SYNOPSIS:
Sunny,
an ordinary clown in a local circus by chance is turned to
a mutant with extraordinary power in an accident. He decides
to declare a battle for goodwill of the city with a troupe
of circus performers who embark on a crime spree after they
acquire superhuman skill in the same accident.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Aaron Kwok – wow, what a long way you’ve come, Aaron Kwok. If readers out there are familiar with this Hong Kong singer actor’s route to success, you’d be wondering why he signed on to be part of this horrendous project helmed by Benny Chan (Connected, Rob-B-Hood).
While we are still at it, Benny Chan – what is wrong with you? A story about mutants breaking loose in Kong Kong? Sure. And it has to be one of Hong Kong cinema’s greatest mystery to date, how acclaimed stars like Shu Qi (If You Are The One, Blood Brothers), Zhang Jingchu (Overheard, Aftershock) and Wu Jing (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Metallic Attraction: Kungfu Cyborg) were all, dare we say it, conned to be involved in this movie, which has to be one of the 10 worst productions of 2010.
Enough ranting and let’s go back to the story: The protagonist is an orphaned child of a former knife throwing master (oh yes, you read that correctly – how creative can these filmmakers get?) After his father's death, our hero is taken to the circus to perform as a clown. It is apparently he will be the butt of many people’s jokes (us included). One day, he chances a cave containing an experimental gas which transforms human being into superhuman monsters (yes, you read that correctly again – so be prepared for hell of a ride with these guys when they invade Hong Kong).
We get a feeling that Kwok the two time Golden Horse actor (After This Our Exile, Divergence) is trying a little too hard here: as if playing a clown isn’t enough, one segment requires him to put on a fat suit because he has been infected with the poisonous gas. But guess what? Instead of being impressed with Kwok’s intended versatility to take on different personalities, we end up laughing at how silly the whole premise is instead.
And don’t even get us started when the Heavenly King’s song plays in the background.
Then there is the sultry female lead played by Shu. She plays a journalist who, well, runs around looking afraid. ‘Nuff said about portraying a developed character.
The only credible cast here is Zhang and Wu, who play a couple determined to destroy the mutants. The relationship between them is adequately crafted out, but still let down by the ridiculous setup of the movie. If you can look past the pretentious and sometimes self important premise, you’ll still be duly entertained by the well choreographed action scenes, and if you can look past the bad prosthetics of the actors playing the mutants, then Collin Chou (Flash Point, The Forbidden Kingdom) does fare satisfactorily as the baddie.
Other than that, this is essentially a movie made to be trashed.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Code 3 DVD contains a one minute Making Of. But seriously, do we care when the movie is this bad? And why do the DVD producers even bother when it’s only a minute long? Also included are two Trailers and a Photo Gallery
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The movie's visual transfer isn’t as bad as the show itself, and is presented in Mandarin.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by John Li
Posted on 17 December 2010
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