The Touch (2002)

Ben Chaplin (Birthday Girl) plays Eric, a former acrobat turned thief for a wealthy, but deadly collector. When Eric finally steals an artifact of great importance to his acrobatic foster family, he decides to steal it back and begin a treasure hunt with his former child love, Michelle Yeoh.The plot is the same as pretty much all the films of the genre. A group of noble treasure hunters goes out on a dangerous journey but is pursued by a killer and along the way they find love, loose a few people and end up happy.The first hour you will admire that the sets aren't cheap and Ben Chaplin does a halfway decent job of playing Eric. Michelle is fair at best and the rest of the cast are awful. The rest of the film makes you wish you could fast forward to the climax and the treasure part....when you get there you will wish you hadn't wasted your time.

I had a crush on Michelle Yeoh, I am still a big fan and tries to catch every film that she's in. And with high hopes going in watching this movie, I poised myself for a big let down. Even with gorgeous locations and good castings, this movie always just teetered on developing a good story but did not carry through. Actions and fights were almost actions but not quite. It just everything were "almosts." And one thing about CGs: you can't do CGs on the cheap! It looks cheesy, and any kind of "suspension of disbelief" up to that point goes right down the drain. At the end of the day, it was "almost" an action drama, almost a movie.

I have seen the Touch a few hours ago. I don't know why I wasted nearly 100 minutes of my life to watch this disappointment. Sorry but it is just another predictable and forgettable lame eastern action/adventure/martial arts film. The story is weak, acting is terribly bad (or maybe this movie is without acting at all) even for such kind of movies while dialogs look extremely silly and cheesy. Even special effects and fight scenes were ridiculous and hardly watchable. I really liked Crouching Tiger and Hero but The Touch stands too far from them. Obviously it is not the worst movie ever but I can't recommend it for watching even for free. Watch above mentioned movies or other acclaimed martial marts movies but avoid The Touch.3,7 of 10

As a huge fan of Michelle Yeoh, I was waiting with baited breath to see a beautifully photographed movie with her as the star. An English language movie that was supposed to have world-wide appeal, proof to everyone that she had the true star power she already had for me and many others. While the photography was gorgeous and her strength in the lead role was obvious, the story was weak. Worse yet, the action scenes seemed too slow and "choreographed-looking." The attempts at humor were not only poor, but got really annoying. Worst of all, Michelle played the role of a wonderfully dynamic, good-hearted, woman who still loves a heel, a former love and father of their son. Ben Chaplin does a good job of playing the role of a self-centered, unreliable, untrustworthy crook with absolutely no redeeming value. I know in real life lots of women love the worst men, so there's no escapism here. But this movie makes it look like its cool to be a jerk, making it all the harder to watch. I bought the DVD for my Michelle collection. How many times I'll be able to watch it, I don't know.