ThiefHott Too much of everything

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

FinerFilmFanatic I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who thinks this film isn't a complete waste of time.I first rented the movie waaaaay back when it first came out on video and actually quite liked it. Then when it became available to buy, I hot footed it down to HMV to get my own copy, and I wasn't disappointed.Let's start off with Madonna. First of all, she looks gorgeous in this. And you know what, her acting isn't that bad. Yes, you read me right, she's not bad. What lets her down, however, is the clunky dialogue. Not even Meryl Streep could do much with this. But she's more than competent with what she has to work with.As for the story, well, it was never going to be a contender for film of the year, but it's straight forward enough and even has a little twist at the end (and no, I didn't see it coming). Madonna is a missionary out in Shanghai, trying to procure opium while Sean Penn is a... not sure exactly what he is, but he ends up helping Madonna against the baddies. Yes, it's full of clichés, but it's upbeat and doesn't take itself too seriously.I realise that the film won't be to everyone's tastes, but it's honestly not that bad.

Elswet 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 :.

Blueghost 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.

westpac Who thought this up? It must have looked brilliant when they got Sean and Madonna in the same movie. Unfortunately Sean goes through the whole movie looking like a kid pretending he's in a movie and Madonna as usual just plays herself, badly. Nothing to see here, move along folks...