America’s Next Top Model – Nicholas Tse

Hong Kong superstar Nicholas Tse guest starred in this week’s episode of America’s next top model.

5 finalist remain in the competition and they were flown to Hong Kong for the last part of the competition. For this week’s challenge, Nicholas Tse had the girls act in fight sequence. The winner of the challenge would get to star in an upcoming music video of his.

Nicholas did some demos of fight sequences, displaying his professionalism and skills. The contestants were very impressed with  him. The entertaining part was when the girls had to learn the fight sequence. It was obvious the girls are no Maggie Q or Angelina Jolie. A lot of the times the girls looked rather awkward or un-coordinated. It just shows that it’s hard to do action sequences and make them look natural and not rehearsed or contrived.

It was really cool to see Nicholas Tse in America’s Next Top Model.

Jackie Chan’s 100th film – ‘1911’

Jackie Chan has come a long way since starting out as a child actor and a stunt man in the film industry. He has become a heavyweight in Asian films and he paved the way for Asian actors in Hollywood. His film career has spanned over 4 decades and now the hardest working man in show biz has released his 100th film.

In recent years, Jackie Chan has expressed his desire to shed his kung fu star persona and become a serious actor. Jackie has been taking on more dramatic and challenging roles (e.g. Shinjuki Incident, The Karate Kid) to display his acting versatility. To mark his 100th film, he had chosen a historic drama ‘1911’ to mark the achievement.

1911, tells the story of the founding republic of China when Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary forces overthrew the Ming dynasty. An all star including Joan Chen, Hu Ge, Zhang Ziyi along with Jackie’s son Jaycee, accompany him in this epic movie. The film was filmed over 6 intensive months.

In Australia the film was released on October 13th at Village cinemas. You can check out their website for session details.

Congrats to Jackie for this incredible achievement. I hope to see his 200th film in the future *^_^*

The original female action star – Michelle Yeoh

Michelle Yeoh is tough as nails and she can hold her own in action sequences alongside Jackie Chan and Jet Li. She wasn’t a trained martial artist when she started action films. She was actually a ballerina, so she had the flexibility, strength and coordination to pick up martial arts very quickly.

I was watching some of her interviews on YouTube and she said stunts for American films are a lot easier than Hong Kong films. Back when she was starting out in film, there was no CGI - all the actors had to do the stunts for real.

She was describing how she had to jump off a building and land in to a pile of cardboard boxes (because they didn’t used airbags in Hong Kong). On top of the boxes were some mattresses to help cushion the fall. When she jumped off, she was falling a lot faster than she had anticipated. She wasn’t prepared for the landing. She landed on her head and she heard a snap. She had to go to hospital and she was in a body cast because she had damaged her spine, her neck.

She didn’t tell her parents about the dangers of the stunts she had to perform, because she didn’t want them to worry. This time she was seriously injured, and the media was about to circulate the story. She had to call her parents – she talked to them casually, then she mentioned that the media might report a story about my injury and she said that it was a publicity stunt.

Another interesting story she mentioned was about a fight scene between her and Jet Li. She said that Jet Li always treats her like a brother. Jet Li doesn’t see her as a girl, so he does not treat her like one. In fight scenes he does not go easy on her. In one scenario, he was charging at her with a huge sword, Michelle couldn’t block him in time because he was so powerful. The sword hit her nose, but luckily it didn’t break.

Michelle is one tough female!

Cmovie Review: Mr & Mrs Incredible (2011)

In this Hong Kong superhero flick, Louis Koo and Sandra Ng play two retired superheroes living in a small village as normal civilians. None of the villagers know of their crime fighting past, and they work hard to hide their superpowers. It's been 10 years since they retired and sometimes they miss their glory days.

Now Mr and Mrs Flint are starting to feel a bit bored with their ordinary lives. Interesting events unfold, causing the couple to think about coming out of retirement.

I didn't know what to expect when I watched this film. From memory I haven't watched a Hong Kong superhero before (It's always been action, crime, romcom). It's always good to watch a movie without expectations and be open to wherever the movie takes you.

This is a very funny film, Louis and Sandra are equally funny, they have great comic timing and chemistry. They both played the characters so well that I can't imagine anyone else in the role. I really enjoyed watching them on screen and banter each other.

There isn't a lot of action or violence in this film compared to Batman, Spiderman. This is more of a comedy, an exploration in to the lives of retired superheroes. I felt the villains could have been introduced earlier in the movie to create more suspense. Also, the film was too neat for my liking, I would have liked to see the heroes sweat it out a bit more.

Overall, this is a fun and enjoyable film.

3.5/5 stars

Congrats to Maggie Q for her Teen Choice Nomination

The Teen Choice nominations came out this week and Nikita star Maggie Q received a nomination for 'Choice TV Actress - Action. Other fellow nominees include:
Lyndsy Fonseca, Nikita
Linda Hunt, NCIS: Los Angeles
Grace Park, Hawaii Five-O
Yvonne Strahovski, Chuck

We hope Maggie takes home the gong! We love Maggie

Her show Nikita was also nominated for 'Choice TV Show: Action'. Co-star Shane West also received a nom for 'Choice TV Actor: Action'.

Nikita got lots of nods this year! Yay!

The second season of Nikita is currently airing in the US. You can follow Maggie Q @MaggieQ on twitter.

My Top 5 Action Female Stars! I love watching girls kick butt on screen

With all the hype for the new action show Nikita starring Maggie Q. I started to think who my fave female action stars are. So here is my list:

1. Michelle Yeoh


2. Uma Thurman


3. Angelina Jolie


4. Maggie Q


5. Lucy Liu



Michelle Yeoh did crazy stunts in films she starred in with Jackie Chan. In one movie, she rode a motorcycle on a moving train! No stunt double, no rigging. I watched her talk about that stunt in an interview and if my memory is correct, she broke her leg as a result (I watched that interview a number of years ago, I'm not sure which show it was on). When you're starring with Jackie Chan The biggest action star in Asia, the bar set for doing stunts is out of this world and you have to step up to it. Michelle certainly has. She's awesome! She's was also a Bond Girl!

Who are your favourite female action stars?