Finally sat down and watched Hustle this morning. Came away with mixed thoughts... in some ways this movie seemed much more over the top that his previous outings.... lots of visual cues to other movies, various cues to things from the Matrix movies, including some audio cues, of courses references to Shaolin Soccer(glad to see some of those familiar faces), and a reference to the Shining that had me lol.... The musical assassins immediately reminded me of Brigette Lin's Deadful Melody, and while The CG still doesn't look quite right... human bodies still look too rubbery and move to rag-doll-ish, but you pretty much expect/accept that at this point. The gangster the shotgun the girl(opening sequence)... too funny, and then the reference to it later accept for a cigarette? Funny.
I personally found the movie hilarious and without even looking it up I recognize the fight choreography work of Yuen Woo-Ping whose pulled alot of stuff from his time on the matrix movies in to these fight sequences.
While the story was only average, I really got a kick out of the many fight sequences... and come on who didn't laugh at the martial arts master with the red underwear...
Average story, great chow, great fight sequences. A bit more over the top than I expected in some spots... but a great movie... and come on...The Beast... wearing flip flops? :lol :lol :lol :lol
*I* still prefer Shaolin Soccer to this movie.... but this is definitely one where if nothing else I'll pop in the DVD in the future to show off some of the fight sequences to other folks.
Speaking of Brigette Lin you know I was watching Police Story last night... wow talking about looking incredibly blah... she looks mannish in that movie... she looks great in other stuff though... Deadful.. Swordsman II, White Hair I & II, etc....