Los Tigres de Papel

Definitely not a mediocre film. I knew not to expect an Ip Man or Bloodsport type of movie. I smiled and laughed throughout film.

I'd like to mention my Asian-American heritage as a preface to this because it's the foundation for the enjoyment I got out of watching this movie.

This movie was originally pitched to Hollywood studios who wouldn't allow them a proper budget nor a non-white actor as the lead character (they wanted Bruce Willis and Nicolas Cage, I can't make this up, look it up), and I'm really glad they didn't take the deal.

The cast had great chemistry, the characters were memorable for the most part (would've liked a bit more depth to each of the 3 main characters), and the writing didn't feel pandering, and managed to maintain balance between humor and drama.

But most importantly, I can't tell you how refreshing it is to just watch a movie where Asian-Americans aren't highlighted for being Asian; the two Asian-American characters were written as Asian-American, and not just "Asian". They had Asian-American flaws, jokes, interests, even language.

The premise of this movie makes it easy to dismiss this as "just another Asian martial arts movie", but I promise it's got much more to it than that. This is definitely a movie I'd recommend to anyone.

Paper Tiger is neither a great movie nor a bad movie..it lied somewhere in the average line to me.

The opening sequence and all did look promising but it was slow paced and sometimes engaging otherwise disengaging

It has a decent enough plot with some humor lingering all over which most of the time worked

The acting is decent and I am really glad that the director declined the inclusion of Bruce willis as a white male lead and to include Nicholas Cage as requested by hwood studios and went on to start a fundraiser and made an independent movie instead with an asian american as lead and with another Asian-American and a man of color as supporting leads

The action scenes were okay and the slow motion too was bearable

I can't say it's a proper entertainer for me becoz of the reasons I mentioned above but it's definitely a good movie in my eyes.... I will definitely re-watch it in the future and see if I can enjoy it a little bit more.

May go down in history as the first successful attempt to emulate the vibe from Cobra Kai, part martial arts, part sitcom. The cast is so appealing it is hard to look away even when nothing much is happening.

Plenty of solid funny parts and the martials arts stunts were well done. Story was a little bit overblown and the movie was a tad longer than it needed to be. Worth watching if you like martial arts films though.