This is a movie snack… it is the fried-chicken of movies. Little drama, no surprise, and a whole lot of ACTION. The 7th art is about entertainment, and this movie reminds us of just that. If you want to be entertained and laugh out loud this is your movie. Ninety-nine minutes of fighting interlaced with just enough acting to set up the next fight, and “ding ding” next round, FIGHT!
The critics have all bashed this Ninja Assassin movie. Here is my question: do you really think that anyone was going for a nomination in the best drama category with a movie called Ninja Assassin? This is a very enjoyable experience at the theater. You need not to try to figure out the plot, in fact this is a very WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) movie.
Twenty-seven year old South Korean newfound star Rain a.k.a Ji Hoon Jung (Speed Racer, Saibogujiman kwenchana) is Raizo, a ninja who was trained by a fraternity of assassins. He was enrolled as an orphan and became a ninja-hunter, seeking revenge on those who made him a dangerous one-man army. Enter Mika, played by British belle Naomie Harris (Miami Vice, Street Kings) who is investigating the Assassin's ring and ends up on the hit-list herself. Her boss Maslow, (Ben Miles, another 2008 Speed Racer veteran) tries to protect her while using her as bait to save himself. That is the entire plot of Ninja Assassin.
James McTeigue is a director who has mastered his genre. His target audience is clear cut and does not include film critics from the NY Times or the LA Times. He is the director who brought us V for Vendetta (2005) and was an assistant director in Street Fighter (1994), the Matrix Trilogy and Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones. He is unapolegetic; and I am happy. This is a style of movie that needs to be made. Sometimes I just need a good dose of action, explosions, and fights; none of which needs to be believable. In Ninja Assassin James McTeigue gives us a great action flick.
The casting is not phenomenal. It seems that the casting crew just salvaged whomever they could from the Speed Racer Movie McTeigue directed. Randall Duk Kim (The Keymaker (2003), Matrix Reloaded (2005) makes an appearance here as a tattoo master. Sung Kang also makes a brief appearance. Naomie Harris does her best with the script she is given. Veteran Ninja choreographer and stunt master Shô Kosugi plays Ozunu. Other stars include French-Vietnamese Linh Dan Pham (2007 Pars vite et reviens tard) and TV second-hand man Stephen Marcus.
|
TAGS
ninja, assassin, kung fu, martial arts, Hong Kong |
