Blast

A group of circus performers are accidentally exposed to Japanese biochemicals from the World War II when looking for gold, and rapidly become super-strong but horribly disfigured mutants... all except for simpleton wannabe knife thrower Sunny (Aaron Kwok), who gets the strength without the hideousness due to... some reason or other.

The ugly mutants go on a rampage in Hong Kong, using their super-strength to rob, murder and generally get up to mischief, whilst after a brief spell being horribly fat, young Sunny becomes a have-a-go hero and strikes up a relationship with beautiful reporter Angel (Shu Qi).

It takes a special kind of person to watch Black Mask 2 and conclude "the world needs more films like that!", or to think "Terence Yin is an actor", or indeed to think "Benny Chan is a talented writer and director". I really can't imagine who would believe the latter, other than Benny himself, but he does keep getting quite large budgets to work with so unless his rich grandmother is financing them I guess he's somehow managed to convince others of it. To be fair, his films have mostly been successful - though largely due to Jackie Chan apparently being one of those who believe in Benny's ability enough to submit to his direction on multiple occasions.

City Under Siege, or as it's called in the UK "Assassin: City Under Siege" (for absolutely no discernible reason - perhaps somebody's brain melted after watching the film, and they decided that randomly following words and concepts after each other was the new normal) is truly a bad film. It's terribly written, terribly directed, and for the most part terribly acted. Things start off full of cheese and poorly plotted, and just get worse from there. By the end there's barely a scene goes by without invoking responses of "Why are they doing that?", "What were they trying to achieve?", "Didn't they think this through for even a moment?" and "wow, that was some really poor acting right there". Poor Aaron Kwok, who has worked diligently to develop some degree of respectability as an actor despite all the early evidence that it was not a talent that came naturally to him, seems to have regressed 20 years overnight, or is just woefully miscast and mishandled. This is probably his worst ever performance. Shu Qi, another one who struggled to achieve credibility after debuting and being summarily dismissed as a ditzy airhead only fit for soft porn roles, also flounders in a role that to be fair gives her precious little to work with. Ngai Sing, who generally fares well enough when he's used properly - i.e. required to look somewhat stoic and serious and kick somebody's ass - is the worst victim of miscasting and a director who can't handle his actors. His overacting becomes truly painful to watch as more and more layers of latex and makeup are applied to his mutating body, until you just feel pity for the guy.

The only cast members who come off at all well are Wu Jing and Zhang Jing-Chu, who perhaps benefit from being allowed to speak Mandarin or something. They are the only cast members who seem to fit their characters, and get a few (a very few) scenes where there seems to be some plausibility in their characters and emotions. Oh, and they get to kick plenty of ass.

The one thing that Benny Chan does unquestionably know how to do is stage some big action set pieces, and this is where City Under Siege scores a few points. Having Ngai Sing & Wu Jing go toe to toe is clearly a good idea, as that is what they are good at. The super-strong mutant angle gives the choreographers Ma Yuk Sing and Nicky Li a good excuse to show off their wirework, but they also remember to have some more grounded action where the performers get to show off their skills. The staging of the fights is quite imaginative and dramatic, though I couldn't fully enjoy the final showdown in and around traffic because I couldn't stop thinking "Why the hell are people still driving along normally when all this is going on around them?", largely because by that point I'd decided that the most fun that could be extracted from the film was probably by going into snarky critic mode and picking it to pieces... a task which, unfortunately, offers absolutely no challenge.

Oddly, bad as it is, watching City Under Siege has had the entirely unexpected effect of making me want to watch Black Mask 2 again... probably just to remind myself how bad it is, and to confirm that CUS is not quite _that_ bad. Perhaps it's just the timely reminder that you have to watch something truly dreadful every so often to remind yourself that overall, most films aren't really that bad.

A fan of Benny Chan and his many hard-hitting action classics of the 90's and numerous collaborations with Jackie Chan, I went into this movie with an open mind and low expectations seeing some previous reviews and all, but I was pleasantly surprised it ended up an enjoyable watch in the end, albeit some silly moments.

Let's get this out of the way, Hong Kong isn't Hollywood, so you can't expect special effects to be on par, and it's evident here with some very silly looking makeup effects for the mutants and a very laughable Aaron Kwok moment in the beginning.

However. Once Nicky Li's choreographed action gets cracking you get some cool superhero monster fight moments replete with flying daggers that are pretty fun to watch and Wu Jing and Zhang Jingchu as mainland cops hunting down mutants led by martial arts master Collin Chou and his gang with fancy martial arts and acupunture.

Overall Benny Chan ventures into comic book monsters mildly succeeding...

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

There ought to be a rule that says "Hong Kong filmmakers should not marry sci-fi with action genre ever". With the release of "City Under Siege", Benny Chan's latest action thriller with a sci-fi twist, it proved yet again that it's almost blasphemy to do so.

Heavenly King Aaron Kwok plays Sunny, a circus clown who dreams of being a famous knife thrower like his father. During a treasure hunting trip in Malaysia, Sunny and his fellow circus performers including Tai Chu (Colin Chou) accidentally triggered a bio-chemical weaponry that mutates them into super ugly beings. Tai Chu and the rest decide to make use of their newly-gained powers to embark on a crime spree while Sunny on the other hand is able to resist the rate of mutation.

While on the whole better than Wong Jing's horrific sci-fi action drama, "Future X-Cops", Chan's "City Under Siege" still has a long way to go as compared to the Hollywood counterparts. Audience whom are fed constantly by the barrage of superheroes adaptations such as the X-men franchise will be familiar with what Benny Chan is attempting to accomplish. The younger demographics will be enthralled given the popularity of Power Rangers and the in-thing of today's children television, Ben-10. All these bring us to one thing – the standard of the makeup effects here are tacky, cheesy and laughable. Seriously all the above mentioned win hands down in this department and what we do get in "City Under Siege"? Perhaps Chan himself knew of this shortcomings that most of the gags including one in which we see Sunny seemingly wearing (transforming into) Andy Lau's rejected fat suit from "Love On A Diet" is play for laughs. Colin Chou probably suffered the most ridicule given his extreme makeover sessions had run into too much overtime.

Despite this major setback, Benny Chan (Invisible Target, New Police Story) who has a track record churning out entertaining action flicks over the years is still an adept hand in conducting massive mayhem be it on the highway or high-rise buildings with his frequent collaborator, action choreographer Nicky Li. Obviously when it comes to action sequences, no one do it better other than Chan and Li with the nimble combination of wirefu and explosions. The various fight sequences populated with plenty of CG enhanced daggers turned out to be less memorable and engaging this time though it will still please the action fans seeing Colin Chou sparring with Wu Jing and so on.

Chan who is also one of the three credited writers tries to squeeze one too many subplots and clichés into the story thus dragging the runtime over 20 minutes at least. There is the ludicrous triangle love with both Sunny and Tai Chou falling for the same girl, television anchor, Angel (Shu Qi), the group of under-exposed villains and there is the tender relationship between Suan Hou (Wu Jing from SPL), a cop in charge of the mutant-related crimes and his wife/subordinate Xiu Hua (Zhang Jing Chu from Protégé). Wu Jing is a capable action star given his extensive background in martial arts but the China-born actor has not much luck in the hall of fame despite the years spent in the industry. And here he is again in a forgettable supporting role that requires nothing else except his superior kicking moves.

There's simply not much room given to Shu Qi and Zhang Jing Chu, two capable actresses if given the right role. At the end, both characters are simply disposable and Shu Qi is relegated to the typical 'damsel in distress' while Zhang's character don't really contribute much mileage to the story on the whole. Colin Chou (The Matrix Reloaded, Flash Point) is yet again in a one-dimensional, poorly-written baddie role that he so commonly portrayed in the nineties. Aaron Kwok who has worked with Chan on "Divergence" clearly is more effective as the naïve, innocent Sunny. The boyish actor has what it takes to be the charming leading man and also the athletic capability to perform the numerous stunts opposite his opponent, Chou.

By no means, "City Under Siege" is a bad movie for the masses. Again, it's another one of Benny Chan's signature, popcorn action flicks though it somewhat tries to include too much cheesy humour and clichés. Minus the sci-fi factor (i.e. horrendous make-up effects), "City Under Siege" actually can be quite entertaining

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.