Could be! That's quite a few genres to juggle and the movie handles that...adequately. I pretty much knew the movie I was walking into, a fun albeit basic action comedy with our golden boy Ke Huy Quan and that's what I got! Following a realtor who has a shady past that sucker punches him out of the blue he quickly finds his life upturned, an old flame returns, and he has to square off with his brother to gain some semblance of normalcy back. It mostly succeeds in the action part, got a few laughs from me, and I will admit Ke and Ariana are cute at times but there would be tiny changes I would make. I mean the movie doesn't even clock in at 90 minutes with credits so I feel even a slightly longer runtime could make a big difference. I think the biggest detraction is the editing and even then it's sporadic, prime example: in the middle of a fight scene we get this POV shot from inside a microwave as the turntable does it's thing and I think oh wow, a shot I've never seen before in an action movie this is gr-and then they just fucking cut! Odd ass choices like that can have a negative effect. I will say however I somehow liked 90% of the characters and didn't want them to die, yes even the henchmen which is wild and they write them in such a unique way to where you strangely get invested. Like this assassin who writes poetry or this buddy duo where one of the guys tries to get back with his lady friend, it's very original! I very much liked that! It's definitely an action movie first and I will own up and say it actually is really rock solid choreography that even got a "Oooh shit!" moment out of me at one of the falls the stuntguys took, and they even do the thing where this dust cloud puffs up after a hit in true martial arts fashion, so props to them on that. The comedy is more unannounced I guess I could say, it doesn't build up to a punchline or anything it's more just hearing people talk humorously but it sorta works. I wasn't completely sold on the romance angle, a lot of the history between Marvin and Rose is kept off screen and the time they do spend together feels more like kindred partners in crime than romantic opposites but they do have small moments, and it's not really at the forefront so I can't be too harsh on it. Ke Huy Quan is a joy, shocker I know, able to pull off a simple man trying to make his way through the galaxy and asskicker extraordinaire seamlessly, and does not look half bad with a nice suit and a moustache either! Ariana DeBose is decent, she certainly has that off her rocker criminal edge down pretty good and though not really prevalent a lot gets the job done. Hell we see Lio Tipton as one of Marvin's office staff Ashley way more and man, I kept having to shake my head clear cause that woman is a little too similar to Emma Stone like it was fuggin' weird! Pretty fun though and was my second favorite performance of the film! Mustafa Shakir easily is the most well designed in costuming, and as the assassin who writes poetry Raven he gets some flowery dialogue as well as some good action so thumbs up from me. Daniel Wu as our main villain Knuckles is pretty standard (aside from a boba tea addiction) but pulls it off with ease. It's an okay movie, more on the average decent side than cult classic gem in the making, but it's entertaining enough for at least one viewing. 2 stars, 6.5/10, I'll do proper romance films next week for the holiday so see you then!
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