Compared to Flash Point and SPL, this is quite joke. They got a horrible director who's known for raunchy cheap action flicks. But fortunately the fight scenes are okay.
My full review here if interested: http://www.colourlessopinions.com/2013/10/special-id-review-malaysia.h tml
it was horrible.
as a donnie yen fan, i barely got good words for this movie.
these are my major gripes:
- very, very bad directing/editing, pieces of the story are completely missing
- please, woman, stay in the kitchen (no offense), but you don't look convincing when fighting
even the fights were not THAT convincing when you compare them to SPL or Flashpoint. I liked the first fight, but even then donnie was on the ground for way too long, that's not how a "realistic" fight would look like. the fight vs andy on was mediocre at best, i liked the jiujitsu being used, it was very technical though (going from triangle to armbar to triangle again and possible kneebar/heel hook) and i wonder how many people would actually appreciate all that stuff if they don't know crap about jiujitsu.
last but not least: collin chou plays bad guy and has no freaking "boss fight" against donnie, REALLY?!! is this the reason vincent zhou quit the movie? LOL.
I have to dissagree and say that Tian Jing did a fine job. She portrayed herself as confident, and her character had charisma. The director portrayed her as a bit too overpowered, but that wasn't her fault. Saying a woman is supposed to go back to the kitchen for what she did in this movie is rather offensive. Her beauty and skinnyness might make it seem implausible for her punches to be as effective as it was portrayed, but you can see she tried very hard, and I personally did enjoy the action choreography that they used with her. My favorite parts of her were the car chase and restroom scene. There was a nice balance between her and Donnie, but it was unfortunate that the editing phases of the overall movie were too unbalanced, scenes seemed to be missing which led to a feeling of no proper continuity, background music was too random, and when comparing to SPL and Flashpoint, the final fight could've indeed used a lot more tension between the two characters, and that car explosion during the fight was really unnecessary, it looked a bit rushed. 6/10
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Sometimes, you have to call a spade a spade. I've seen you defend Flashpoint on the IMDB Flashpoint message board. Do not get me wrong. I am a Donnie Yen fan just like you. I feel that I've to point out to you that from my point of view, you are speaking up for Donnie way too much. IMHO, some of his movies are beyond defending, like Special ID and to a lesser extent, Legend of the Fist.
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Thank you for the response. I've edited my comments. I must admit I'm a bit frustrated when I see you defend some of Donnie's movies even though personally I think they are not up to standard.
My frustration stems from personal preferences (as I prefer to see him in a modern setting dishing out MMA/kickboxing/streetfighting styles). Upon retrospect, I recall you do try your best to judge his movies as an overall package rather than the action aspects, which most IMDB posters here seem to prefer.
My take on Special ID - I like the BJJ aspect and have no problems with it. The only disappointment comes from not enough kickboxing moves that Donnie is known for in his modern setting movies such as Tiger Cage 2 and In the Line of Duty IV.
As for the drama in Special ID - IMO, I find some of it could have been edited out to make the pace faster. Like the cultural differences between HK and Mainland Chinese police procedures although you or others might say it is crucial to see how the differences come to be settled.
Overall, I do feel very let-down by Special ID after the highs of SPL and Flashpoint (again the type of movies I rather see Donnie do), hence the 'apologist' remark. No hard feelings. I do respect the effort you put in to promote Donnie on IMDB and YouTube and maybe even Kungfucinema (I think you are DiP over there) for many years. To me, he is the last HK star who did not sell out his style in favour of Hollywood. Just that I am not too keen on his period or fantasy projects.
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Watched it last night, and I thiught Yen gave a better acting performance in Special ID than Flashpoint. I haven't been able to get ahold of SPL yet.
The down side to the film though falls on the editing. The scenes jumped and didn't make sense at times, at others they stalled and got stagnant.
Another thing I noticed was that the subs were almost unreadable due to the background.
Better acting than Flashpoints ?
Perhaps... but it can't cover the whole mess this movie is...
Besides, if I want to see Donnie acts I'd watch... wait for it... IP MAAAN !!! Tadaaa !!
Donnie acted better in the Lost Bladesman and Wuxia/Dragon anyway...
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Bonasera, bonasera... why so serious ?