the storm riders Tagged Articles at Cinematical
'Storm Riders' Sequel Set With Pang Brothers to Direct
Filed under: Action », Foreign Language », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Deals », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Cinematical Indie »
The Storm Riders was a riotously silly martial arts fantasy that divided audiences when it was released in 1998 -- either you got with the groove and rocked out to the comic book style writ large or you fled in terror from its extravagant empty exercise in style over substance. Initially I recoiled from its excesses, but a second viewing (only partially influenced by a moderate intake of a certain alcoholic beverage) was much more enjoyable. To get a better idea of the craziness, check out Kozo's review at LoveHKFilm.com.Directed by Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs), The Storm Riders was a huge hit and a much-needed shot in the arm for the beleaguered post-Handover Hong Kong film industry. Given the industry's proclivity for churning out sequels in rapid succession, it's rather surprising that a direct sequel was not immediately forthcoming, but soon the wait will be over. Screen Daily is reporting that Universe Entertainment has hired Danny and Oxide Pang (The Eye, The Messengers) to helm a sequel.
The original film was based on a comic book series and featured an all-star lineup headlined by Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng. Three months ago, Grady Hendrix of Kaiju Shakedown reported that one of the Pang Brothers was interested in buying the rights to the comic book; his version would be unrelated to Andrew Lau's film but with Chen and Kwok returning as the heroes, Wind and Cloud (cool character names, by the way). Lau reportedly had his own plans for a direct sequel which have not yet come to fruition.
The comic book series has enjoyed a near 20-year run, so there are plenty of stories to go around. An animated feature based on the series and entitled Storm Rider Clash of the Evils is due out next year. We'll have to wait for details to see what live-action story the Pang Brothers will be telling.
New On DVD - Harry Potter 4, Howl's Moving Castle, Jarhead
Filed under: New Releases », DVD Reviews », New on DVD », Home Entertainment »
- Breaking News - Hong Kong action director Johnny To delivers this watchable Woo-alike about a police force that loses the support of the public when a robbery goes bad and is covered by a local news program. The set pieces are pretty tight, even if the drama and the statement To tries to make about the power and responsibility of the media doesn't fully come through.
- Free Enterprise: Special Edition - A self-effacing turn akin to Marlon Brando's in The Freshman and Pauly Shore's in Pauly Shore Is Dead is William Shatner, sending up the cult of personality that has followed him since the original Star Trek series ended its five year mission two years early in 1969. When fanboys Rafer Wiegel and Eric McCormack meet their boyhood idol, he is far from the super-cool man for all seasons they have long worshiped. He's bent on staging a one-man musical version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a great running joke that culminates in the brilliant payoff that is the Shatner/The Rated R rap duet, "No Tears For Caesar". Writer-director Robert Meyer Burnett has created a love letter, not just to Trek, but to anyone who has ever loved anything with fanatical passion, and this long-overdue 2-disc treatment gives it the respect it was not afforded when it was first released in 1999. Check out the Pop-Up Video style trivia track, which annotates the geekery, new special effects, the making-of feature Where No Man Has Gone Before, and the unaired TV pilot, Café Fantastique, which features the real fans who inspired this smart, hardy-har-har trek. A sequel, My Big Fat Geek Wedding, has been listed on the IMDB for nearly 3 years now, and Mindfire Entertainment's website features a rudimentary mention of it, though no firm details are available as yet.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Special Edition - Death, and the gloomy heft that comes with it, visits Hogwarts in the fourth and most satisfying installment in the ongoing series so far. When an evil thought vanquished literally rears its ugly head again, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermoine (Emma Watson) team up to expose it. Like the overwhelmingly dark Revenge Of The Sith, this is the first to bear the PG-13 rating (for "sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images"), though its decidedly down ending makes it feel more like The Empire Strikes Back. It is not unreasonable to expect studio Warner Brothers to keep their three leads on through Harry Potter and the As-Yet-Unwritten-and-Untitled Year 7 Story. This, of course, is despite the fact that they will be in their early 20's by then, but let us not forget that at least one of the 90210 kids was practically eligible for Social Security by the end of that run. Even at 157 minutes, the book has still been truncated, but it is doubly encouraging to know that kids will know what is missing and will sit still for that long in order to be able to go on smartly about it. The second disc is chock-full-o' extra goodies, and is available in full- and widescreen editions. A single disc version is also available.
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