This is How Movies Should Be Made

Please don't spend money on this.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

Blistering performances.

Over the years, I've come to accept that an intelligent plot isn't always high on the priority list for many martial arts films, but rarely have I seen such a humongous pile of random claptrap as Blade of Kings. About two minutes into the film and I was completely lost, dumbfounded by the rapid succession of seemingly unconnected elements thrown at the viewer with little or no concern for narrative cohesion or logic.Amazonians who all look Chinese, the fabled sword Excalibur, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the Star of Rex, the Lord of Armoury, The Haunted City, cave people with fake fangs, women with moustaches, men who turn into women, a mystical stone plaque, a really bad CGI hawk: just some of the nonsensical garbage that goes to make up what is easily the worst film to feature either Donnie Yen or Jackie Chan. Hell, I'm willing to bet that this must also be one of the lamest movies to star 'The Twins', Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung.Yen's fight against Chan (who plays a living statue) is, unsurprisingly, the highlight of the whole film, but when the rest of the kung fu is so lame, all enhanced by wires and crappy computer effects, that really isn't saying much. I'm not a quitter when it comes to bad films, but half an hour into this incomprehensible dreck and I have never been so sorely tempted to hit the stop button. 1/10

When I saw the trailer of "Fa Dou Daai Jin", I found it very attractive, with many special effects, wonderful landscapes and a nice cast and I decided to watch this movie on video. Unfortunately the screenplay is very silly and confused, never working as a comedy or an action movie. The acting is awful, especially Charlene Choi and her constant smile and Jaycee Chan. The name of Jackie Chan in the credits is only to attract his fans and sell the movie, since he has a very short participation of a few minutes. In the end, I found this boring movie a complete mess and waste of time. Directors Patrick Leung and Corey Yuen should know that a great budget and special effects alone do not make a good movie. My vote is two.Title (Brazil): "A Dinastia da Espada" ("The Dynasty of the Sword")

I loved the first Twins Effect movie. Great girls, fun action, great vampires. A totally feel-good romp with lots and lots of eye-candy. In my opinion, Twins Effect II is not much worse! It's not quite as good as the first, but there's plenty to look at. Beautiful girls, rich colors and costumes, beautiful scenery, a fantasy world of amazons and magic-wielders, and a vaguely Arthurian plot about a young man fated to find the sword Excalibur and liberate the people from the terrible tyranny of a man-hating matriarch! It's great!OK, they didn't do a lot with the story; it's really only there as a token plot device to build some cool action and an entertaining setting around. The story isn't king. But at least it's coherent and extant, which is more than one can say for a lot of other silly Asian action comedies! The two big scenes that make this a very cool movie is the long opening fight scene between the two twins (called 13th Young Master and Blue Bird), which is *exactly* the kind of thing I look for in martial arts movies, and then the great (but completely irrelevant to the story) fight scene between super-fighters Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan. I don't know why some people didn't like this fight; I thought it was very, very good. Even if it didn't need to be there at all, as far as the story was concerned. In fact, Donnie Yen's character, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (yes, that was his name!), didn't have any kind of necessary-to-the-plot role at all. But it was fun seeing him; he is always ice cool!The overall look of this movie reminded me of parts of The Legend of Zu, simply because of all the rich colors. That stuff looks great if you ask me.Gillian Chung is still the best-looking thing in the movie, in her gorgeous blue outfit! Where the hell can I buy the posters to go with this movie??My rating: 8 out of 10.

Twins Effect II is about a war between males and females. Nothing to do with vampires so why is it called a sequel? A strong cast of pretty boys and cute girls, this movie has a flawed storyline and badly done CG effects. Considering it is a 2004 movie, the special effects are unacceptable. Even Stormraiders and A Man Called Hero look better than this movie.Only watch this movie if you are interested to see the poor virgin acting skills of 23 year old lead character, son of Jackie Chan. I wonder if the director was paid to cast him in the movie instead of the other way.Mao points: 5/10