September 7, 2007 - Gen-Y Cops
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me stands as one of the best examples of the way Hollywood approaches sequels: Find out what worked in the first movie (likely, what test audiences report that they liked the most) and then make sure that these moments/scenes/bits are the primary focus of the sequel. So where in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery we get the brief and hilarious (and almost throwaway) "nude" scene, in AP:TSWSM we get a whole musical number/title sequence based on it. And even if it works the second time, I wouldn't try for a third. But then, I'm just some guy with a Web site, while Michael Myers is a multimillionaire filmmaker comedian who just put out that third movie.
The producers of Gen-Y Cops, in their zeal to emulate Hollywood filmmaking, have followed the Austin Powers Sequel Strategy to the letter: Take what worked in Gen-X Cops—Match, Alien, stuff blowing up—and up the voltage. So Gen-Y Cops is twice as loud and twice as silly as GXC—but only half as smart. It's a sort of twisted HK remake of Charlie's Angels. Again with the filmic inbreeding.
But still...I enjoyed the hell out of it. Stephen Fung is undeniably charismatic. He and Paul Rudd are the best actors in the movie. Anthony Wong's bit part is a treat. The hyperkinetic and usually entertaining Sam Lee overdoes the mugging a bit (what else is new?), and although the airport flag-waving scene and her sickeningly sweet cheerleading were hilarious, Christy Chung is criminally underused and overdressed. And don't get me started on "hot new thing" Edison Chen and his "Abonics." Can anyone explain why suburban Asian kids want to talk like they're gangsta rappers?
Gen-X Cops offered perhaps a passing nod to reality, but of course its sequel disposes of such trivial constraints. Almost immediately we know that all the rules of reality are out the window: Most live-fire military weapons tests take place at a remote desert range, far from civilization and things that break, not inside a metal and glass building. But hey, it's more Hollywood than HK, so just shrug and let your brain take a short vacation.
Sci-Fi Channel recently released a butchered version of this movie retitled Jackie Chan's Metal Mayhem. Because it's mostly in English anyway, it was minimally dubbed, but aside from finding where the censors missed some obvious English curse words, that version's not really worth the time. Stick to the original.
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