2/5
Keanu Reeves's directorial debut is a shallow, plodding mess. It has an enormous number of problems, seemingly unending in quantity, although I will attempt to enumerate them all below. First, it is multilingual, with half of it filmed in Chinese and the other half in English. This wouldn't be an issue if the story and acting were compelling enough to make you want to read the subtitles and find out what's going on, but they're not. Second, the plot and performances are subpar, even for a basic action movie. The plot follows Tiger Chen as a character named Tiger Chen, a budding tai chi fighter who finds himself in an underground fighting club in order to make ends meet. (Does tai chi even have a combat component?) Third, there is an abundance of characters without any real purpose (e.g., the camera guy who films everything, the girl who tells the combatants to fight). Fourth, Reeves casts himself as the evil villain (i.e., the final boss that Chen must fight), and his hubris is the film's undoing. He concludes the film with a disappointing, sluggish, awkward fight scene that is painful to watch. The choreography is actually the best part of the movie, with some truly awesome fight scenes, and there are more fight scenes in this movie than a lot of other kung fu movies. But all in all, there's nothing about this movie that's compelling enough to recommend it to any but the most diehard of action buffs.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2016940/