(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 Hawk
is 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 try
to take her on. Once forced to a stop and with them all defeated, she rescues the cargo, a kidnapped
polar bear, which she playfully tussles with as if it was a dog(!) Oh, and all this came after jumping
over 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 down
this superhero who does everything for the good of mankind? Shouldn't be hard because her disguise is
about 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 it
eventually dawns on Man, will he turn her in? She'll have to help him out big-style if she's going to have
any 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 that
serves up a hologram butler who knows you inside and out, literally, has been kidnapped by operatives
working for Alexander Wolfe (Luke Goss), who wants him to use his technology for a mind-controlling
device that'll allow him to essentially take over the world. Time really doesn't play a proper factor here
because it feels like the movie takes place over a few days yet the mobile phone device the prof has to
develop 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 dead
horse 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 become
way too samey and by the time you've seen yet another scrap between Lucy and/or Man and Wolfe's cronies
you begin to tire of it. The script's also rather poor and very predictable when it comes to tying
in 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 the
actors have mouthed the English phrases but someone else has overdubbed them. I presume Yeoh's was her own
since she did the same in the appalling
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
Either that, or the dialogue is out of sync for all concerned, as shown by Luke Goss' speech also, the
dubbing from him with that weird accent making him sound like Arnold Vosloo did as Habib Marwan in season 4
of 24.
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture not quite as sharp as it could be although it's nothing
to complain about. Sonically, there are Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 options available. I went with the
latter and the punch-ups and various spot FX all stand out but there's too much of the former as stated
earlier.
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 of
4½ 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.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Silver Hawk
is 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 try
to take her on. Once forced to a stop and with them all defeated, she rescues the cargo, a kidnapped
polar bear, which she playfully tussles with as if it was a dog(!) Oh, and all this came after jumping
over the Great Wall of China. Like you do. :)
Once the basics are established, the plot is such that Professor Ho, inventor of a new A.I. chip that
serves up a hologram butler who knows you inside and out, literally, has been kidnapped by operatives
working for Alexander Wolfe (Luke Goss), who wants him to use his technology for a mind-controlling
device that'll allow him to essentially take over the world. Time really doesn't play a proper factor here
because it feels like the movie takes place over a few days yet the mobile phone device the prof has to
develop is apparently in use by most of the mobile-using world when the time comes. Hmmm...
The fight sequences in Silver Hawk are reasonably engaging at first, but before long they become
way too samey and by the time you've seen yet another scrap between Lucy and/or Man and Wolfe's cronies
you begin to tire of it. The script's also rather poor and very predictable when it comes to tying
in the lives of Lucy and Man together.
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture not quite as sharp as it could be although it's nothing
to complain about. Sonically, there are Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 options available. I went with the
latter and the punch-ups and various spot FX all stand out but there's too much of the former as stated
earlier.