Reviews

I've seen old-series purists' reviews and I've seen new-series apologists' reviews, and I agree with both of them, for the most part. This is not a bad series. However, when you create a remake or a reboot or a continuation of some sort, you own an homage to the original. More than just a pennyfarthing bicycle hanging on one of the sets. Simply, it should not have been called "The Prisoner" if they planned to stray so far from the original concept.

I was particularly disappointed when they started the series with an escaping prisoner wearing a suit in the style of the 60s series. That suggested to me that The Village had continued to exist through the decades, and that this was just a new story in the history of The Village. Not so. This is not the original Village.

Caviezel, as others have said, was miscast. His constantly bewildered expression doesn't exactly cry out, "I am a free man!"

I started out thinking this was going to be a re-hash of Millennium (1989). It actually ended up being a re-hash of Final Approach (1991). You can figure out what's going on by about halfway through the movie, and from that point the build-up to the climax is just tedious. Too many red herrings, too many scenes that just drop off when you're expecting more. The ending is just as disappointing as the rest of the movie.

Not a date movie, not in any way a group movie, and if you're into watching movies by yourself, do yourself a favour and see Final Approach instead.

I was seriously concerned when I learned that this movie was being made. It's one of the most important moments in Canadian history, and done wrong it could be a total disaster.

I needn't have worried. The movie was made with such graphic realism and cinematographic excellence that I find it hard to believe it was made by such relatively inexperienced filmmakers. At least, inexperienced in filming an epic.

Paul Gross is absolutely outstanding. Completely divested of his corny mountie character, he portrays the tall, strong soldier that every recruitment poster promised they'd make you. At the same time, he's a believable and compassionate romantic lead.

The attention to historical detail is admirable. Take for example Major Bingham, the half mad British recruitment officer, whose character is a brilliant metaphor for the British high command under Field Marshal Haig (even bearing a passing resemblance to same). Haig is commonly believed to have ordered Canadian troops to perform suicidal missions in order to preserve the lives of British troops sent to less hazardous battles. This film's Major Bingham ruthlessly recruits Canadians who should have been medically excused, to serve and die in the army.

This is a film every Canadian can be proud of, almost as proud as we are of the real soldiers who fought and died in the trenches in The Great War.

There's not much to redeem this movie. But when you see Jeff Speakman and William Shatner on the cover, you pretty much know what to expect. Cheese, and lots of it.

Chris Lemmon was actually passable as a bad guy, despite being the worst actor in the entire world. Charles Robinson (Mac from Night Court) was also very good.

One of the best scenes is the schoolbus car chase. Although we're meant to believe they're driving across town, they are clearly just driving up and down the same street over and over, passing--and crashing into--the same cars repeatedly. There are only about four cars in that scene other than the bus and the bad guys.

The car chases were very impressively overdone. Each time a bad guy's car rear-ended another car, it would take flight as though launched from a catapult. The bus was hit broadside, and exploded like it was packed with dynamite. Then it blew up again a bit later.

The music was remarkably terrible. It's like they just picked random pieces for each scene, and turned them up even louder during the quiet scenes somehow believing this would add to the suspense.

Overall, I have to give it a 4 just for cheese value.

No major plot giveaways here.

The original Japanese story of Ryo Saeba bears similarities to the American live-action series The Equalizer. A man who formerly made his living working as a mercenary and assassin for a secret government organization leaves his job and turns to helping those in serious trouble who cannot help themselves, to appease his wounded conscience. Except Robert McCall never bragged about his erections. The City Hunter animated series was immensely popular despite using the same formula in every single episode.

The City Hunter movie assumes that the viewer already knows something of the animated series. If, for example, you didn't know that Ryo was agonizingly poor and hungry in the later episodes of the animated series, then several of the food-chasing scenes lose their humour. Same is true of the fact that Ryo will take absolutely any private-eye job that involves spending time with beautiful women, and will refuse any job that doesn't.

Other features from the series are: Ryo's cohort Saeko Nogami, a gorgeous police detective who takes perverse pleasure in using her feminine wiles to coerce favours out of him; a one-off character who is able to throw playing cards with deadly force like throwing stars; Ryo's trademark red Austin Mini; Kaori's hammers.

With today's CGI, the mandatory scenes in which Kaori mashes Ryo with a gigantic 100-ton mallet would have been much better. They ended up being clumsy and unfunny.

The plot is very typical City Hunter fare: Ryo is hired by a powerful businessman to find his runaway daughter and takes the job against his will. Meanwhile, the cruise ship he follows her to is taken hostage by a gang of mercenaries.

The movie adds a couple of elements not present in the series, namely martial arts, and adult-oriented toilet humour. These are pretty standard for Hong Kong movies though, and help explain why it was a smash hit at the box office in Hong Kong.

There are quite a number of very memorable scenes in this movie, particularly one in which Ryo and Saeko team up for a fight. Ryo swings the armed Saeko around to shoot enemies in all directions, and then does some ballroom dancing with her when they're done. In another scene, Bruce Lee coaches Jackie through a fight in a movie theatre. The fight in the arcade... I'll say no more--you just have to see it.

If you're looking for serious butt-kicking, this is not the Jackie Chan film for you. This film is for the Airplane/Naked Gun crowd with a taste for action.