The Twins Effect

I think a strength of this film is that it never takes itself too seriously. The subject matter is fairly dark, a love "square" revolving around a Vampire Hunter, his new assistant, his sister, and a vampire prince who is being hunted by his fellows so that a vampire lord may ascend and become a daywalker.

The love story between the Sister and the Prince is cute and touching at times. He falls for her instantly, and pursues her with vigilance and charm, not falling on the very clichéd vampire seduction. How does a girl resist a guy who risks his life just to see her during the day?

The movie does a good job foreshadowing the action. The hunters use an equalizer that quickly plays into the Hunter/Assistant relationship. The story shows us right away what the girls are capable of with a hilarious fight over a stuffed bear. Even Jackie Chan's bit part ends up being more than a cameo, as his characters reappears to help the heroes out.

The choreography was refreshing to me. I watched "Hero" recently, and while the story was excellent, the fights were laughable with people spinning around in the air like they just had a major stumble in zero gravity. In Vampire Effect the action ranges from, car chases, tug a war with a stuffed bear, a tight roof top chase with capoeria involved, an excellent all out brawl between the girls and the legions of vampires, and extensive use of grappling techniques which I rarely see in movies.

The use of caucasian actors for most of the vampires was clever, it fit into the plot as these type of beasts were supposed to be from out of town. They also looked tall, pale, and alien against the mostly Asian cast.

If you like good choreography, a bit of angst, and a nice dose of humor. I would recommend it. Don't expect Hero.

In Hong Kong, Reeve (Ekin Cheng) is a vampire slayer, who belongs to a league that fights against vampires, living with his sister Helen (Charlene Choi). When his partner dies, killed by the powerful vampire Duke Dekotes (Mickey Hardt), Gypsy (Gillian Chung), who has a crush on Reeve, is assigned as a replacement to work with him. Meanwhile Helen falls in love for Kasaf (Edison Chen), a vampire that belongs to a royal family and does not attack human beings. However, the powerful Duke Dekotes is chasing Kasaf to increase his powers.

"Chin Gei Bin" is a silly, but also funny vampire adventure / comedy movie. Showing many special effects and a nice cast, the story is not so bad, following basically the idea of Buffy, being watchable and forgettable. I regret only that "Universal" cheats the Brazilian consumers with a huge picture and the name of Jackie Chan on the cover of the DVD released in Brazil. I expected to see a Jackie Chan movie, and in the end his participation is limited to two scenes to give his name to the credits, being the first one of his wedding totally ridiculous. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Liga Contra o Mal" ("The League Against Evil")

Fun mix of vampires and martial arts is a bit of a mess plot-wise and the acting of those who dubbed the voices is almost universally bad, but the premise is engaging, the fight scenes are fast and flashy and the movie is often quite amusing. It's a shame the story is such a wreck. There are a couple of places where I had no idea what just happened, it was almost as though five minutes had just been cut out and you were suddenly at the next scene without knowing how you'd got there. The movie is poor at explaining things and some things don't make a lot of sense, but the movie moves along breezily so its flaws barely register. Not a great movie by any means, but definitely a fun one.

Lotsa action, cheesy love story, unexpected actors and overall great fun. The special effect are acceptable/decent, some of the fighting is kinda neat with some interesting acrobatic moves. The overall story moves along, and is cheesy enough to keep you wondering when the inevitable is going to happen, although there is a bit of a twist (just a small one). The overall naivety of the movie make it quite whimsical at times. Cute enough chicks too what more could you want. PS. if you're gonna review a movie like this, try to review it in terms of the category the movie would fall (not necessarily where it was intended to fall). ie don't bomb out good cheesy movies!

Like a very expensive Buffy episode peppered with plenty of humor. Lots of wire and stunt kung fu. The Twins Effect goes on the list of classic must see HK films. The vampires have a cool blend of hopping ghost type and the pretty boy European style. If you get the opportunity to see this one in the theatre it is worth a 30 minute drive, otherwise buy the import DVD before someone screws it up by giving it a bad dub.