based on the fact I loved the first one... but I'm sadly selling it off. It's not that much of a keeper. This film has only one good scene, the cameo fight scene with Jackie Chan. Which you can find that entire fight online somewhere without having to watch this film.

The CGI effect and the costume and production value is certainly better than the first one thanks to the success of Vampire Effects. Though what this movie lack is some good male acting (except Daniel Wu) and the whole idea of the battle of sexes was lame. In the first movie i thought Jackie Chan cameo was hilarious in this one he was cool. The fight scene between him and Donnie Yen was awesome, i don't recall them fighting before. But wish they did. Experience actors like Ekin Cheng and Edisen Chen for sure did a whole better job than newcomer JC Chan and Wilson Chen. Those people lack emotion and very one dimensional at this point.

This movie was boring thank largely to the twins acting and their cuteness. It was entertaining but the fight scene weren't has good has the first one (too much CGI). I have to say the first one edge out the second one in term of plot and more better actors. BTW Tony Leung Ka Fai (who particularly in half of the movies this years) did a terrific job in this movie, he's sooo funny. He need more of those roles like back in the 90s.

In the mythical land of Huadu, Charcoal Head, a humble boy born to rule an empire must undertake his journey to claim his throne. It is an epic action adventure combining romance, fantasy, comedy and cutting edge Hong Kong style martial artistry.

While this film had some good humor, a decent plot and some very odd twists and turns (and a running gag about mustaches)... it just fell short for me for one big reason: the special effects. The effects are very well done, much better than the flotsam SyFy pumps out, but it still takes away from the idea of a martial arts movie.

Case in point: Donnie Yen is an amazing martial arts master (as seen in the "Ip Man" films, among others) and in one scene he fights Jackie Chan. Why did this need special effects? Instead of having glorious natural movements, you have to add in cheesy computer graphics and aspects that clearly were not there? Chan and Yen do not require this -- they are (or at least should be) a selling point all their own.

That aside, it was pretty decent. I am unclear about the character "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"... this film seems to borrow from the film of that name (what with the silly flying). But is this an homage? A cheap ripoff? Why use that name within a film that clearly is not connected to the classic, or even on the same level?

Oh well. Still a good movie. Not the best martial arts film, and certainly not the best from Well Go, but worth seeing. It is too bad that American audiences had to wait eight years for this to finally be released... we need more Donnie Yen and Bingbing Fan.

Last year's Twins Effect was surely one of the worst movies of the year, due to its corny dialouge, laughable action sequences and lack of plot. This year, it looks like Twins Effect 2 will have almost the same honour. Only the HK movie industry could manage to churn out nonsensical sequels one after another.

On to the plot: The leads, Twins play citizens of a kingdom in which men are slaves and women are the rulers. They help a guy fight the female emperor. End of story.

Nothing really makes any much sense in this movie, it suffers from the same faults as the first one. The saving grace is probably Jackie Chan's cameo, in which there is a brilliant fight sequence.

My recommendation: Only hardcore fans of Jacky Chan/Twins will watch this crap.

1/10

I am a pretty big martial arts fan. Unfortunately I usually don't buy any movies without seeing them or doing a little research on them. I'm embarrassed to say that I bought it based on the cool box....I saw Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan on the cool cover so I thought there was no loosing with this DVD. Boy was I wrong. This must be the lamest and most boring movie I have seen in the past years. The plot sucks, the action sucks, the scenery sucks...its just SUCKS! If you see this movie thinking that you're going to see Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan you're mistaken...they have minimal roles in this film. About 5 minutes combined.....4 for Donnie and 1 for Jackie. BUUUUUUUUUUU