2005 Toronto Film Festival Report.
My Final film of the festival, and naturally it was a Midnight Madness screening.
S.P.L. or Sha Po Lang. This stars some Hong Kong heavyweights: Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen.
Not even going to discuss the plot. Just your basic cop story. Some fan boys are comparing this to classic action films like "The Killer". They are whacked. Sammo is OK as the Bad guy, and the film does allow some time for the back story to be developed. The big emotional scenes almost lap into parody (everyone receives cell phone calls on father's day, one at a time, seconds before getting killed. Pretty silly actually. And oh yeah, one character is told that he has brain cancer (enlisting laughter from the audience) but it never factors into the plot at all.
Actions scenes are few and far between; luckily they are handled pretty well. Nice long takes, none of this nonstop cutting that we often see. Good to see the fat man Sammo, or was it his stunt double getting thrown around. The ending does surprise, wait for it! Just did not buy the Donnie Yen character heading in the direction he did. Not a classic, not a great action film, but if you are fan, I guess track it down on DVD.
There was zero introductions, Sammo was in town the night before, but failed to show up on this day. There were some folks asking for pictures at the end of the screening so I suspect some of the actors/production people showed up late. For me, didn't recognize a single soul.
My Final film of the festival, and naturally it was a Midnight Madness screening.
S.P.L. or Sha Po Lang. This stars some Hong Kong heavyweights: Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen.
Not even going to discuss the plot. Just your basic cop story. Some fan boys are comparing this to classic action films like "The Killer". They are whacked. Sammo is OK as the Bad guy, and the film does allow some time for the back story to be developed. The big emotional scenes almost lap into parody (everyone receives cell phone calls on father's day, one at a time, seconds before getting killed. Pretty silly actually. And oh yeah, one character is told that he has brain cancer (enlisting laughter from the audience) but it never factors into the plot at all.
Actions scenes are few and far between; luckily they are handled pretty well. Nice long takes, none of this nonstop cutting that we often see. Good to see the fat man Sammo, or was it his stunt double getting thrown around. The ending does surprise, wait for it! Just did not buy the Donnie Yen character heading in the direction he did. Not a classic, not a great action film, but if you are fan, I guess track it down on DVD.
There was zero introductions, Sammo was in town the night before, but failed to show up on this day. There were some folks asking for pictures at the end of the screening so I suspect some of the actors/production people showed up late. For me, didn't recognize a single soul.