City Under Siege

I really enjoyed most of the action flicks that director Benny Chan made in collaboration with martial arts icon Jackie Chan. For what it's worth, these unrelated Chans made a whole bunch of unpretentious and adrenalin-rushing popcorn movies that generally feature an ultra-thin plot but an overload of spectacular stunts and marvelously choreographed fighting sequences. The ultimate highlight of both their careers – according to yours truly at least – is the 2004 revision of the 80's franchise "Police Story". That film, simply entitled "New Police Story", is a downright awesome must-see in case you like your heroes invincible, your criminals pure evil and your action rough & explicit. I haven't followed Benny Chan's work since "New Police Story" but, browsing through his personal page on this lovely site, it seems like he reliably delivered a new movie practically each year. His 2010 accomplishment "City under Siege" played at this year's edition of the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Films and looked as if it had more than enough potential to become a crowd-pleaser. And yes, undoubtedly this could have been a real highlight this year if it weren't for the fact that the film is hopelessly overlong, tedious and repetitive. I'm very aware of the fact that Asian action movies are usually longer than necessary, but this one really pushed the edges of my tolerance level, what with its redundant sub plots, pointless melodrama and fighting sequences that more than outstayed their welcome! The rudimentary plot of "City under Siege" is nonetheless straightforward and full of great potential. A group of traveling circus artists stumble upon a cavern that used to serve as a secret military lab for unorthodox experiments during WWII. They inhale gas fumes and almost instantaneously notice their bodies mutating. They grow strengths and physical capacities that make them superhuman. Sunny, the geek and laughing stock of the bunch, uses his new gained powers for good causes, but the rest of them – who were pretty obnoxious and egocentric to begin with – can't resist the wide range of evil capacities and subject the whole city to a reign of terror. It's up to Sunny, together with a sexy news reporter and a romantically involved couple of police investigators, to stop them. Thus, simply put, "City under Siege" is somewhat the Asian take on "X-men" and a variety of other superhero movies, except of course that this isn't based on a Marvel comic book and that it – most unfortunately - features sugary sweet romance and melodrama. This would have been a really cool and ultimately amusing film, if only Chan & C° had cut approximately 30 minutes of all the redundant padding footage. I'm honestly not talking about vital plot information, but merely the romantic interludes, the detailed analysis of literally every single insignificant supportive character and also even 2-3 minutes of each physical duel (even though they're impressively staged). The production clearly didn't tighten the budget-belt, however. There's a massive amount of explosions, car crashes, buildings and interiors of apartments getting demolished and that sort of frolics. The flamboyant and often extremely OTT make-up effects weren't cheap, neither, I imagine. Worth a look if you like cheesy, light-headed fantasy flicks and an absolute must-see in case you are, for some incomprehensible reason, a fan of sappy romance intermixed with violent kung-fu.

So cheesy and cliché that it is actually funny...

It's been a while, since I actually had fun watching cheesy and cliché humour. The latest Benny Chan's sci-fi action extravagant, City Under Siege is an outright cheesy movie that one can either enjoy or doss with respite. Aaron is on the back of a string quality acting roles, returns to his former self as the poster boy of expensive action displays. Not unlike, 2000AD and his 90s antics, Kwok plays a rather simple and empty character that aims to deliver the cheesiest lines in HK cinema. A prime example will be the moment that Kwok starts to woo Shu Qi on screen, out goes the background music sang by Kwok. It reminded me of the days when Kwok used to woo Kelly Chen in too many 90s rom-com. Still, I burst out laughing in the middle of the cinema. Embarrassed, may be a little, but shameless I was. By the time, the film credits were rolling rigorously, I have already laughed out due to extreme cheesiness a hand full of time. Is the film bad? Probably, but the unintentional humour brought a cheesy taste within my tongue.

Aaron Kwok kicks of the title of the most hideous laughing clowns in town. He is a genuine, laid back and simple-minded person who aims and strives to take the stage and throw some knifes. In fact, that is his lifelong goal. Mr. Colin Chou overacts immensely over-the-top and the result is a performance that is both hilariously bad and also his funniest role of his career. Shu Qi is still pretty enough to justify an eye candy presence, despite being overhaul by a rookie newsreader (played by Chrissie Chau) due to having a bigger pair of candies. Still, Kwok and Qi lack chemistry, but due to the nature of the movie, it leads to further funnier moments. On the other hand, Zhang Jin Chu continues to still the show in a sympathetic performance and martial artist Wu Jing shows that he is superhuman without being a mutant. In fact, one can highlight the somewhat anticipated fight scene between Jing and Chou, but the fury pacing ruins any sort of enjoyment in that scenario.

All in all, City Under Siege is a highly uneven, cliché, weird, corny and insert any other synonym of cheesy kind of movie. Yet somehow, it manages to be funny and somewhat enjoyable to endure. Director Benny Chan is well known for creating expensive action blockbusters. In City, he manages to be loud, routine and offers nothing special. It is a kind of film that one can easily be turned off, but luckily, for whatever reason, I find this film unintentionally funny in both a good and a bad way...(Neo 2010)

I rate it 6/10

• www.thehkneo.com

Oriental films I love horror films, action as I'm not a fan, there's no involvement, this one even has a cute mutant story, but it didn't infect me ...

I happened to catch this movie at the theater. This is a B movie. HK superstar pop singer-actor Aaron Kwok plays a not too bright good guy. The always dependable Colin Chou plays a bad guy (with a team of villains) who is an ace knife thrower. The always pretty Hsu Qi is a TV news reporter and the damsel in distress.

Aaron and Collin(and his buddies) went down a mine shaft and got infected with a bio weapon virus that turns them into super humans, sort of like the Hulk, just not that big. It is all rather cheesy. They fight Kung Fu (with wire-work).

Aaron Kwok made this silly movie rather enjoyable with his performance. There are two actors from China who plays a couple with special knowledge of these bio phenomenas from China who are there to investigate and assist and fight. These two bore the hell out of me. However Collin and Hsu Qi are both good in their roles.

This movie is worth a rental if you like schlocky stuff. Forget it if you're looking for anything even half serious. A lot of kids in the theater who enjoyed the movie, despite the comic book violence and gore.

This Hong Kong action/Sci-Fi movie did have potential, and the synopsis did seem appealing, but the movie ultimately failed to live up to the expectations. And as for being a Benny Chan movie, then the movie just didn't really live up to his usual quality productions.

First of all, I want to address the title of the movie, the English title is "Assassin: City Under Siege". What? This movie title is probably as far as they could get from the actual storyline and what the movie was about. So don't put too much into the movie title, as it is a hoax.

The storyline was adequate, although it tended to be rather cheesy at times, leaning too much up against Marvel products, bordering on being a blatant rip-off at times. And that is what the movie suffered from the most. It was sort of a Hong Kong version of "X-Men", just on a toned down scale and a less funded scale.

As for the people on the cast list, well I can't claim to be much fan of Aaron Kwok, and his performance in this movie didn't really win me over this time either. Shu Qi was the one who carried the movie for me, despite not having the lead role. And also Collin Chou, who usually does put on good performances and good action, really didn't impress in this movie either - as if his heart, wasn't fully in it.

Effect-wise, then "Assassin: City Under Siege" (I just love this title) was actually quite good. The CGI worked out well, and the action sequences were nice as well. Despite this being martial arts with wires, then the fighting worked out well enough.

For a Hong Kong action movie, then "Assassin: City Under Siege" was not in the usual league of action movies to come from here; there are far better action movies available even the older ones with Chow Yun Fat.

"Assassin: City Under Siege" is good enough entertainment for a lazy afternoon if you have nothing else to do, just don't expect to be blown away.