ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

leonblackwood Review: I quite enjoyed this epic adventure, because of the funny characters and the, somewhat, unique storyline. During a time when men and women are not allowed to mix and the women are the superior race, a pair of brothers, Charcoal (Jaycee Chan) and Blockhead (Bo-lin Chen), work in a travelling show for Master Blackwood (Tony Ka Fai Leung) and they get handed a mysterious stone with a map engraved on it. With the help of 2 attractive girls, Blue Bird and the 13th Master, they follow the map to try and get the treasure. As females are not allowed to have relationships with men, they fight there feelings and try to keep to the task in hand but there true feelings soon start to show and there love for each other helps them through there many battles that lay ahead. They then come across a sword, which can only be touched by the true king and when Charcoal takes hold of the sword, his travelling companions realise that he is the only person who can kill the Queen and bring civilisation back to normal. Charcoal isn't very happy with his new role as king, but when his loved one is kidnapped by the evil Queen, he builds an army to help him and Blockhead on there mission. After rescuing there Blue and the 13th Master, Charcoal uses his mighty sword, which has many powers, to bring love back into his village and to kill the evil Queen. It was an unusual storyline which I did find a bit weird at first, especially when the women were selling men for money but once the mission gets going and the relationships start to blossom between the four adventurers, it's quite enjoyable. The string movements during the action scenes were ridiculous but the witty script saved the day. My expectations for the movie wasn't that high, especially when I saw that I had to read subtitles but I, surprisingly, got into there epic journey and I couldn't help rooting for the couples to get it on, even though they weren't allowed to show there true feelings for each other. The glossy scenery and chemistry between the characters, added to this well put together movie which definitely gets the thumbs up from me. Enjoyable!Round-Up: This movie was directed by Corey Yuen who brought you No Retreat, No Surrender I & II, Above The Law, The Legend I & II with Jet Li, Red Dragon, The Defender, The Enforcer, The Transporter with Jason Statham and the Avenging Fist. It was also directed by Patrick Leung but he hasn't got any popular movies to his name. They done a great job with this film because it does have something for everyone but the action scenes really did let the film down. Jaycee Chan, 33, is the son of Jackie Chan so I wasn't surprised to see Jackie play a small role in the movie. I liked Donnie Yen's character, General Lone but you don't get to find out anything about his past. Anyway, I found a lot of the film quite amusing and I would watch it again.I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure/comedies starring Charlene Choi, Jaycee Chan. Bo-lin Chen, Donnie Yen, Daniel Wu and Jackie Chan. 7/10

gavin6942 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.

Terry Campbell 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.

sarastro7 I loved the first Twins Effect movie. Great girls, fun action, great vampires. A totally feel-good romp with lots and lots of eye-candy. In my opinion, Twins Effect II is not much worse! It's not quite as good as the first, but there's plenty to look at. Beautiful girls, rich colors and costumes, beautiful scenery, a fantasy world of amazons and magic-wielders, and a vaguely Arthurian plot about a young man fated to find the sword Excalibur and liberate the people from the terrible tyranny of a man-hating matriarch! It's great!OK, they didn't do a lot with the story; it's really only there as a token plot device to build some cool action and an entertaining setting around. The story isn't king. But at least it's coherent and extant, which is more than one can say for a lot of other silly Asian action comedies! The two big scenes that make this a very cool movie is the long opening fight scene between the two twins (called 13th Young Master and Blue Bird), which is *exactly* the kind of thing I look for in martial arts movies, and then the great (but completely irrelevant to the story) fight scene between super-fighters Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan. I don't know why some people didn't like this fight; I thought it was very, very good. Even if it didn't need to be there at all, as far as the story was concerned. In fact, Donnie Yen's character, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (yes, that was his name!), didn't have any kind of necessary-to-the-plot role at all. But it was fun seeing him; he is always ice cool!The overall look of this movie reminded me of parts of The Legend of Zu, simply because of all the rich colors. That stuff looks great if you ask me.Gillian Chung is still the best-looking thing in the movie, in her gorgeous blue outfit! Where the hell can I buy the posters to go with this movie??My rating: 8 out of 10.