Wish Dragon: Borrows its essence from Aladdin but still interestingly vivid and lively

Movie Review: Wish Dragon (2021) on Netflix

It's fun, it's entertaining, it's colorful with interesting characters, but Wish Dragon isn't Aladdin and 1001 Nights, from which the basis of this movie richly borrows its essence--embarrassingly so. Right down to a reciting of its basic rules! C'mon guys. That said...

In this version that takes place in Singapore, main character Din (voiced in English by Jimmy Wong) discovers a magical jade teapot while pursuing his childhood friend Li Na (voiced in English by Natasha Liu Bordizzo), and out of the teapot pours the ancient dragon Long (voiced in English by John Cho but in Mandarin by Jackie Chan) who can grant three wishes. 

Long has been sequestered in the teapot by the gods until he grants the wishes of ten masters, an exercise meant to teach him valuable lifelong lessons from his masters, before he can return to heaven where he finally will be greeted by his ancestors. 

Young adult Din is Long's final master to satisfy, so he is in a hurry to grant three wishes and, of course, he offers lots of easy options from years of serving greedy masters. But Din is street wise and wants to make the most of his wishes to aid in regaining the interest of his old friend Li Na, with whom he was closest of friends as children but separated by her father's rise in fortune. The question for Din is how far he is willing to go to win Li Na's favor, to meet her new expectations after 10 years of separation but possibly compromising his own values. And this drives much of the conflict of the story. 

At the same time, while Din has the allegiance of Long to grant his wishes, someone else is trying to steal the teapot to get wishes, threatening Din's last wish.

The animation in Wish Dragon is great and the characters are vivid and lively. It really is a good film with great production values. If you can get over the in-your-face lifting of some story elements, it has enough other unique elements to allow you and your family to enjoy the film.

I rate Wish Dragon A- for Almost Great.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie: Entertaining Mind Play on the Screen

Movie Review: The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)
Version: Library borrow

Out of a possible five LEGO tiles, I'd give the third LEGO movie -- The LEGO Ninjago Movie -- a four. I liked the other two better. But only slightly. The problem is, they all seem to be developed out of the same formula, so I was kind of disappointed that this one wasn't a lot different: Boy with daddy issues fights off megalomaniac father figure who seeks to dominate the boy's culture. And there's a wise elder other-fatherlike figure nearby to guide the boy.

What I did like about The LEGO Ninjago Movie, indeed with all LEGO movies, is the playfulness of the script and the multiple sight gags and easter eggs you see throughout the film. And the characters are always fun, way fun!

The basic premise of the story is that Lloyd (Luh-loyd as his detached abandoned father calls him) is a teen at a typical high school shunned by his classmates for being the son of the local evil warlord. That's his "day job". "By night" he's a young ninja superhero, one of six, who battles that evil warlord to defend their island home against attack and conquer. The warlord brings along a gang of spirited generals to help him take on the island and the ninjas, and when things go awry, he jettisons them from their volcano home lair when they can't come up with new evil plots for their next attack. Lloyd is the leader of the ninjas, who has a chip on his shoulder because his father, Garmadon the evil warlord, left him when he was a baby, and as he confronts Garmadon in each attack, he gives him one more opportunity to explain why he abandoned him and redeem himself with his son. But things aren't quite as they seem and Lloyd and his ninjas go off on a journey of discovery with the aid of their wise mentor, Master Wu, to find The Ultimate Weapon, to take on Garmadon.

The Ninjago version of the franchise has the usual concoction of LEGO-tile built creations, from cityscapes to vehicles to outside environments to weapons and characters. It's an imaginative play word you would love to sit down on the floor and mess around with like a kid, only it's on your TV screen and it's animated. I can't imagine the work it takes to create a world like that in an animation studio. But this production studio has done it and made it highly watchable.

There are, of course, multiple voice talents, but the ones that matter in this story are Dave Franco as Lloyd, Justin Theroux as Garmadon, and Jackie Chan as Master Wu. The film actually begins with Jackie Chan in live action as a wise Chinese merchant who introduces a young boy to the story. These characters are the heart of the action and these actors rise to the occasion. (Interestingly, before I watched this DVD I watched a young Jackie Chan in Rumble in the Bronx where he does some of his most amazing kung fu stunts -- in this movie, Chan looks much aged.)

The graphics for the end credits were interesting, too. They used what looked like paper LEGO schematics for building the LEGO Ninjago world to build the title graphics around. That's worth staying around for.

A LEGO movie is always fun family entertainment. They won't all be five out of fives, and it's unfair to compare one against another, really. The LEGO Ninjago Movie stands on its own as an interesting story with imaginative characters and entertaining mind play on the screen. Go for it!

The Foreigner: A Solid Action Film

Movie Review: The Foreigner (2017)
Version: Paid in-theater viewing

Ever since Jackie Chan "went Hollywood" his movie roles, at least the ones seen in the West, have been more slapstick comedy built around kung fun fighting. It hasn't been until recently that his roles have become more serious, as in The Karate Kid and Dragon Blade, save for his voice-over work. The third serious role Chan is taken on and just released in theaters is The Foreigner. He admitted in a U.S. late-night network interview it has been his plan to move in that direction, to become a serious actor.

In The Foreigner, Chan plays Quan Ngoc Minh, a humble London restaurant owner who loses his one last family member, his daughter, to a terrorist bombing as she enters a dress shop to prepare for a school dance. Filled with remorse, with the memories of the loss of the rest of the rest of his family to senseless political attack, Quan becomes obsessed with seeking revenge on whoever planted this bomb. His foe becomes a member of British Parliament from Belfast, Liam Hennessy, played by Pierce Brosnan. Quan is sure Hennessy knows who they are because of his past ties to the IRA (Irish Republian Army), and he seeks him out for help. But Hennessy hasn't a clue. He declares he hasn't been in the game for decades but is instead working to maintain the peace brokered over 19 years. Quan isn't convinced, and the movie becomes a cat and mouse game of Quan setting dangerous traps for Hennessy to convince him to give him the names of the bombers. Armed with a hefty security team, Hennessy attempts to stay ahead of Quan, but to no effect -- Quan is always a kung-fu step ahead of them. Quan is obsessed at getting the names, whatever the personal or professional cost to Hennessy.

It has always been a hallmark of Chan movies to get at least one fairly top name to play either the bad guy or one of the good guys along side him in his films, and so it is with The Foreigner. Brosnan is good as the Belfast antagonist opposite Chan, although his Northern Irish accent is a bit thin. Having played James Bond and Remington Steele probably helped established his chops as a spy-type, and she commands the screen. Having played the heavily grieving father in The Karate Kid prepared Chan for his role as well, although I thought he was more effective in Karate, perhaps even Oscar worthy. But they make a fine dueling pair in this action-filled drama which allows Brosnan to spar and Chan to kick-punch for which they are famous. Chan is getting older, so there isn't nearly enough kick-punch and stunt work as a lifelong Chan fan would like, but I'll take what I can get.

There are plenty of chase scenes and explosions, too. It's interesting to note that a double-decker bus explosion on a bridge over the River Thames was so realistic that nearby onlookers thought it was an actual terrorist bombing during shooting, and the production crew had to shut down briefly to calm nerves. Chan, producer of the film, takes his art seriously.

While I still liked The Karate Kid better, The Foreigner was still a good, solid film and worthy of any Jackie Chan or action-film fan. If I rated films, I'd give it four swift kung-fu knuckle punches out of five.