Im pritty sure that many people and I included though that this could be a really good movie and why? Easy answer Luc Besson was involved as a writer alongside George Huang who directed it, but you know more for Luc Besson, just for you to know he is the writer and director of two greatest movie in Hollywood ¨The Professional¨ and ¨The Fifth Element¨ and many more but now Im only going to mention this two, if you have time watch it are great and you will thank me, returning to this movie something that I thought is that this could be a new version of a Fast and the Furious because included one of his most beloved actor Sung Kang only that here he wasn´t part of a good family. The whole setup seemed perfect on paper, you got Luke Evans playing this DEA agent who goes undercover in Taiwan to take down Sung Kang's character who runs this big drug operation but then it turns into this weird family drama when Evans discovers his ex girlfriend is now married to the guy he's trying to arrest and they have a kid together this information let you know that things wont be easy for the agent and that is notice at the moment that you see the trailer with all those actions scenes and car chases through the streets of Taipei but even though all seems well done we can notice that the production team couldn´t decide if they wanted to make a serious crime thriller or some kind of family reunion movie with explosions and let me tell you something at the moment I knew that Luc Besson was part of this project I belived this could be something good because in almost of his movies he tries to give us interesting characters with this unique life and also though the same about Sung Kang because he always bring a unique way to play his characters but at the end it seems that so many ideas were taking and never fit together giving us at the end a really expensivie film but without heart.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28142896/
- Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Rottentomatoes Rating
Ok I know that when we have movies with explotions, chases, family issues and drugs in somehow you are going to see different moments that will show every situation but here in Weekedn in Taipei is so obvios that they couldn´t trace a line to connect everything in a perfect way theres to many storylines but you don´t see that any of those stories received the attention they deserve you got Evans character dealing with his past relationship drama while also trying to stay undercover and complete his mission, then there's this whole thing with the kid who finds out his real dad is the guy trying to arrest his stepdad and decides to steal some important files because he's upset about dolphins getting killed, oh my god this is one those part in the movie that came in and you get like What is going on? Really, he is going to steal something so important because now he is concern about the dolphins dying and is so easy for him to steal that from his dad (now stepdad), is like they needed an excuse and the most stupid one to make the kid commit the rob also Sung Kang's character is supposed to be this ruthless crime boss but he spends most of the movie acting like a concerned father figure who just happens to run a drug empire on the side, which might work if the script gave him more depth but instead he just comes across as this generic villain who occasionally shows emotion meanwhile Evans continue doing his best with what he's given but his character is like millions other agents that we have seen in many generic movies about agents in undercover mission nothing in this role making shine or special and in addition all that family drama with his exgirlfriend and new son is not deep enough to make us, the audience care about all that drama.
Always the best part of the movie are the action scenes,in Weekend in Taipei theres some cool action scenes but that are far away of being memorable but you at least can enjoy like this kitchen fight scene early on where Evans takes on multiple guys using various cooking utensils that should be exciting and at the beginning it was but it goes on way too long and starts feeling repetitive after the first few minutes you can think that they really effort and spent a lot of time creating this choreography but at the end you just get bored sometimes less is more another scene is the car chase through Taipei has some nice moments where you really get a sense of the city and its streets, but again it doesn't bring anything new to the table that we haven't seen done better in other movies just cars driving fast and occasionally crashing into things without any real sense of danger or excitement, if you are a person that has seen many movies with this kind of topic, you know that could be done in a better, another scene that Im still thinking that it supposed to be serious or more as a fun scene, it is about a violent moment mixed with almost comedic family drama that doesn´t combine at all, it feels that one again the production team didn´t know what to do and they just said ¨hey, lest do it violent and fun¨, everything about the movie feels rushed and poorly planned, like they run out of budget, time or emotion to continue with the project and decided to ended as quickly as possible.
I was really excited to see what this two directors will bring to the table with Weekend in Taipei but sometime things dont happen as expected and I do believe that this movie had the potential to be sometime way better of what I saw and I mention this because the movie premise was good, a federal agent undercover in an Asiatic country behind of a huge drug dealer discovering that his old love now is with this person and worst discovering that he has a son that has been raised all this time by this man, then you add all the luxury, luxury cars, the essence of other country no the classic views of America that is not wrong is just that the idea of see others countries in a movie is always cool, it sounds all good for me but the way it was done it was get me mad and more for the carrier Luc Besson with Sung Kang and Evans all sounded like a good movie but I was wrong. Sung Kang character was wasted with poor scene that only shows more are concerned dad than a real mafia king and Evans with his ex girlfriend issues that should be the center of the story because you know she hide that he has a son all the interaction between feels force instead of showing a real conflict between them and what they are facing inclusive all the setting of Taipei feels wasted because while you can see a beautiful city and doesn´t feel integrated or part of the story, looks more that an exotic place than a home, probably many people will say that Taipei is a really exotic place I have never been there but in this movie as I said doesn´t feel like a home for any of the characters.
I just feel disappointed, it seems that I have huge expectation about this movie just for the names that formed part of this movie but this is when we always think that a name is not everythign. Luc Besson great writer and director, Sung Kang and Luke Evans are good in what they do but this time there combination didn´t work and Im not saying this because they are bad in this movie I said because they tried to do the best they can with what they received, a poor script and poor direction instead of their characters seems like what they supposed to be, DEA agent against a mafia boss fighting in a beautiful city as Taipei chasing each other and in the middle another fight one to save his family and the other to keep it, this movie was less than exciting was just another movie. Even though I do have to recognize the action scenes were competent but not enough to cover up for the lack of family drama that feels forced and artificial and the whole thing just lacks the energy and creativity that you would expect from something with Luc Besson's involvement. I know that I might be overreacting but I think the internet got my back on this one saying its BBAAADDDD, you will think well is just another bad movie, yes probably it is but the point here is that good directors and a production team should always work in a path to bring something good to the audience.
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