Reviews (5)

Jurassic Alien Park
What do you get if you combine the creature from Aliens with the setting of Jurassic Park and the capabilities of Predator? Probably the movie DNA.

DNA is set in the jungles (I mean rainforests) of Borneo. A talented researcher has moved his medical practice to a small town in Borneo. His unscrupulous financier is out to steal his work. Utilizing the DNA of a local beetle the bad guy is able to resurrect an ancient and powerful creature. It gets loose and an investigation is started by a U.S. government agency.

The bad doctor is found hiding from his own creation. The creature is very strong, fast and violent. It finally falls to the good doctor to dispatch the beast. Decked in war paint and wielding a poisoned ceremonial axe, he lays an ambush. The ambush fails but the doctor escapes. But when he is cornered at a cliff's edge, he manages to dive and shoot the creature with a grenade launcher. All are happy.

The early scenes of the Borneo installation look just like the control room from Jurassic Park, even the characters seem to have been lifted from there. The creature itself look very much like Geiger's Alien. In the jungle battles the good doctor sets the same ambushes as in Predator. While in the jungle, the creature has the ability to shift into invisibility (just like in Predator, again). It really seems like someone took their favorite scenes to make this movie. But it works. This film has a real plot and real development. It is not simply a group trying to avoid a monster until the survivors develop a desperate plan to kill it. Instead it mixes local legend, science, espionage, weapons dealers and several other facets to create a whole which is much better than most in the sub-genre.

An extra star because of Mark
If it wasn't for Mark Dacasco's finely chisled physique and screen presence I would have given this movie a 2 star rating. The story is extremely chliched and offers nothing to capture your attention beyond the limited action. A low budget movie, although it does well with what it has. I'm trying to find more positive to say about it, but it all comes back to seeing Mark be ripped and ripping apart the alien.

Slightly Above Average
I bought this movie very cheap and figured that it would be your run-of-the-mill, low budget, terrible B movie. It was not. This movie has suprisingly well-done special effects (for 1997). The script is very typical and the acting is OK. This movie borrows quite a bit from "Predator" as the waterfall scene at the end and the "Creature" resembles those of predator. Overall, this movie is worth a look.

SCORE 80/100 B-

OVERALL:
PLOT: 15/20 C
CAST: 15/20 C
SPECIAL EFFECTS 17/20 B
DIRECTION 16/20 B-
FUN: 17/20 B

CONTENT:
VIOLENCE: 7
SEX: 1
LANGUAGE: 4

It could have been better
I found this movie very poor. The story was nothing unusual and also the action wasn't too great. The special effects were outdated, even for 1997 and the acting was nothing that the actors should be proud of. I'm sure that the producers could have done a better job since many movies which are much older than this one have better special effects and better action (Aliens 1,2 and 3, terminator,...)
This is one of the worst movies i've seen (and i've seen MANY movies) and i don't recommend it.

Great Movie
This movie is great. The special effects are great but when the helicopter crashes it looks fake. The DVD should have inclueded a little more special features than just the scene selection. The picture on the DVD is awesome and clear. The sound is great if you turn it up loud. The movie is great. Hopefully they will come out with a DNA Special Edition DVD. But with a B movie like this they won't. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

One film worth checking out but not a good double-feature
What we have here is another unfortunate pairing of films that could have found better mates, because nobody who has seen these films would suggest this as a double feature."The Scorpion King" is the lesser of the two.We know the Rock played a character called the Scorpion King in "The Mummy Returns," which was supposed to set up this film. But the character goes from being a silent, brooding warrior of great strength and skill to a wisecracking, snarling warrior of great strength and skill. Did I miss something? At least in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" they explained how the character went from being the villain to the hero. No such explanation is offered here for what I thought was a similar transition. Then again, maybe I am guilty of thinking, which is not a prerequisite skill for watching this film.

Ironically, you may well enjoy this film a whole lot more if you have not seen "The Mummy Returns," especially if you are a devotee of WWF wrestling, the arena in which the Rock originally perfected his eyebrow arching technique. The story is set way before the pyramids were build, when the original Scorpion King, Memnon (Steven Brand) was the best swordsman on the planet and used the prophetic talents of a sorceress (Kelly Hu) to rule the known desert. Going up against him are the Arkadians, a group of professional assassins, of which Mathayus (the Rock) is the best and the brightest. He is aided by a giant Nubian (Michael Clarke Duncan) is what is certainly an homage to the legendary friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu (sorry, I was thinking again). Anyhow, "The Scorpion King" is clearly a standard action adventure in which the hero has to kill the bad guy, win the woman, and rule happily ever after.

It dawns on me that this film is similar to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." That film made Hong Kong wire work a part of the Hollywood cinematic repertoire, where as this film does the same for WWF Wrestling techniques. This film is not happy unless it is going over the top. When our hero shoots somebody with an arrow in this film the result is comparable to having used a small tactical missile: they are sent flying through the wall. The film certainly delivers exactly what you would expect, high energy heroics at breakneck speed, but a bit more creativity would have been nice. At least the dialogue knows it is supposed to be either tongue in cheek or painfully bad, so you cannot hold that against the film. The Rock delivers the performance demanded by his fans, so that is not going to be grounds for big complaints either. I did enjoy the film, more than I thought I would, but the ultimate standard for an action film is your desire to watch it again and again, and on that critical score "The Scorpion King" falls short (3 stars).

Then we have a film that tosses just about everything into the pot, including the French Revolution."The Brotherhood of the Wolf" ("Le Pacte des Loups") starts off as a exquisitely photographed costume drama/horror flick set in 18th century France with a poor peasant girl being hunted down by an unseen beast. My first thought that this was a beautiful film, more reminiscent of a Jane Austen period piece than a horror flick from Hammer Studio. But then our hero, Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan) and his faithful Indian companion, Mani (Mark Dacasos), show up and we suddenly discover the film is also a cross between "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." However, since this is movie based on a legend regarding a huge wolf ravaging the French countryside, this hardly seems the time to insist upon a standard of realism.

The collaboration between director Christophe Gans and cinematographer Dan Laustsen results in some beautiful and memorable camera shots (most notably, as the camera tracks up a woman's nude body it morphs into snow covered terrain), often playing with time and movement to great effect. In the deleted scenes Gans provides a sort of mini-commentary on the film that is quite interesting in terms of setting up the film's dynamic, especially regarding the opening sequence originally conceived for the film and the scene that replace it. Laustsen is the cinematographer on upcoming "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and my assumption is that when I see that film I will have a better sense of who contributed the most to "Brotherhood of the Wolf."

The film was edited Xavier Loutreuil and Sébastien Prangère, with David Wu doing the Hong Kong kung fu fight sequences, which are impresive because they do not, for the most part, violate the realism of the time, which is a way of saying the wire work is extremely limited and understated. I also like the way Fronsac's love triangle is color coded: Marianne de Morangias (Émilie Dequenne) is a redhead often dressed in a red uniform while the raven haired Sylvia (Monica Bellucci) always wears black. The rouge/noir opposition works well in contrast to the blues, browns and yellows which serve as the palatte for most of the film.

My only real complaint is actually the traditional complaint one has after watching a Hammer horror film: the beast, when we finally get to see it, is something of a disappointment. However, I will allow that this is probably due as much to my heightened expectations given the quality level of the rest of the film more than to the limitations of CIG technology. The second time I watched the film this aspects was less bothersome to me, but still something of a disappointment. An action/horror/fantasy/thriller/romance like "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is not going to be embraced by everyone, but certainly fans of those genres will admire the ambition of this film, the most beautiful of its type we have ever seen (4 stars).This is the film to check out, but since this pairing makes no sense, we round down once we split the difference.

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Reviews (4)

Mark Dacascos is the real star
Although the other actors make a decent effort, it's obvious that Mark Dacascos is the one who really knows what he's doing. While the others use wires to make themselves look good, Mark doesn't, and he still looks better.

Disecting the story would be pretty pointless. It's standard fare and offers nothing revolutionary, but as with all martial arts movies it's what you come to expect. Kind of a shame really, but anytime I can watch Mark is ok with me.

There is a rather touching performance dealing with the death of a character and the girls are lovely. Again, if you're looking for something deep this isn't the movie for you.

Above Average Action from Director of "Rumbles in the Bronx"
This is an average Hong kong actioner with its cast from diverse countries. From Hong Kong, upcoming star Arron Kwok appears as a special agent in Shanghai while America provides Coolio as a drug lord and Mark Dacascos as a gangster hungry for money and power (rare case for him to play a bad guy). Plus from Taiwan you get singer Leehom Wang as Kwok's hot-shot sidekick, and Japan also sends its popular actress Norika Fujiwara as a mysterious spy. It is obvious that "China Strike Force" (in Japan where I saw it, it was called "Spy_N") is made for international market, and whether it succeeds or not, I don't know, but as an action film it fares better than many other outings from Hong Kong, where you can see no longer Jackie, Chow, or maestro Woo constantly.

And the story is about a Chinese police team of Arron Kwok and Leehom Wang, who must stall some plot of a joint force of Chinese crime syndicate (Dacascos) and American gangster (Coolio), about some drug deal, but it is just a usual excuse to carry on 90 minutes of exciting actions and dull dialogues. Just wait till the film kicks off its action scenes, which are quite impressive.

There are two things that you might be interested. Director Stanley Tong is famous for Jackie Chan films, especially "First Strike" and "Rumbles in the Bronx" (the latter reaching the No. 1 box-office hit in US), and ... (embarrasing silence) ... Lesley Nelsen's "Mr. Magoo." His first Holywood film was surely a bomb. But he went back to his roots, real Hong-Kong actioner, and made a pretty good one, even though it sometimes goes to far, showing too much superflous viloence.

Another thing is that the location is not in Hong-Kong, but in Shanghai, and that may add some value to the film. This means it was shot in China, not in a rather crowded city of Hong Kong, so the actions are done with a larger scale as a result, and especailly the following two -- a "Driven"-like car chase sequence, and the final action using helicopter carrying a car and a glass panel held at the deadly height -- is very exciting.

Great Action--Acting? I dont speak a lick of Chinese
The action in this movie is outstanding, the helicopter/glass pane scene is unreal, I loved it!--I am pretty sure the acting is pretty bad but I have watched this twice, once with Cantonese and the second time with the Mandarin DTS track (my girlfriend speaks Mandarin so when I saw it again with her she was happy) and I had to work with English subtitles. The DTS encoding is superb and the Lfe channel made my couch move a few feet to the right. And I can't forget Norika Fujiwara, she is one of my favorite foreign actresses, not to mention the fact that she is gorgeous (sharing the level of beauty with Shu Qui and Zhang Zhiyi)--and she is outstanding in this movie, you can't take your eyes off of her.

Diverse Cast, fairly good story
Although this movie was not one of the greatest Hong Kong movies I have ever watched, it was quite enjoyable.

Synopsis (taken from back): Two young and handsome cops Darren and Alex watch the charity event, and suddenly an assassination occurs. Alex follows the assassin and suspects the beautiful woman, Norika, with move of taking something off from the victim's jacket pocket. Actually, she's a Japanese interpol agent. Darren and Alex try to save Norika who is trapped, but in the midst of the bullet showers, Alex dies heroicall. Darren on a quest to save Norika and revenge for Alex, he pursues them relentlessly and defeats the gang in a high-octane action sequence involving helicopters, and fights on a large glass plane...

**I know the translation is bad, but that is what is written on the back cover.**

I have to say the fight sequences are well choreographed. Mark Dacascos looks great, Coolio does a passable job of the typical ghetto gangster, Aaron Kwok has improved in acting and his mandarin, the other actors performed well also. There is a great deal of English dialogue but it does not detract from the movie.

I am sure that audiences will really enjoy the helicopter fight sequence as well as the fight on the large glass pane fifty stories in the air...

I hope this was helpful. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Oliver Grunner's best!!
Made in 1990, this was the era when low budget Martial Arts movies were excellently produced. Oliver Grunner plays Jaques Fontaine a French student who comes to the US as an exchange student. He boards in a household with an innocent family who continue to be harrassed by a gang of hoodlums. Grunner shows of his Kickboxing style in this martial arts extravaganza. Good Plot with dynamic fight sequences..one of director Eric Karson's best movies.

THAT MOVIE WAS GOOD IT SHOWS YA ABOUT THE BARRIO
I THINK IT WAS A GOOD MOVIE BECAUSE IT SHOWS YOU WHAT GOES ON AIN A MEXICAN GANG AND WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE AND THEIR FAMILIES SO I GIVE THIS MOVIE A GOOD REVIEW ID BUY IT ON DVD AND I HAVE.

the best worst movie
If you are looking for a big Hollywoood production with special effects and great acting this movie is not for you.I have to admit,the movie is pretty bad,but like I tell my friends"it's the best worst movie you'll ever see"(for certain reasons I can't go into detail).Put it this way,if you are kinda picky with your movies,don't buy it.But if you got $20 to blow by all means get this movie.After all,I think a mere $20 is worth paying for a few good laughs:-)

worst movie
dont get i ... Read more