As a long time Jet Li fan (regardless of the genre), I always look forward to films in which he appears.
Promoted as an "Action/Adventure" film, 'Badges of Fury' is actually an "Action/Comedy" in the 'Beverly Hills Cop' vein via master filmmaker Stephen Chow... except that the action is totally embarrassing and the film is completely devoid of any comedy (unless you are 2 years old... which is actually an insult to 2-year-olds).
Where to begin with this unmitigated disaster?
Of the lead cast, Jet Li comes off best as the grizzled veteran cop. Regrettably, his comedic skills (and action talents) are sorely under-utilized. Michelle Chen struggles with a role that no one could possibly make believable (even for a supposed OTT comedy). Meanwhile, Zhang Wen mugs to the camera ad nauseum... to the point where you want someone... anyone... to shoot him and put the audience out of their collective misery.
Action maestro Corey Yuen tries what he can with the fight scenes. Wire-fu is intentionally bad. The problem is that it never achieves the "it's so bad that it's good" level. Instead, it settles for just being bad... with even worse CGI work. The only stand-out is a brief sequence where a duel is fought on a round table embedded in a wall. But this is still not reason enough to sit through 94 minutes of agony.
Things are certainly not helped by screenwriter Tan Cheung's lackluster, unfunny script. Logic, subtext and actual comedy are thrown by the wayside for... well, I'm not exactly sure. There are some interesting ideas here. But they remain undeveloped. With the exception of only a few actually laughs, the screenplay derives it's "humour" by aiming for the lowest, juvenile approach imaginable... something I didn't think possible until I saw this travesty.
But ultimate blame lands at the feet of director Tsz Ming Wong. The key to any action flick or comedy film is timing; an artistic sense that Tsz Ming Wong is completely lacking. Scenes are painfully off-key, strained or just plain poor. He commands no sense of storytelling... instead, preferring to jump from one pointless scene to another. Logic is a foreign concept. Things happen because the director (and the script) wants them to happen. This might be fine if it all came together. Instead it just sits there. Unfunny. Bad. And painfully dull.
In other words, avoid this movie at all costs.
Promoted as an "Action/Adventure" film, 'Badges of Fury' is actually an "Action/Comedy" in the 'Beverly Hills Cop' vein via master filmmaker Stephen Chow... except that the action is totally embarrassing and the film is completely devoid of any comedy (unless you are 2 years old... which is actually an insult to 2-year-olds).
Where to begin with this unmitigated disaster?
Of the lead cast, Jet Li comes off best as the grizzled veteran cop. Regrettably, his comedic skills (and action talents) are sorely under-utilized. Michelle Chen struggles with a role that no one could possibly make believable (even for a supposed OTT comedy). Meanwhile, Zhang Wen mugs to the camera ad nauseum... to the point where you want someone... anyone... to shoot him and put the audience out of their collective misery.
Action maestro Corey Yuen tries what he can with the fight scenes. Wire-fu is intentionally bad. The problem is that it never achieves the "it's so bad that it's good" level. Instead, it settles for just being bad... with even worse CGI work. The only stand-out is a brief sequence where a duel is fought on a round table embedded in a wall. But this is still not reason enough to sit through 94 minutes of agony.
Things are certainly not helped by screenwriter Tan Cheung's lackluster, unfunny script. Logic, subtext and actual comedy are thrown by the wayside for... well, I'm not exactly sure. There are some interesting ideas here. But they remain undeveloped. With the exception of only a few actually laughs, the screenplay derives it's "humour" by aiming for the lowest, juvenile approach imaginable... something I didn't think possible until I saw this travesty.
But ultimate blame lands at the feet of director Tsz Ming Wong. The key to any action flick or comedy film is timing; an artistic sense that Tsz Ming Wong is completely lacking. Scenes are painfully off-key, strained or just plain poor. He commands no sense of storytelling... instead, preferring to jump from one pointless scene to another. Logic is a foreign concept. Things happen because the director (and the script) wants them to happen. This might be fine if it all came together. Instead it just sits there. Unfunny. Bad. And painfully dull.
In other words, avoid this movie at all costs.