SHAOLIN VS. EVIL DEAD

shaolinevildead
Originally uploaded by doctoraok.

It's got hopping Vampires! Evil Spirits! Undead Warriors! Good Guys! Bad Guys! Romance! Little kids in cute kung fu outfts fighting each other on a giant chess board! This film tries it's best to add everything in one movie, and in the process ruins it for the rest of us. Gordon Liu is obviously slumming it here and doesn't do too much. If the above combination sounds good to you then you may try to rent or buy this one. Let me help you out here. Don't do it.

Let's start with what is good here. The sets and atmosphere are excellent. The actors all look pretty good too. Some nice costumes as well. The digital effects are used to enhance the story and not overhelm it. A few kung fu battles start out good, but end much to quickly. And as for film-making quality it stands with the best of them, with some great camera angles and cinematography. That's about it.

Now the bad. The plot is a real mess. The acting isn't that good. Most of the actors are in 2 categories: 1. sleeping (Gordon Liu) or 2. hamming it up (lead bad guy). It has absoultely nothing in common with Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. The child actors here are awful. The wire-fu isn't even that impressive and just when it seems that the movie's plot begins to get going... it ends in a cliffhanger and that will piss you off. If we had any other kind of ending I would have added a star. Avoid this turkey!