The Monkey King (2023)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on August 24, 2023.

(PG) ★★★★

Director: Anthony Stacchi.

Cast: (voices of) Jimmy O. Yang, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Bowen Yang, Jo Koy, Nan Li, Stephanie Hsu, BD Wong, Ron Yuan, Hoon Lee, Andrew Pang, Andrew Kishino, Jodi Long, James Sie, Dee Bradley Baker.

Sticks were in, broomsticks were so passe. 

The 16th century Chinese folklore story known as Journey To The West is perhaps one of the most adapted tales of all time. Dozens and dozens of live action and animated versions exist across both the big and small screens. And with its 100 chapters, there is plenty of fodder in Journey To The West to fill dozens more adaptations in the centuries to come.

This glossy, high-energy Netflix CG animation is the latest, but it's one of the most accessible. Pacey and punchy, it's a short, sharp introduction to the titular character that has just enough depth and characterisation to temper its ferociously fast action sequences and to ensure all ages are thoroughly entertained.

The film is essentially the origin story of the Monkey King, or the first seven or so chapters of Journey To The West. It follows the hero from his birth out of a meteorite to his quest for immortality. Along the way he steals a magical stick (Li) that becomes his weapon of choice, and reluctantly teams up with a young peasant girl named Lin (Hoang-Rappaport).

To call The Monkey King frenetic is an understatement, but there is a level of control and visibility to its rapid-fire storytelling and fight scenes that is very welcome. It knows when to take a breath and squeeze a character moment in among the scattergun gags and hyperactivity, and it knows how to make a set-piece easy-to-follow despite moving at a million miles an hour.

Stacchi, whose background is in special effects and storyboarding, brings so much verve and energy to the film. There are some interesting flourishes of individuality - a montage of Monkey King taking on 99 demons is shown in a flashy paintbrush style, Stick's voice is Mongolian throat singing, and there are some choice heavy metal originals in the soundtrack. These elements help make the tropier bits of the storytelling feel refreshing, surprisingly fun, and super awesome. 

The Asian-American voice cast is excellent, with Yang channelling Chris Rock as the star of the show, Hoang-Rappaport brings the heart as Lin, and the iconic BD Wong showing up as Buddha. The characters are memorable and some of them feel a bit different to what we might see in a normal kids film - Monkey King's arrogance and egomania is certainly unique.

It's great fun, though it feels a little slight overall and a bit weak thematically. But that doesn't stop it being perfect for all ages, and a great introduction into one of the greatest Chinese stories of all time.

Hidden Strike

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on August 10, 2023.

(M) ★★

Director: Scott Waugh.

Cast: Jackie Chan, John Cena, Pilou Asbaek, Ma Chunrui, Amadeus Serafini, Tim Man. 

"Wait - who's leading this dance?"

For a film that went through half a dozen name changes and sat on the shelf for half a decade, Hidden Strike is nowhere near as bad as you would expect.

Yes, it's largely rubbish, and it's only saved from being absolute rubbish by the sheer force of will of Jackie Chan and John Cena, but I have seen far worse films that didn't sit in the can for five years before finding a distributor.

The irrelevantly titled film centres on Dragon Luo (Chan) and Chris Van Horne (Cena), two ex-military men on opposing sides of a tense hostage situation. Dragon and his security team are tasked with rescuing a group of Chinese nationals trapped in an oil refinery, while Chris gets sucked into "one last mission" by his brother, who is part of a gang hired to kidnap some of the Chinese nationals.

But when Chris realises his brother is working for the bad guys, he teams reluctantly with Dragon to get the hostages back.

Aside from the truly horrendous CGI in places, the biggest problem with Hidden Strike is that Chan and Cena are too funny and wacky to be convincing as ex-special forces no-nonsense military types. This is either a casting problem (you got the wrong actors), a screenwriting problem (you haven't tailored the script to the big-name actors that have signed on), or a directorial problem (you've told your stars to be loveable goofballs half the time, and hard-arse soldiers of fortune the other half of the time). But let's face it - people are watching this because Chan and Cena are in it, and when they're being a goofy buddy-film duo, the film is enjoyable. So the script or direction should have changed to make this sit  better.

Because without Chan and Cena, this is unwatchable. The story is a so-so mess about an oil heist, with the trailer hinting at a not-too-distant future that isn't evident in the film at all. There's a partial desire to belatedly cash-in on the success of Mad Max: Fury Road - and some of those parts are cool - but largely it's a shiftless mess of '80s action clichés, bad direction, terrible CGI and a weirdly oversaturated colour palette. 

Cena and Chan vibe well, and Chan still has 80 per cent of his moves (despite being 64 years old at the time of shooting). As someone who has watched a shitload of Jackie Chan films over the years, I'm very aware that you watch his movies for the stunts, not the story, and if one of his films just so happened to have a strong script it was a bonus. With all that in mind, this is C-grade Chan - nowhere near the best stuff in terms of stunts and scripts, but also not the worst.

There's been an effort made here to make things memorable. Parts of the plot, some characters, a handful of action sequences and that horrendous soft-focus blueish-orangeness that tints everything actually stick out in the memory (for better or worse), but none of those elements are enough to make this good, let alone great.

In summary: hopefully Netflix didn't pay too much for Hidden Strike, but there are bound to be far worse films on the service.