Brilliant and touching

Beautiful, moving film.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I wish this movie for a Christmas present and I got it. I was waited for a month that I can see the film and finally I get the DVD and watched it right away. I was really excited in the beginning and watch the whole movie to the end. I said to myself: I loved it very much! I thanked my mom from the movie. This wasn't the worst Madonna's exhibition performance, she was worse in Swept Away (2002) directed By Guy Ritchie. This movie should be better IMDb score. I understand people who doesn't like Madonna's bad acting but that doesn't make the movie really bad. So people who knocks out the whole movie, think about the story, was the story good? I think you should think about this thing after knocking out the whole movie. Thank you for reading! :)

Glendon Wasey is a fortune hunter looking for a fast track out of China. Gloria Tatlock is a missionary nurse seeking the curing powers of opium for her patients. Fate sets them on a hectic, exotic, and even romantic quest for stolen drugs. But they are up against every thug and smuggler in Shanghai.....If you ever want to see a film starring a married couple who have zero chemistry in a movie, then this is a must.It's labelled as an adventure romance, so you'd be forgiven to think your about to watch a homage to Indiana Jone ps by way of romancing the stone. Instead you get a film that is more like a homage to Firewalker, by way of Allan Quartemain in the eighties, and every bit as bad as it sounds.We have Paul Freeman pretending to be an old Oirish clergyman, and the big reveal at the end is wasted, because we see him without his contacts in for at least five minutes before he goes 'ta da'.There's a man with porcelain hands, Penn looks like he's been taking some sort if narcotic throughout filing, and Madonna, is supposed to be a virginal missionary.......Isn't it all hilarious.It's dreck of the highest order, and no wonder they broke up after this, I hated everybody after sitting through it.Devoid of almost anything, it's a surprise it didn't sink Handmade pictures....

When the opening credits start, you are surprised how it's immediately bad : the song is lame, the visual inspiration is particularly awful. Then, the first scene comes and you are already bored. Then, comes Madonna, Sean Penn and nothing changes : there are no story, no action, no exoticism ! This is like this for nearly 100 minutes and if you wonder why the movie bombed, well, now you know ! For those who expected a firework between the new spouses, it's a disappointment : it's maybe the first couple on a screen who doesn't exude a little chemistry between them ! Shot on locations on Macau, you expected to feel like « Empire of the sun » or « Indy 2 » but the places are limited to the port, a lake, and looks like today! The big action sequence is a ridiculous rickshaw pursuit and the special effects are just laughable as much as they are bad (exploded hands, tomato blood!)... In other words, the movie is just totally uninteresting and in addition totally salvaged by a inept crew!

I'm not a fan of Penn or Madonna, but this movie is undoubtedly the most underrated film on IMDb. I can't believe that Shanghai Surprise user rating is only 2.6 and is on it's way to bottom 100.The story here is very good, Penn was okay and Madonna was not as bad as in other her films, so I rated it strong 6 out of 10, not an 0.1 less but not an 0.1 more. Perhaps it's not an excellent adventure, but still very entertaining, sometimes funny,and with beautiful cinematography as a bonus. Enjoy!