Silver Hawk
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Movie Reviews of Silver Hawk
Movie Review: For cognescenti only
Summary: 3 Stars
I watched this with my eleven year old son yesterday.
He was a little apprehensive with the PG-13 rating but his face brightened when he read the criteria for the rating. Stylized martial arts violence, he mused. It should not be too bad.
We began watching as we have with movies of this genre before, expecting the imposiible to happen which it frequently does.
My fiftenn year old daughter wandered in just as the hero is saving a panda cub shortly after the start. Oos and aahs soon ensued but she wandered off in disgust soon after when the hero, not in disguise, meets her chief protagonist from the local law enforcement agency who she recognises as a school chum but he, in return, consumed in his own ego trip does not recognise her.
My son soon found fault with the plot. The police chief is seen in retrospect advising the little orphan girl he has taken under his wing (no pun intended) to fight with a bag over her head so she will not get into trouble, yt he has difficulty recognising the now adult girl as his contemporary even though he is reading a magazine article about her at the time.
And so it goes, and so it goes. Michelle Yeoh is in a class of her own with regard to the martial arts form and continues to be here. There is plenty of action, silly dialogue, oddly two-dimensional relationships etc etc. It seems trite but did we not see the error of not recognising Clark Kent as Superman without glasses years ago as being a major drawback?
This film is a pleasant piece of escapist nonsense guaranteed not to tax the brain or even wake it from a stupor. However, compared to current television it is in the major documentary class. I feel the rating is too harsh. Parental guidance yes as it seems to me, judging from the reaction of my own family, that this is the sort of thing which should be directed at under elevens rather than older. Even the presence of adult themes does not diminish my argument as they are treated in a supercillious fashion.
I had a reasonable time watching this for the ninety minutes or so with my son but at the soccer match afterwards he discovered that when you fall you do get hurt and you cannot get back up half as quickly as these very fit thugs can.
Ce la vie.
Movie Review: (2.5 STARS) Michelle Yeoh as Kung-Fu Fighter with Silver Cape: Good Stunts and Poor Story
Summary: 3 Stars
Between `Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and `Memoirs of a Geisha,' Michelle Yeoh has done two action films - Indiana Jones-like action `The Touch' (2002) and `Silver Hawk' (2004). Michelle Yeoh stars (and even co-produced) both of the films with English-speaking cast.
Of these two action films, probably `Silver Hawk' is better, but not still good enough. One good thing about `Silver Hawk' is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It is a comic book action, in which the titular heroine Silver Hawk (Yeoh) saves a stolen animal from the smugglers, and then she can save the day too. Clad in silver costume, wearing a long silver cape, masked Yeoh plays Lulu, beautiful celebrity businesswoman, who leads a secret life as Silver Hawk. Luke Goss (`Blade 2') plays `Dr. Evil' type baddie while Richie Jen Hsien Chi plays Detective Rich Men who happened to be little Lulu's friend in their childhood.
The film is set in near-future, but the main attraction is the actions of Michelle Yeoh, who shows her stunts in an acrobatic (and often comical) way. As she did in Jackie Chan's `Police Story 3' she shows her considerable skills in death-defying motorbike riding, jumping over the Great Walls of China. It is not CGI, and unlike her previous film `The Touch,' (which suffered from overloaded special effects), the stunts themselves including bungee kung-fu battles are very good.
However, these good materials are sometimes ruined by slow motions and choppy editing. We know Michelle Yeoh is doing her own stunts - and she is over 40 years old, remember that - but except the two I mentioned above, Director Jingle Ma (`Tokyo Raiders') has no creative ideas about how to show the actions. The characters' histories could have been more interesting with more detailed episodes about their personalities, and decent dialogues, but the childhood memories shared by the hero and the cop remains half-baked idea. It is a pity because the two child actors are so adorable.
It is regrettable that `Silver Hawk' could have been much better. It is a kind of Hong-Kong made `Tomb Raider' with more tongue-in-cheek moments. It has good stunts and Michelle Yeoh too, but it is the story that uses them poorly.
Movie Review: Silver Hawk is a decent film but Michelle Yeoh is reason enough to see this.
Summary: 3 Stars
I've been always fascinating with Asian action movies. So when I spotted this, I had to check it out. This was a good action movie, with several nifty fights and some funny parts. In this movie, Michelle Yeoh plays Lulu Wong, a much-idolised rock star and philanthropist by day, and a super heroine, Silver Hawk, who fights injustice with her skin-tight black leather outfit as her alter-ego. Richie Ren plays police detective Richman, who has an uncanny instinct and incredible wit, but he hates Silver Hawk for being always two steps ahead of the police. Both of them, however join hands to fight a baddie, Wolfe (Luke Goss) who wants to dominate the world through a special microchip in mobile phones, which will broadcast subliminal message to users.
Directed by cinematographer-turned-director Jingle Ma (Hot War, Tokyo Raiders, Summer Holiday, Goodbye,Mr.Cool and Para Para Sakura), the action scenes are beautifully choreographed, especially the one where a group of bungee jumpers armed with hockey sticks attacking our heroine in an outdoor arena. The opening sequence is also great with Yeoh riding a motorcycle and jumping over the Great Wall of China. There's also ample use of CGI to enhance the action sequences throughout the movie. Although the script is straight forward, Ma succeeds in presenting the story in an entertaining way with constant flashbacks to the past when Lulu and Richman were studying at a Shaolin Temple. The two kids who play them are excellent, especially the boy.
Yeoh is great to watch and executes her fighting scenes with style and finesse. Her experience in martial arts helped tremendously. Providing comic relief is Brandon Chang, who plays a computer whiz kid who constantly pops up to annoy Richie Ren. Wolfe's role was downplayed. Instead his two assassins played by Bingbing Li and Michael Jai White (Universal Soldier: The Return and Spawn) got most of the action. Surprisingly, both of them had no dialogue in the movie.
Nonetheless, `Silver Hawk' is an entertaining enough with some good laughs and nice visual effects, but not to take seriously most of the time.
Movie Review: Half Amazing
Summary: 3 Stars
Like most other reviewers have stated Silver Hawk is a entertaining movie with great stunts and fight sequences but with a weak story. The movie is about woman (Michelle Yeoh) who leads a double life, by day she is a popular model and by night she is Silver Hawk, a vigilante feared by most criminals. The story gets in gear when Yeoh must save a man who was kidnapped by some crazy villain. The man invented an Artificial Intelligence program that he intends to use for good but his nappers want it to take over the world. Now already the movie sounds like a comic book cliché and trust me it is in every way but somehow Michelle was talented enough to keep interest in the movie until the very end. I knew Michelle had skills but man she really killed this movie, the fight choreography was amazing and the stunts were also nice. One notable scene is when Silver Hawk is in the middle of a warehouse full of guys hanging from the sealing on bungee cords trying to hit her from every direction. Sounds like Tomb Raider but I like this bungee scene a lot more. Basically the best way to put it is Silver Hawk is worth seeing but only for its great fight and action scenes because at the end it's the only thing you'll remember.Movie Review: Slightly painful to watch, but it had Michelle Yeoh and a panda!
Summary: 2 Stars
Someone else said they were embarassed to see Michelle Yeoh in this film. I would have to agree. What's worse is that she produced it too(with her production company Mythical Films). I'm quite a fan of Michelle, and I love her movies, but this was indeed pretty painful to watch. I've always believed she was such a great actress, but the acting in this movie really suprised me: it was terrible. It was very forced, even Michelle's. I felt like I was watching a High School play where everybody had just learned how to memorize and read lines! I was shocked, because Michelle has done a great job in her other movies(see "Ah Kam", "Memoirs of a Geisha", and ESPECIALLY "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"), but this was just not good. Plus, if I have to hear the wonderful Michelle say a line like "Totally fab!!" again I'm going to pull my hair out.
Michelle herself did say that this was no award winner. It was a movie that you could watch without having to think(that's what she said!). I would have to agree with you there, Michelle. I think if I was 10 or 11 I would have enjoyed this a little more.
The stunts and fight scenes were okay. I've seen better. Michelle is like no other woman on this planet, however, when it comes to kicking ass and doing her own stunts. She is incredible and an absolute Legend. Anyway, back to the film...
The outfits Michelle wore were just...wow. Like someone else said, the cheese is laid on very thick. It's corny as all get out, and again, the stunts were nothing special. If you want to see Michelle really kicking ass, go for "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" or some of her Hong Kong classics like "The Heroic Trio" or "Wing Chun" or something of the sort.
The only saving grace to this film(other than the fact that Michelle was in fact in it) were the two children who played young Lulu and young Richman. They were absolutely precious beyond words and did such a fantastic job! I wished the movie would have had more of them in it, because I think it would have been better! The panda was pretty cute too, although it only appeared for a brief minute or so at the beginning of the movie.
Was it worth the $7 that I spent on Ebay to buy this? Probably not, but as a fan of Michelle I feel compelled to watch as many of her movies as I can, even the crappy ones. This would probably be one of those decent movies to watch when you're watching it with a bunch of friends and you feel like poking fun at it and making sarcastic commentary.