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Dom Robinson reviews
Momentum Pictures
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MP413D
- Running time: 96 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Pressing: 2005
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £15.99
- Extras: Silver Hawk slideshow, Trailers
Director:
- Jingle Ma
(Goodbye Mr Cool, Silver Hawk, Tokyo Raiders 1 & 2, Why Me Sweetie?)
Producers:
- Thomas Chung and Michelle Yeoh
Screenplay:
- Jingle Ma and Susan Chan
Cast:
- Lulu Wong: Michelle Yeoh
Alexander Wolfe: Luke Goss
Rich Man: Richie Ren
Morris: Michael Jai White
Kit: Brandon Chang
Professor Ho Chung: Daming Chen
Lisa Hayashi: Lisa Selesner
Akira Shiraishi: Kouichi Iwaki
Jane: Bingbing Li
Tina Shiraishi: Misato Tachibana
Silver Hawkis the secret identity of Michelle Yeoh‘s character, millionairess and model Lulu Wong, and begins by staging the most ridiculous,but amusing, fight on top of a lorry as an increasing number of baddies appear out of nowhere and tryto take her on. Once forced to a stop and with them all defeated, she rescues the cargo, a kidnappedpolar bear, which she playfully tussles with as if it was a dog(!) Oh, and all this came after jumpingover the Great Wall of China. Like you do. 🙂
Rich Man is a superintendent who plans to catch the Silver Hawk, so he reckons. But how to track downthis superhero who does everything for the good of mankind? Shouldn’t be hard because her disguise isabout as convincing as the difference between Clark Kent and Superman(!)
And, as it turns out, both of these two were kids who know each other from Kung Fu school. So, once iteventually dawns on Man, will he turn her in? She’ll have to help him out big-style if she’s going to haveany way of convincing him that she should remain a free agent.
Once the basics are established, the plot is such that Professor Ho, inventor of a new A.I. chip thatserves up a hologram butler who knows you inside and out, literally, has been kidnapped by operativesworking for Alexander Wolfe (Luke Goss), who wants him to use his technology for a mind-controllingdevice that’ll allow him to essentially take over the world. Time really doesn’t play a proper factor herebecause it feels like the movie takes place over a few days yet the mobile phone device the prof has todevelop is apparently in use by most of the mobile-using world when the time comes. Hmmm…
Luke Goss is always worth a watch. Once a member of late-80s trio Bros (the other one was Craig Logan),at least he’s doing what he knows he can do – acting. Matt Goss hasn’t stopped trying to flog a deadhorse with his alleged pop career. That said, Luke isn’t exactly pulling out all the stops on this one.
The fight sequences in Silver Hawk are reasonably engaging at first, but before long they becomeway too samey and by the time you’ve seen yet another scrap between Lucy and/or Man and Wolfe’s croniesyou begin to tire of it. The script’s also rather poor and very predictable when it comes to tyingin the lives of Lucy and Man together.
As an aside, there’s also a dreadful jump/cut as Rich Man is talking to Kit, Professor Ho’s assistant.Couldn’t they have just reshot those two lines of dialogue?
The language is mostly in English, but flashbacks are in Cantonese. Actually the dialogue in present-day scenes,or rather slightly-in-the-future scenes given some of the technology used by Lulu, looks like some of theactors have mouthed the English phrases but someone else has overdubbed them. I presume Yeoh’s was her ownsince she did the same in the appallingCrouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.Either that, or the dialogue is out of sync for all concerned, as shown by Luke Goss’ speech also, thedubbing from him with that weird accent making him sound like Arnold Vosloo did as Habib Marwan in season 4of 24.
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture not quite as sharp as it could be although it’s nothingto complain about. Sonically, there are Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 options available. I went with thelatter and the punch-ups and various spot FX all stand out but there’s too much of the former as statedearlier.
As for the extras, can we have some please? All we get are trailers for this film, Born To Fight,both in letterbox format, and a slideshow of stills, promo shots and set designs, lasting a total of4½ mins.
The menus are animated with repeated bits of sound, the main one featuring a snatch of the theme tune,there are English subtitles for the movie and a paltry 12 chapters to split the 95 minutes up.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.