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A different way of telling a story

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I wish this movie for a Christmas present and I got it. I was waited for a month that I can see the film and finally I get the DVD and watched it right away. I was really excited in the beginning and watch the whole movie to the end. I said to myself: I loved it very much! I thanked my mom from the movie. This wasn't the worst Madonna's exhibition performance, she was worse in Swept Away (2002) directed By Guy Ritchie. This movie should be better IMDb score. I understand people who doesn't like Madonna's bad acting but that doesn't make the movie really bad. So people who knocks out the whole movie, think about the story, was the story good? I think you should think about this thing after knocking out the whole movie. Thank you for reading! :)

Glendon Wasey is a fortune hunter looking for a fast track out of China. Gloria Tatlock is a missionary nurse seeking the curing powers of opium for her patients. Fate sets them on a hectic, exotic, and even romantic quest for stolen drugs. But they are up against every thug and smuggler in Shanghai.....If you ever want to see a film starring a married couple who have zero chemistry in a movie, then this is a must.It's labelled as an adventure romance, so you'd be forgiven to think your about to watch a homage to Indiana Jone ps by way of romancing the stone. Instead you get a film that is more like a homage to Firewalker, by way of Allan Quartemain in the eighties, and every bit as bad as it sounds.We have Paul Freeman pretending to be an old Oirish clergyman, and the big reveal at the end is wasted, because we see him without his contacts in for at least five minutes before he goes 'ta da'.There's a man with porcelain hands, Penn looks like he's been taking some sort if narcotic throughout filing, and Madonna, is supposed to be a virginal missionary.......Isn't it all hilarious.It's dreck of the highest order, and no wonder they broke up after this, I hated everybody after sitting through it.Devoid of almost anything, it's a surprise it didn't sink Handmade pictures....

Well, after the hoopla of the Madonna/Penn train wreck, I've watched this again. Don't ask, I was bored! But in all honesty, this film isn't as bad as critics said at the time. This is actually quite cute.Richard Griffiths (Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon) makes an appearance, and helps even out Madonna's lesser performance, if only a bit. Penn, on the other hand, is great, if ill at ease with the dialog and Madonna's presence. It seems unfortunate that he chose to costar alongside his wife to be, as instead of uplifting her talents, it merely drags his down.This is fun, but Indiana Jones, it ain't.It rates a 6.4/10 from...the Fiend :.

If nothing else this film has heart. I remember years ago all the hype that was injected into this film aimed at adolescent girls (i.e. Madonna fans), with the angle being that they would get to see the then infamous couple of Penn and Madonna frolic on the big silver screen.Well, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know where this film was headed. Like with all films when the hype exceeds previously good, yet unhyped, films you know something's up.The story itself isn't bad. It's kind of hackneyed at points, but that's its genre, and for what the film is it works after a fashion. There're only two real problems with this film;1) Madonna's then acting capabilities. It's not bad for a performer who's more used to singing and dancing, and it's unfair to expect anything more from her, but her acting talent then was what it was; lacking. Let's face it, she's a better singer and dancer than an actress, and this comes from a man who is not one of her fans.2)The second problem is the actual filming and execution of this film. The storie's there, the acting's there (Madonna not withstanding), and so forth, but there's little in the way of coverage or good cinematography. It's passing. It gets the job done. But the shots are those of a low budget flick. I believe there was a real opportunity to create atmosphere with good camera direction, but the focus of the film wasn't art so much as it was to capitalize on the then Madonna-Penn phenomenon (the film itself was riding the coat tails of Indiana Jones and The High Road to China films).And that last part is really too bad, because this film could've been much more. At least when I saw it on HBO years ago the print I saw then was clear, corrected, crisp and otherwise very viewable. Today I had a gander at the recently released DVD, and it looks like the owners of the property took an old 16mm broadcast print and had some fly by night tranfer company encode it on a DVD master; complete with a couple of scratches on grainy film stock.In short, if you didn't like it the first time, then don't bother with the DVD because it's even worse. If you got a spare evening, and your friend loaned you the disk, or it's available at the library, then give it a look, but don't expect too much.