A rousing and bombastic bit of apocalyptic disaster movie goodness, Chinese director and co-writer Frant Gwo’s The Wandering Earth II delivers spectacle by the truckload.
Andy Lau
Silly, but swaggering, Stephen Fung’s globetrotting, Chinese produced heist picture The Adventurers centers on one of those kinds of criminal organizations that only exist in movies. The crew pulling off daring feats of thievery in The Adventurers has so many technologically implausible gadgets, getaway vehicles (including a helicopter), disguises, and tailor made suits that they can’t possibly be earning more from their fenced jewelry and artworks than they’re spending on making their pursuits look as cool as possible. These guys are like the Impossible Mission Force of thieves, which makes seeing them as vulnerable a bit of a stretch, but does allow for some decent action, style, and theatricality.
The Great Wall is the most expensive Chinese produced motion picture ever made, and at least half the time that budget shows. The other half is a less than seamless special effects extravaganza that can’t keep any plot elements straight for more than ten minutes at a time. On the whole, it’s a relatively amiable bit of entertainment that’s probably about as good as the core B-movie premise will allow, but with that low of a bar it’s hard to justify anyone spending this much money to make the thing with an A-list international cast and one of the world’s greatest and most mythologized man made landmarks as a focal point.