The Twins Effect II (2004)

In the mythical land of Huadu, Charcoal Head, a humble boy born to rule an empire must undertake his journey to claim his throne. It is an epic action adventure combining romance, fantasy, comedy and cutting edge Hong Kong style martial artistry.While this film had some good humor, a decent plot and some very odd twists and turns (and a running gag about mustaches)... it just fell short for me for one big reason: the special effects. The effects are very well done, much better than the flotsam SyFy pumps out, but it still takes away from the idea of a martial arts movie.Case in point: Donnie Yen is an amazing martial arts master (as seen in the "Ip Man" films, among others) and in one scene he fights Jackie Chan. Why did this need special effects? Instead of having glorious natural movements, you have to add in cheesy computer graphics and aspects that clearly were not there? Chan and Yen do not require this -- they are (or at least should be) a selling point all their own.That aside, it was pretty decent. I am unclear about the character "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"... this film seems to borrow from the film of that name (what with the silly flying). But is this an homage? A cheap ripoff? Why use that name within a film that clearly is not connected to the classic, or even on the same level? Oh well. Still a good movie. Not the best martial arts film, and certainly not the best from Well Go, but worth seeing. It is too bad that American audiences had to wait eight years for this to finally be released... we need more Donnie Yen and Bingbing Fan.

I'm a pure martial arts movie (and Donnie Yen) fan and certainly have to admit I too, long anticipated the fight between Donnie and Jackie (since Shanghai Noon sequel Shanghai Knights). As my heading goes, that is the only reason i bought the DVD to collect. Jackie's opening appearance was kinda makes you say "What the xxxx…??!" However, once again under Donnie's coaching, Twins did an excellent performance in their martial arts action sequences (and they surely grew prettier as well), while Jaychee looked real wimpy in the movie that seriously made me wanna swear and yell "did somebody mentioned that this kid is Jackie's son?" Real disappointment for a debut. Perhaps that's supposed to be deliberate cos he wanted to prove to the world that he does not wish to follow his father's footsteps as an action star? Another character worth mentioning is Chan Pak Lum in his role as Blockhead, appeared funny and entertaining.

This film reminded me of Halloween 3. Remember? The third film that had nothing to do with the continuing storyline of Michael Myers. Thats pretty much what this film does... takes the same title from an entertaining first film and slaps it onto a film with a completely different story.Apparently, the Twins Effect films are not supposed to have any continuity because it's just a franchise vehicle to market these popular HK twin celebrities. Which is sad, because the first film was entertaining. This film is just strange and more so comedic. In laymens terms, women have taken over the world and an evil woman sorcerer wants to change all the remaining men in the world into women as well. I honestly found myself fast forwarding a lot in this film because I kept getting so disinterested with the plot. Which upsets me because I love HK films and rarely do that. I even bought this film based on the fact I loved the first one... but I'm sadly selling it off. It's not that much of a keeper. This film has only one good scene, the cameo fight scene with Jackie Chan. Which you can find that entire fight online somewhere without having to watch this film.

Another movie containing the world's most adorable twins -- as far as I'm concerned anyway...Although I had expected better after seeing The Vampire Effect, The Huadu Chronicles is a fun romp, in the classic styles of old HK movies. The jokes are crude but funny.As for fight scenes, the first action scene is horribly done. Charlene and Gillian don't put on a very good show, and it doesn't really have anything to do with the plot. The story starts to take shape however about 20 or 30 minutes in, and Charcoal Head and Block Head, are lovable characters.Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan's fight scene doesn't work at all however. I don't know why they are even in the movie. It's drawn out, filled with either bad wire-work or bad cg effects making the characters do unrealistic flying. I don't dislike flying in other movies, but this was just done badly. It also doesn't contribute to the humor of the movie or the storyline at all.Overall, see it when you've got a few hours to spare for some mindless fun. For the movie, I'd only give it a 6 out of 10.As for Gillian Chung on the other hand, 10 out of 10 easy.