Peter Bart's book "The Gross" on the Hollywood summer of 1998 goes into some detail the depressing behind the scenes machinations of making this unwanted sequel - depressing because it was so driven by cash and "slots" and all that stuff.
The actual film isn't as offensive as the reasoning behind its existence, mainly because all the cast and crew seem to genuinely enjoy each other's company - it feels like wearing a comfortable shoe.
The plot is a sort of grab bag of various plots which might have done service as C stories for episodes of a drama series - no one seems to overly care, no one seems overly stressed. Jet Li is the only member of the cast who seems determined to put in a real effort - the time when he threatens Danny Glover's pregnant daughter is the only time the film has a sense of threat (cf Lethal Weapon 2 where the baddies killed Mel's wife and new love interest and threatened Glover's family). It's as though the filmmakers were afraid to put their characters through too much stress.
No comments:
Post a Comment