minh_le's reviews

OK, so apparently the title refers to the person in charge of writing a coherent, interesting script. Like many of the other reviews on this site, I hard time staying interested in the movie. I assume the lethargic pacing and slow artsy shots about nothing are supposed to illustrate the shattered mind of the protagonist but it just felt really pretentious. The plot is boiler plate stuff that we've seen far better handled in countless other movies.

I can't recommend this to anyone but the most die hard Joaquin Phoenix fan. His acting is fine in this movie.. It's pretty standard fare given the limited dialogue his character is given.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed the director's previous movie, "We need to talk about Kevin". Although, It had a similar slow artsy pacing about it, the dialogue, plot, and pacing were far more interesting than this movie.

I found this movie fairly enjoyable as I went into it with fairly low expectations from what I read on IMDb. The movie does a pretty good job of building suspense through a series of unfortunate events that seem plausible. I found the main actor to be pretty decent and likable, which is important because he's in 90% of the movie. The supporting characters aren't given much film time but that's OK given the nature of the film.

A big bonus of the film for me was getting to see the exotic locations of Laos. I like films that can take me to another part of the world and immerse me in the culture of that area. This movie did a great job of that as it really made me feel like a foreigner.

The ending is a bit anti-climatic but for the most part, the movie kept me interested up until the end.

I came into this movie with high hopes having been a huge fan of similar movies such as SPL, Flashpoint, and many of tony Jaa's films.

I always felt HK action movies' plots were only there to connect the action scenes together. I've never been too impressed with any plot from an HK movie, and unfortunately SPL2 continues that trend. The plot relies on far too many coincidences to occur and often times, the characters motivations seem really questionable.

If you can ignore the flimsy plot, you'll be treated to some of the best martial arts action since the original SPL. There are 4 actors in this movie that can REALLY fight and their skills are well highlighted in several scenes. The choreograph and framing of the scenes was so well executed allowing the viewer to fully appreciate the skills of the fighters. There are a handful of memorable fight scenes in the movie but special mention has to be reserved for the final fight. It's quite a lengthy scene and is full of extremely satisfying action. I'd rate it on par with any scene in SPL1 / Flashpoint..

9 seems like a very high rating given the substandard plot but i've been itching for a good martial arts movies and even the latest Donnie Yen / tony Jaa offerings have left me slightly disappointed. SPL2 reminds me what i love so much about Martial Arts movies and I'm glad there is so much promising talent in Wu Jing, Andy On, and Zhang Jin to replace the likes of Donnie Yen / Jet Li / Jacky Chan.

The Plot: Skin trade is a film that deals with the serious / tragic world of sex trafficking. It's a pretty heavy theme that requires a great deal of emotional range from the actors. Sadly, all of the actors in this movie are horrific ( with the exception of Ron Perlman and Peter Weller, who were "ok" in the acting dept.) Watching Dolph lundgren try to act brings a certain pain to me. It just amazes me that someone with so much experience under his belt hasn't improved his ability to convey emotion. Some of his line deliveries were atrocious. For example, this one scene where he berates a near dead thug to tell him where the final bad guy is.. It's a scene that has been done to death in so many other movies, that any half decent script writer would have immediately omitted this scene. Tony Jaa is no better in the acting dept either. I applaud his effort to speak English in this movie but his acting still leaves a lot to be desired. He has a tendency to always be in "Super hyper angry mode" or "super sad forlorn mode". Tony needs to learn how to express emotion in a more subtle fashion rather than contorting his face in an expression akin to extreme constipation, whenever someone looks at him the wrong way.

The action: There was some decent fighting to be had but nothing as creative or enjoyable to watch as tony's previous movies. The one fight with Michael Jai White was good though, but aside from that, the fighting was really poor. This was partly because many of Tony's opponents were awful. Dolph Lundgren looks to be channeling a WWE wrestler with his lumbering oaf like movement.

This movie tries to tackle a serious topic but with such terrible actors and atrocious script, it's really hard to watch. I enjoyed watching another recent Thai movie far more , called Vengeance of an Assassin. That had unbearable plot/acting but the action was way more entertaining.

The fighting alone makes it worth the 6/10. The acting was hard to watch.. The story was nothing worse than what you'd find in other martial arts movies like Ong Bak, etc.

The movie has A LOT of fighting in it, and thankfully you don't have to sit through to much of the painful acting. The majority of the fights are really well done (especially those with the lead actor).

The fighters themselves can seriously fight. They have technique and speed that I've seen from more famous actor/fighters (Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais). The lead actor is especially fun to watch. If you're a martial arts fanatic like myself, you'll really appreciate the skill that he has. It's a shame these guys don't have a bigger budget to work with or may never getting the fame and reputation of guys like Tony Jaa but I truly believe they have the same level of skill as the famous guys.

I really hope to see more of these guys in more professional shot/ editing movies.