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Best movie of this year hands down!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Although a fairly OK martial arts movie I believe there may have been a marketing flaw with this movie. The poster to the movie shows a "Ninja". Set in the background are old / classic style structures. With the tag line of "They are the perfect weapon" When watching the movie however it is set in the modern day. There is no "They" only one main protagonist fighter. No ninjas to speak off.The movie as I say is OK on its own merits as a Hong Kong style martial arts movie but due to some error along the line the wrong poster was attached to it.The action seems solid enough to hold your attention with a pretty good female lead. Which in movies like these, are always trying to show / prove that they can be as strong as their male counterparts. In doing so the female characters becomes arrogant the same way, but more a fault of the writing.No titillation here if that is what you are looking for as seen in many of the other action style movies with female leads, dressed in skimpy revealing clothing. Cheap tricks designed to distract you.I believe this movie was made mainly as a response to 2008's Chocolate. Still worth checking out in any case. A few of the fight scenes especially the one vs one fights do last a little longer than I would like, to show the skills of the cast maybe? As it is not based on the fantasy setup. No wire-work or anything like that, so actions and stunts done under their own steam.

Anyone remotely familiar with the Hong Kong action industry during the 1980s and early 1990s should know that the pool for martial arts actors was overflowing with capable talent. Pick your poison: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Donnie Yen, Collin Chou, Ken Lo, etcetera ad infinitum. In like manner, there were a number of martial arts actresses floating around: Yukari Oshima, Moon Lee, Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Rothrock, and Joyce Godenzi, to name but a few. Unfortunately, the girls were not allowed to attain their full potential because the directors and producers were either too stupid or too incompetent to use them properly, opting to saturate their films with boring filler material and lame humor. How many times did Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima sign for the same film, only to then fight for a grand total of 2 friggin minutes over the course of a 90 minute running time? I honestly lost count, and it really ticks me off because Yukari and Moon should have accounted for at least 30 minutes of action per movie. There's no excuse for falling short of that quota, and these "Golden Age" directors/producers should be ashamed of themselves for essentially wasting these actresses careers.If there's one type of action movie that really hits the spot for me, it's the "girls with guns" or "girls kick a$$" subgenre. Some of my favorites involve non-athletic actresses, but there's something really special about watching a highly athletic girl strut her stuff without the help of stunt doubles. JeeJa Yanin, in and of herself, demands excitement after her phenomenal debut in "Chocolate" (2008). And despite the fact that the pool of martial arts actresses is very thin at the moment, Luxia Jiang has impressively demonstrated her abilities in "Coweb" (2009).A female bodyguard attempts to rescue her kidnapped boss. It's no understatement to say that this film is as action-packed as humanly possible. Within the opening 15 minutes the viewer is treated to a brutal, lengthy kitchen fight and the subsequent brawls (in a knee-deep water pit at a disco, at a warehouse, on a bamboo scaffold, in a marketplace with breakdancers, etc.) follow in quick succession. The plot simply serves the purpose of transporting our heroine from one clash to the next, which isn't a problem for fans of no-brain action. Jiang is a highly athletic specimen who easily carries the film on her back. Her spin kicks are awesome, and she breaks out a few nifty acrobatic jumps. There are other flaws here for sure. Direction and sound design are amateurish, wires are used regularly, and the martial arts choreography is a bit repetitive at times (more variety would have been nice), but this is very entertaining fare that will please those viewers who love to see girls kick a$$.It's definitely nice to see that modern filmmakers are capable of avoiding the same mistakes of those during the "Golden Age." I'm sure lots of people will complain about the weak plot and characters in "Coweb", but a non-stop exhibition of girl-inflicted destruction is a major rarity in the world of cinema. How many more crappy big-budget Hollywood action flicks (with actresses who have ZERO talent) do you need to watch before appreciating a Luxia Jiang or JeeJa Yanin flick? I've seen more than enough already to fully appreciate these girls. If they are fortunate enough to each make one action-packed film per year over the next decade, I'll be in heaven.

This effort, directed by newcomer Xin Xin Xiong, takes movie-making down many notches beyond amateur. Nothing in the movie makes any sense at all.Nie Yiyi (Jiang Lu Xia) is a skilled martial arts expert working as a security guard after her father's death. A childhood friend, Zhong Tien (Sam Lee), who works as a personal assistant to billionaire Mr He (Eddie Cheung), persuades Yiyi to become a bodyguard to Mr He's wife. Reluctantly Yiyi accepts and she takes her job very seriously.When both her bosses are kidnapped by a gang of thugs at a restaurant, Yiyi blames herself for it and goes all out to trace the culprits. She is dissuaded from contacting the police by Zhong Tien - and the two follow dubious leads that involve duels at a disco, on top of bamboo scaffoldings, alleyways and bridges. Yiyi soon discovers that all her fights are being recorded on video by a gambling syndicate and streamed over the Internet for people to bet on. And yes, Coweb alludes to Combat Web! There are very few hits but a whole lot of misses. For one, director Xiong mistakes kungfu talent for acting talent and casts newcomer Jiang Lu Xia in such a demanding role. Going through the paces with just one or two expressions (like looking angry and angrier), she fails miserably of course. Jiang's claim to fame was showing off her martial arts skills on the Internet and competing on Jackie Chan's "The Disciple" TV series (a hunt for the next big Hong Kong kungfu star). She can fight but she can't act to save her life.Next, the dialogue is appalling and you just can't believe the moronic stuff that the director allows to get into the movie. Xiong has one of the baddies go through a door cartoon-style with a cut-out hole; he has Jiang playing a bodyguard without any firearms or contact with the authorities; he portrays Yiyi as an utter idiot believing and following ridiculous leads and clues when the obvious could be seen a mile away; and no attempt is made to explain how the gambling scam works.However, the most unforgivable flaw is the badly filmed martial arts action. Ever since Raging Bull in 1980, directors and cinematographers have learnt to dramatise the scenes with close-up and slow-motion shots, not to mention CGI-enhanced views to excite our senses. The action here is repetitive and boring, except for a brawl at the bamboo scaffoldings. It is obvious Xiong tries to imitate Jackie Chan's comic 'kungfu' tricks but again, he fails miserably due to poor timing. Jiang is not good enough to carry the movie and Xiong has no idea how to direct a modern martial arts thriller.

Coweb is probably short for Combat Web. The idea of the film is that a female bodyguard has her boss kidnapped by a gang who run an underground fighting web-site. In order to rescue her boss, the bodyguard must fight her way through the gang's martial artists - all while her fights are being secretly taped, streamed over the web and bet on.The film aspires to be the kung fu version of The Truman Show, even name-checking that film and it is a neat idea, but horribly executed. The only reason to see this film is its star, Jiang Lu Xia. Coweb's reality web story probably owes something to Jiang who was discovered doing stunts and karate on online videos before becoming a part of Jackie Chan's reality TV series The Disciple.Jiang has her limits. If she has a sense of humour, it is impossible to detect - at least in this film. She only has three gears to her acting and fighting, neutral, annoyed and REALLY angry.Despite these limits, wind her up and she is a whirling ball of action fury, impossible to ignore. She manages to combine Jackie Chan's athleticism and ability to squeeze over and through obstacles with Bruce Lee's unstoppable fury. Of course, both Jackie and Btuce had other gears. Jiang just has the one and this may limit her career, but in full fury she is something to see.Jiang is about five foot nothing, but it seems like she has six feet worth of legs. She has an astonishing ability to turn her legs into a multi-jointed weapon like a living three-sectioned staff allowing her to hit opponents with full force from the most impossible angles. She also has some interesting submission moves to add to her acrobatics and kicking.But her most impressive quality is her sheer confidence, best demonstrated in a sequence where she has to cross a bridge and a horde of enemy bad guys pour onto the bridge to stop her. For the audience, there is a moment of doubt and then in a flash you realize that Jiang isn't outnumbered thirty to one, the bad guys are outnumbered one to thirty.It's not like any movie martial artist loses that fight, but few would do what Jiang does ("You just put your head down and charge like a bull," one of her other opponents marvels later.) and fewer still would be as believable while doing it. Jiang Lu Xia is something to see, her film Coweb, not so much.