Once Upon a Time in Vietnam

Master Bao travels the country, seeking out those warriors that betrayed his warlord. He is conflicted when he discovers a former lover and her family. I wasn't sure why this was on my list. There weren't many reviews and the film has a severe lag in the middle Then I realized. I wanted to view it because of Van Ngo. She was amazing in Furie. And she is appealing in this film as well. Sadly, Nguyen (of 21 Jump Street fame), lacks the ability to compose an action film that moves with the necessary tempo.

The production design was sometimes jarring and I wasn't sure what I was watching, some of the background actors are terrible, and it is a bit hokey. Which is everything I love about kungfu movies. There's also a lot that is well done in this, Vietnam's first fantasy epic. I'm cutting them some slack because I found it just a really enjoyable watch.

Some parts were interesting but not enough to hold up...anything actually. Anh (played by Ngo Thanh Van) is quite kick ass so that was pleasant enough. All in all, quite a disappointing show. So sad

A tale of ill-timed sacrifice & the personal journey to salvage a life from good intentions.

The only thing holding this movie back is that it got too ambitious for its own good. The martial arts choreography and fighting is decent, but when they pick up heavy objects, the bad CGI is very apparent and totally takes you out of the experience. Also present is slow pacing for the first half, with very little martial arts fighting. The good stuff all comes after the fight with the three fighters in the bar, and most of the set up is boring family talk with some lame kid, and some unconvincing criminals who make for bad comedic relief. Not without two decent fight scenes, Once Upon a Time in Vietnam is a serviceable distraction, it nothing else.

Nothing really worth watching. The fight scenes were okay at best and the camera cuts definitely favored the less talented in the martial arts field. Some of the special effects were pretty cool but the story was just lame.

Dustin Nguyen mashes up genres in <i>Once Upon a Time in Vietnam</i>.<p>Roughly 110 minutes of screen time is brought about by tedious storytelling. Most of the major characters end up with enough back story; however, the pacing tends to bring out more drama than necessary, leaving the buildup to the finale with a not worth it type of feeling. With that said, there are a number of plot twists that come about.</p><p>There is an abundant amount of CG and green screen, which is mediocre at best. The action, while showcasing some good choreography, is stymied by a lot of slow motion and even some dark lighting.</p><p>Dustin Nguyen is stoic, but that does fit his character. The beautiful Thanh Van Ngo puts on a show when she gets in on the action. Thai Hoa's got a funny personality, along with Ngoc Diep, although the latter is a waste of a character.</p><p><i>Once Upon a Time in Vietnam</i> has some things going for it and things that don't. Add it all up and it's a film to watch once.</p>