Hip-hop star Lil' Kim is set to make her feature film debut in the indie urban Western Guns and Roses, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film, written and directed by Jean Claude LaMarre (Higher Ed), is currently in production and features a cast that also includes singer Bobby Brown, LisaRaye (The Player's Club), Monica Calhoun (The Best Man), Marie Matiko (The Art of War) and Louis Mandylor (My Big Fat Greek Wedding). Set in the 1800s, the period action film follows the turbulent journey of five female outlaws who are fighting to avenge the murder of one of their own.
- 9/9/2002
- IMDbPro News
Hip-hop star Lil' Kim is set to make her feature film debut in the indie urban Western Guns and Roses. The film, written and directed by Jean Claude LaMarre (Higher Ed), is currently in production and features a cast that also includes singer Bobby Brown, LisaRaye (The Player's Club), Monica Calhoun (The Best Man), Marie Matiko (The Art of War) and Louis Mandylor (My Big Fat Greek Wedding). Set in the 1800s, the period action film follows the turbulent journey of five female outlaws who are fighting to avenge the murder of one of their own. Combining elements of classic spaghetti Westerns with the gritty world of hip-hop, Guns is now shooting in Los Angeles. The film is being executive produced by Doug Schwab and Tim Swain of Sleeping Giant Prods. along with LaMarre's Warning Films. Jesse H. Rivard is producing, while Brian Skinny and B. Lewis are co-producers on the project.
Falling into a welcome niche that lies between agile, frenetic Hong Kong actioners and the preposterous bloat of a James Bond movie, "The Art of War" is a kinetic, wall-to-wall action movie that puts the fun back into a genre that is going stale fast. And Wesley Snipes, whose company co-
produced this film, has found in the movie's hero a character who fits him like a well-tailored suit: Neil Shaw, a taciturn, tenacious and ruthlessly proficient thinking-man's spy who never cracks a smile and has no past and, perhaps, no future.
Directed by Christian Duguay, "War" emerges as a highly charged late-season entry that could blow a hole in the current summer boxoffice doldrums. Snipes' name assures the support of his considerable fan base and solid marketing by Warner Bros., and word-of-mouth should do the rest. The film also benefits from a nifty title.
That title, of course, refers to the ancient treatise by Sun Tzu, an Asian general whose handbook for victory on the battlefield now serves as a guide for business and politics. All the film's characters -- warring factions prowling New York's treacherous back alleys and the United Nations' even more dangerous corridors -- have seemingly read Sun Tzu. As mind games and double crosses unfold, they quote him constantly and with approval.
Wayne Beach and Simon Davis Barry's amusingly convoluted screenplay imagines that the United Nations runs a stealth spy operation against its member nations led by Shaw and supported by a skeletal team. So covert is this operation that when the movie opens with a heroic feat by Shaw, the U.N. secretary general (Donald Sutherland) wonders aloud, "How do you give a medal to somebody who doesn't exist for something that didn't happen?"
In that opening sequence, Snipes performs a deadly dance in and around a Hong Kong skyscraper -- a sequence that involves whiz-bang espionage technology, intricately choreographed martial arts fights and a jump off the building -- all of which rivals any James Bond opening.
The plot, completely ludicrous but wonderfully attuned to establishing locales and clearing the way for action, has spies, cops, tongs and an international array of bad guys going nuts in New York over a impending trade treaty to open China to world markets. The assassination of China's U.N. ambassador (the inveterate James Hong) and wounding of a shady tycoon (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) forces Shaw underground when he is accused of the crime.
He can trust no one but must rely on a spunky U.N. translator (Marie Matiko) who doesn't trust him. Maury Chaykin plays an NYPD detective who realizes he's in over his head. Anne Archer plays Shaw's nefarious boss, while Michael Biehn and Liliana Komorowska back up Shaw. There are double crosses and triple crosses and a key line inspired by Sun Tzu: "Appearances are everything -- in politics and deception."
Duguay employs considerable visual trickery -- much of it successfully. There are black-and-white stop-action flashbacks that we come to realize are the film's way of getting into Shaw's head to see how he puts the pieces of the conspiratorial puzzles together in his mind.
Some of the visual razzle-dazzle is over the top, just as Normand Corbeil's music occasionally overwhelms the action, and the stunt people, as good as they are, sometimes cheat a little on their leaps off buildings.
But thanks to a swift pace and great set pieces, the film holds together as it mixes the preposterous with the plausible. Toss in some gratuitous violence and nudity, and you've got a commercial potboiler.
Snipes never fully penetrates the surface of his character, but part of Shaw's mystique is that he's something of a well-oiled machine with the emotional component removed. And Snipes' athleticism and the stunt fighting (designed by Jeff Ward) give the action scenes real snap.
Matiko, who has never starred in a film, is a real up-and-comer -- sexy, smart and quick-witted -- and she holds the screen with Snipes. The other pros in the cast deliver highly serviceable performances, and the below-the-line talent is at the top of their game. Thanks to their work and digital imaging, the movie manages to turn Montreal into both New York and Hong Kong.
THE ART OF WAR
Warner Bros.
Morgan Creek Prods., Franchise Pictures
and Amen Ra Films present
a Filmline International production
Producer: Nicolas Clermont
Director: Christian Duguay
Screenwriters: Wayne Beach,
Simon Davis Barry
Story: Wayne Beach
Executive producers: Elie Samaha,
Dan Halsted, Wesley Snipes
Director of photography: Pierre Gill
Production designer: Anne Pritchard
Music: Normand Corbeil
Co-producer: Richard Lalonde
Costume designer: Odette Gadoury
Editor: Michel Arcand
Color/stereo
Cast:
Neil Shaw: Wesley Snipes
Eleanor Hooks: Anne Archer
Cappella: Maury Chaykin
Julia Fang: Marie Matiko
Chan: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Bly: Michael Biehn
Douglas Thomas: Donald Sutherland
Ambassador Wu: James Hong
Novak: Liliana Komorowska
Running time - 119 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
produced this film, has found in the movie's hero a character who fits him like a well-tailored suit: Neil Shaw, a taciturn, tenacious and ruthlessly proficient thinking-man's spy who never cracks a smile and has no past and, perhaps, no future.
Directed by Christian Duguay, "War" emerges as a highly charged late-season entry that could blow a hole in the current summer boxoffice doldrums. Snipes' name assures the support of his considerable fan base and solid marketing by Warner Bros., and word-of-mouth should do the rest. The film also benefits from a nifty title.
That title, of course, refers to the ancient treatise by Sun Tzu, an Asian general whose handbook for victory on the battlefield now serves as a guide for business and politics. All the film's characters -- warring factions prowling New York's treacherous back alleys and the United Nations' even more dangerous corridors -- have seemingly read Sun Tzu. As mind games and double crosses unfold, they quote him constantly and with approval.
Wayne Beach and Simon Davis Barry's amusingly convoluted screenplay imagines that the United Nations runs a stealth spy operation against its member nations led by Shaw and supported by a skeletal team. So covert is this operation that when the movie opens with a heroic feat by Shaw, the U.N. secretary general (Donald Sutherland) wonders aloud, "How do you give a medal to somebody who doesn't exist for something that didn't happen?"
In that opening sequence, Snipes performs a deadly dance in and around a Hong Kong skyscraper -- a sequence that involves whiz-bang espionage technology, intricately choreographed martial arts fights and a jump off the building -- all of which rivals any James Bond opening.
The plot, completely ludicrous but wonderfully attuned to establishing locales and clearing the way for action, has spies, cops, tongs and an international array of bad guys going nuts in New York over a impending trade treaty to open China to world markets. The assassination of China's U.N. ambassador (the inveterate James Hong) and wounding of a shady tycoon (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) forces Shaw underground when he is accused of the crime.
He can trust no one but must rely on a spunky U.N. translator (Marie Matiko) who doesn't trust him. Maury Chaykin plays an NYPD detective who realizes he's in over his head. Anne Archer plays Shaw's nefarious boss, while Michael Biehn and Liliana Komorowska back up Shaw. There are double crosses and triple crosses and a key line inspired by Sun Tzu: "Appearances are everything -- in politics and deception."
Duguay employs considerable visual trickery -- much of it successfully. There are black-and-white stop-action flashbacks that we come to realize are the film's way of getting into Shaw's head to see how he puts the pieces of the conspiratorial puzzles together in his mind.
Some of the visual razzle-dazzle is over the top, just as Normand Corbeil's music occasionally overwhelms the action, and the stunt people, as good as they are, sometimes cheat a little on their leaps off buildings.
But thanks to a swift pace and great set pieces, the film holds together as it mixes the preposterous with the plausible. Toss in some gratuitous violence and nudity, and you've got a commercial potboiler.
Snipes never fully penetrates the surface of his character, but part of Shaw's mystique is that he's something of a well-oiled machine with the emotional component removed. And Snipes' athleticism and the stunt fighting (designed by Jeff Ward) give the action scenes real snap.
Matiko, who has never starred in a film, is a real up-and-comer -- sexy, smart and quick-witted -- and she holds the screen with Snipes. The other pros in the cast deliver highly serviceable performances, and the below-the-line talent is at the top of their game. Thanks to their work and digital imaging, the movie manages to turn Montreal into both New York and Hong Kong.
THE ART OF WAR
Warner Bros.
Morgan Creek Prods., Franchise Pictures
and Amen Ra Films present
a Filmline International production
Producer: Nicolas Clermont
Director: Christian Duguay
Screenwriters: Wayne Beach,
Simon Davis Barry
Story: Wayne Beach
Executive producers: Elie Samaha,
Dan Halsted, Wesley Snipes
Director of photography: Pierre Gill
Production designer: Anne Pritchard
Music: Normand Corbeil
Co-producer: Richard Lalonde
Costume designer: Odette Gadoury
Editor: Michel Arcand
Color/stereo
Cast:
Neil Shaw: Wesley Snipes
Eleanor Hooks: Anne Archer
Cappella: Maury Chaykin
Julia Fang: Marie Matiko
Chan: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Bly: Michael Biehn
Douglas Thomas: Donald Sutherland
Ambassador Wu: James Hong
Novak: Liliana Komorowska
Running time - 119 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/21/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Recreational sex with friendly Chinatown women and wads of cash are too much of a temptation for a "green" cop in NYPD's Asian Gang Unit, while the veteran leader of the small force is one smooth corruptionist, chummy with the Triads while winning commendations for bravery in his day job.
Flat, repetitious and nominally involving, New Line's "The Corruptor" is bloody, soulless pulp fireworks, primed for a respectable opening but fated to rake in only modest amounts of payola overall.
Killing the movie's chances once they embark on a rocky partnership, prolific action-movie star Chow Yun-Fat ("The Replacement Killers") and Mark Wahlberg ("Boogie Nights") have no chemistry, and director James Foley rather feebly imitates Hong Kong-style action, with many desperate departures from reality to heighten the mayhem.
Not your run-of-the-mill "bag man," seen-it-all cop Nick Chen (Yun-Fat) knows the score: "You don't change Chinatown. It changes you." With violence in the precinct increasing, he resents the arrival of white boy Danny Wallace (Wahlberg) into his intimate group that includes outspoken Willy (Andrew Pang) and Louise (Elizabeth Lindsey). Crusader Wallace just wants to see justice prevail but Willy jokes about "yellow fever." Fatalistic Chen is out-and-out antagonistic.
Luckily, everyone is kept busy shooting up the Fukienese Dragons, who are led by humorless young sociopath Bobby Vu (Byron Mann). Vu and his killers are gunning for Chen's gangster pals, with the cops and a never-revealed undercover FBI agent caught up in the volatile situation.
Heavy on plots, subplots, twists and double crosses, the film nonetheless plods along in characterization.
Chen starts to care about May (Marie Matiko), a whore at the beck and call of underworld boss Henry Lee (Ric Young), who has his sights set on turning Wallace into a collaborator. Chen tries to prevent this, but soon Wallace is getting crime-stopping tips from Lee and enjoying intimate massages. The next minute Wallace is saving dozens of innocent victims and putting a stop to a serial killer who preys on prostitutes. Eventually, Wallace and Chen have reasons to distrust and fear each other in this tediously moody film.
Trying to mix a few dashes of dark comedy with his trademark tough-guy persona, Yun-Fat routinely plays a hardened law enforcer who lives for rough shakedowns and busting bad guys. Wahlberg couldn't be blander, although his character has a whopping interior conflict, not to mention the lurking presence of Wallace's sonofabitch father (Brian Cox), a former dirty cop who owes money to bad guys.
The long-winded story never comes into focus or feels authentic despite the efforts of Foley and the performers to breathe some life into it. Rounding out the cast are Paul Ben-Victor as a menacing FBI agent and Jon Kit Lee as a Fukienese foot soldier who cooperates with Chen
THE CORRUPTOR
New Line Cinema
An Illusion Entertainment Group production
Director: James Foley
Screenwriter: Robert Pucci
Producer: Dan Halsted
Executive producers: Oliver Stone, Terence Chang, Bill Carraro, Jay Stern
Director of photography: Juan Ruiz-Anchia
Production designer: David Brisbin
Editor: Howard E. Smith
Costume designer: Doug Hall
Music: Carter Burwell
Casting: Mary Vernieu, Anne McCarthy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Nick Chen: Chow Yun-Fat
Danny Wallace: Mark Wahlberg
Henry Lee: Ric Young
Schabacker: Paul Ben-Victor
Louise Deng: Elizabeth Lindsey
Sean Wallace: Brian Cox
Bobby Vu: Byron Mann
Willy: Andrew Pang
Jack: Jon Kit Lee
May: Marie Matiko
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Flat, repetitious and nominally involving, New Line's "The Corruptor" is bloody, soulless pulp fireworks, primed for a respectable opening but fated to rake in only modest amounts of payola overall.
Killing the movie's chances once they embark on a rocky partnership, prolific action-movie star Chow Yun-Fat ("The Replacement Killers") and Mark Wahlberg ("Boogie Nights") have no chemistry, and director James Foley rather feebly imitates Hong Kong-style action, with many desperate departures from reality to heighten the mayhem.
Not your run-of-the-mill "bag man," seen-it-all cop Nick Chen (Yun-Fat) knows the score: "You don't change Chinatown. It changes you." With violence in the precinct increasing, he resents the arrival of white boy Danny Wallace (Wahlberg) into his intimate group that includes outspoken Willy (Andrew Pang) and Louise (Elizabeth Lindsey). Crusader Wallace just wants to see justice prevail but Willy jokes about "yellow fever." Fatalistic Chen is out-and-out antagonistic.
Luckily, everyone is kept busy shooting up the Fukienese Dragons, who are led by humorless young sociopath Bobby Vu (Byron Mann). Vu and his killers are gunning for Chen's gangster pals, with the cops and a never-revealed undercover FBI agent caught up in the volatile situation.
Heavy on plots, subplots, twists and double crosses, the film nonetheless plods along in characterization.
Chen starts to care about May (Marie Matiko), a whore at the beck and call of underworld boss Henry Lee (Ric Young), who has his sights set on turning Wallace into a collaborator. Chen tries to prevent this, but soon Wallace is getting crime-stopping tips from Lee and enjoying intimate massages. The next minute Wallace is saving dozens of innocent victims and putting a stop to a serial killer who preys on prostitutes. Eventually, Wallace and Chen have reasons to distrust and fear each other in this tediously moody film.
Trying to mix a few dashes of dark comedy with his trademark tough-guy persona, Yun-Fat routinely plays a hardened law enforcer who lives for rough shakedowns and busting bad guys. Wahlberg couldn't be blander, although his character has a whopping interior conflict, not to mention the lurking presence of Wallace's sonofabitch father (Brian Cox), a former dirty cop who owes money to bad guys.
The long-winded story never comes into focus or feels authentic despite the efforts of Foley and the performers to breathe some life into it. Rounding out the cast are Paul Ben-Victor as a menacing FBI agent and Jon Kit Lee as a Fukienese foot soldier who cooperates with Chen
THE CORRUPTOR
New Line Cinema
An Illusion Entertainment Group production
Director: James Foley
Screenwriter: Robert Pucci
Producer: Dan Halsted
Executive producers: Oliver Stone, Terence Chang, Bill Carraro, Jay Stern
Director of photography: Juan Ruiz-Anchia
Production designer: David Brisbin
Editor: Howard E. Smith
Costume designer: Doug Hall
Music: Carter Burwell
Casting: Mary Vernieu, Anne McCarthy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Nick Chen: Chow Yun-Fat
Danny Wallace: Mark Wahlberg
Henry Lee: Ric Young
Schabacker: Paul Ben-Victor
Louise Deng: Elizabeth Lindsey
Sean Wallace: Brian Cox
Bobby Vu: Byron Mann
Willy: Andrew Pang
Jack: Jon Kit Lee
May: Marie Matiko
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 3/12/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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