Street Date: September 23

Official Synopsis:
Jingle Ma's sequel to the 2000 hit "Tokyo Raiders" offers more action and more comedy as secret agent Lam (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) looks to steal a set of plates for forging U.S. currency back from a criminal gang. Lam first comes up against an expert thief (Qi Shu) after the same booty, but the rivals soon team up to retrieve the plates from a double-dealing U.S. embassy employee.

Our Take:
“The action, in Korean barbeque terms, is hot,” said lead actor Tony Leung Chiu Wan (as Lam) about the movie Seoul Raiders. But action in movies is like chicken wings. One wings joint may have “hot” wings in their opinion that – in reality – are only mildly spicy. That doesn’t mean they’re not good eating but they are by no means “hot.”

The fight scenes in Seoul Raiders are too rehearsed. It’s obvious in some scenes that no contact is even made. Even when between actors isn’t made, it should at least look good. And why, oh why, do a group of a dozen thugs wait their turn in a circle to attack the hero of a karate flick? And why does the hero always prevail in every single fight? How about letting the bad guys open up an industrial sized can of “whoop ass” on him and dump in an alley to die (with the understanding that, of course, instead of dying, he’ll recover to save the world and get the girl)?

That’s my take on this movie that employs veteran Korean martial arts actors to produce a fast-paced action movie with a twist of humor, ala Bruce Lee. There are some funny bits in the movie, such as the huge comb that Lam uses; it reminds of Paul Hogan’s line: “That’s not a knife; THIS is a knife!” The third lead in the film, Shu Qi (as J.J.) is a hot woman who can kick ass with the best of them and she helps bring some excitement to the movie. She serves as a good counterfoil to the three annoying (hot, but annoying) groupies of Lam.

Extras included with the DVD include:

* The Making of Seoul Raiders (9 minutes).

* Deleted Scenes (5 minutes).

* DVD ROM – The film’s poster available on DVD from computer.

For all it’s predictability, Seoul Raiders is still a pretty good movie. I enjoyed it and have no trouble recommending it to fans of martial arts flicks, and at least the words are heard at the same time the lips are moving; that’s always a plus.

Overall Picture:
Movie: B-
DVD: B-

- Tony Gray

Staff Writer