Bipolar Movie Rentals: The Sequel

Building on the last edition of BMR, I returned to Hollywood Video for another couple of dissimilar movies. This time it was Hitch and Fulltime Killer.

Hitch:

This Will Smith-Eva Mendes rom-com focuses on the "Date Doctor" (Smith) who helps the helpless. These particular helpless happen to be guys that he helps get the woman of their dreams to go out on a first date with them and helps make sure that it's not the only date she goes on with them. Enter Albert (Kevin James of King of Queens "fame"). Albert is an accountant who wants to get the attention of one of his clients, socialite Allegra Cole (think Paris Hilton with a personality, but without the home videos). Despite the fact that Cole is far out of Albert's league, Hitch takes the case. Along the way, Hitch meets and falls in love with gossip columnist Sara Milas (Mendes). Of course when a date doctor trying to preserve his anonymity is dating a gossip columnist while also setting up an accountant with a socialite who is always in the gossip columns, hijinks are bound to ensue. They do.

More fun, and more amusing than it has any right to be, Hitch is a pleasant surprise. That is not to say that it's good, but it is enjoyable.

Fulltime Killer:

A Hong Kong action film in the vein of the John Woo/Chow Yun-Fat films of the late 1980's, Fulltime Killer tells the story of two competing assassins working out of Hong Kong. One, a O, is a Japanese assassin who is the most highly sought after killer (by both Interpol and those who wish to hire him), the other, Tok, is a Chinese up-and-comer looking to make his name by taking out his more famous counterpart. Caught between them is Chin, a housekeeper and video store clerk, and two police detectives on the trail of O. We follow the competition between the assassins and the attempts to catch them by the police up to the inevitable showdown.

The movie is exciting and well done, but ultimately fails when compared to some of Woo's Hong Kong action films (but that's a difficult comparison for anything). The story is narrated by four different characters in various parts of the movie, which may not cause confusion, but does cause distraction. If you are the type of person who enjoys a good action film, and especially if you like Hong Kong action films, I would recommend checking it out.

Until later...