Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an action comedy from 2011. That movie is "This Girl Is Badass".
I'm gonna tell you, guys, the only reason why I wanted to cover this movie was because of that title. I kept seeing this movie whenever I was at one of my local video stores, and that title always caught my eye. But for a while, I never bothered to pick it up. Partially because, there were other movies and games that I wanted to buy that were a higher priority to me at the time. And then one day, when I was picking up more movies and games that I wanted to get, I saw that the movie was still there, and I thought to myself "You know what? If nobody's gonna bother picking this movie up, then fuck it, I'll buy it myself". I mean...come on, how often is it that you see titles like that in your life? Chances are, not very often. So I bought it, and as they say, the rest is history.
Now, I'll be honest, I don't know anything else about this movie beyond the title. I tried to look up information about the plot, but even that didn't help me very much, because the synposis's I've found were all very vague. All I could find was that our main character is a bike messenger, who gets roped into a sumggling operation between competing mob bosses and she has to fight her way out of this mess. Which leads me to believe that this movie might, ultimately, be a plotless action film. And for those of you that do read my reviews, you'll know that I am not a huge fan of plotless action movies.
That being said, even though this film might be plotless, there actually might be some redeeming qualities to this thing. I mean, hey, I was able to find a bit of joy out of watching "Doom" back during my "Video Game Movie Marathon", so there might actually be something of interest that I'll find out of this movie. I don't know if it's gonna be any good, but the only way I'm gonna find out for myself, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "This Girl Is Badass".
10 minutes later
Well, guys, I can say, so far, that, even though this movie is kinda off to a slow start, our main character is certainly kicking a ton of ass with her bicycle. It actually is sorta cool in how she's able to utilize it while fighting off these gangsters. So yeah, this movie's kinda living up to it's title already.
8 minutes later
OK, I've been meaning to ask this, but what is with this mob boss's voice? It's been really distracting me every time he appears on screen, and it's beginning to sound very grating to my ears every time this guy talks. I'm hoping we don't have to see much more of him in this movie, because it is beginning to get painful just listening to that voice. Just thought I'd let you guys know.
17 minutes later
You know, guys, I can see that this movie is trying to be funny. And bless it, it's really trying...but, so far, I haven't found anything that's made me laugh. I'm kinda hoping that the humor will actually get better as the movie goes along. I'm hoping that we get a more interesting story out of this movie, but I'm not totally sure if any of that is gonna happen.
16 minutes later
OK, you know what? That was kinda funny. I wasn't really expecting him to sing his own theme song like that as the music was playing, but it was still sorta funny. So, I can count one funny thing that's happened in this movie.
16 minutes later
You know, guys, that fight scene would've been a hell of a lot better if most of that wasn't done in slow-motion. I get that the movie wanted to be interesting and cool with that fight scene, but all it really did was slow the pacing of this movie down to a screeching halt. That was just an unnecessary pacebreaker.
15 minutes later
Guys, I have given up on trying to follow this movie's story. It kinda made sense earlier, but now, I am completely lost as to what's going on. And I have just come to a point where I don't care enough to follow what's happening anymore. I have a theory as to why this is, but I'm gonna save that for when I eventually review this thing.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "This Girl Is Badass", and we're closing out with some bloopers playing over the credits. As interesting as this is, I'm not in any real mood to watch them, so I'm just gonna shut the movie off...all right. So, what the hell do I even start with?
I guess, when in doubt, start with the writing. Earlier, I made a prediction that this movie was gonna be some plotless action movie that wasn't gonna really have much of a story. Because when I read the summarization of the movie from the scant amount of research that I was able to find, it didn't really sound like it was gonna be heavy on it's plot. And I also stated that, even if that was true, I was still hoping to find some redeeming qualities out of this movie. And while I will say that there are some redeeming qualities to be found here, it's not gonna be enough to make you want to go out and watch this movie for yourself, unless if you have some morbid curiosity. The only reason why I wanted to watch it was simply for it's title, regardless if this thing had a plot or not. Well, believe it or not, there actually IS some kind of a plot here. It's just that there's too much of a story here. I know that may sound like it doesn't make any sense, but I'm gonna try to explain it the best way I can. You see, from what I picked up in this movie, there is more than just our main plot. Where our main character, Jukkalan, is a bike messenger that is transporting goods from two different mob bosses. And along the way, she gets into trouble from some of the gang members in one group that tries to tell her to get back the goods to them from their rival gang members within 7 days, or they'll put a bullet in her head. Now, if that was just the entire plot, then I would've not minded that. I mean, OK, it would still fit into the lines of it being a plotless action movie, but it still could've worked if the movie focused on that and made it kinda work.
Unfortunately, though, that's not what happens. This movie has more than just that. And this is gonna lead into the biggest problem that this movie suffers from, which is the pacing. The pacing in this movie is awful. You see, this movie tries to work in several different plots at once. The biggest that I could find involves the character of Uncle Wang, who is the uncle of our main character, who he's raising as his own daughter after her parents died. And he really gets the spotlight for most of this movie, up until the hour mark where he just disappears and doesn't reappear again until the final act. He gets the most development in this movie, as we see him not only trying to raise his daughter, but also, I think, his son, Duan. I'm not totally sure about that part, though, because the movie doesn't really establish this all that well. So, Wang has a love interest for this woman, who is a single mother that has a daughter named Moon. And the daughter, somehow, knows that Wang really likes her mother. And she's been wondering if they'll hook up, to which he tries to brush it off without giving it away to her Mom. And all of this would've been fine, if it were in a completely different movie. But I'll get more into that in a bit. So anyway, we have that plot going on. We also have a couple of other subplots that also don't really go anywhere. I mentioned Duan earlier, so I'll start with him. He secretly has a love interest for our main lead, Jukkalan, and he's been trying to find ways to get her attention. And the reason why he has an interest in her is because, at one point, we get a flashback to when Jukkalan saved Duan from some bullies back when they were kids. And since then, he's been wanting to try and get her to fall in love with him. As I said, this subplot doesn't go anywhere and doesn't have any real conclusion, other than Jukkalan saying to Duan to keep trying. Speaking of Jukkalan, she has an interest in this guitar player named Wong, who she's been trying to get him to fall for her. And this subplot ends rather abruptly when we find out that Wong is gay and that he has an interest in one of his band members. Yeah, he also has a band, which I forgot to mention. But honestly, these people play no real factor into this movie. And once that subplot ends, we never hear from Wong ever again.
And that's pretty much it for plot. Like, this movie was really trying to work in a bunch of different plots, but none of these subplots go anywhere! And the worst part about that is that our main plot is put on the back burner for all of these subplots. Which leads me back into the awful pacing, because our main plot comes to a stop at around the 25 minute mark, and we don't focus on that until the 1 hour mark of the film. And, like I mentioned earlier, the subplot involving Uncle Wang's character development comes to a grinding halt within the 1 hour mark, in which we FINALLY go back to our main plot. And that is terrible fucking pacing, because this movie doesn't know what it wants to really focus on. If this movie were more of a dark romantic comedy, and we took out the main plot of the film to focus on our other subplots, then I think this movie would've worked out much better. I don't know if it would've been good, but it certainly would've been better than what we got. And speaking of comedies, let's touch upon the movie's humor. Again, I could see that this movie was trying to be as funny as hell. But for the most part, the comedy just didn't work for me. The only time that I got a laugh out of anything from this movie was when one of our villains was singing his own theme music. And those bits are certainly rather funny, but it's very few and far between. And while I did get a couple of grins out of it, most of the humor just didn't stick out at me. There's even bits of dark humor. And I'm someone who usually LOVES dark humor, but I didn't really get any laughs out of that, because most of it just kinda fell flat for me. Now, I totally understand that humor is subjective, and it's probably gonna be seen as a minor negative to some people. But I'm gonna tell you, guys, for me, personally, the humor just does not work here. It certainly tries with it's humor. But in certain cases, it just tries too hard, and it doesn't really work for me. And I'm rather disappointed that a comedy was not able to get a lot of laughs out of me.
But setting that aside, our characters here are pretty flat and lifeless. Which, if this thing was JUST an action movie, then I probably would've cut this thing a lot more slack. But because we have something resembling a plot, our characters don't really have much personalities, and the only bits of depth we do get come from Uncle Wang. But other than that, the writing here is just so unfocused and not very good in the process. So, what about the acting? Well, I should mention that this movie does have an English dub, but I didn't watch it, because when I pressed play, the version that I watched came with the original Thai dub, seeing as how this movie was made in Thailand and all. So, I'm gonna be judging the acting that came from this particular dub. And honestly, the acting here isn't too bad. Most of the acting here sounds fine, and from what little I watched from the bloopers before I shut it off, it sounded like the actors were having a lot of fun with this movie. So, I honestly can't fault them too much here, seeing as how they were able to make this kind of unfocused script work with their given roles. I have no idea how the English dub sounds, but, maybe, it's for the best that I didn't watch it, because I haven't run into a lot of good foreign live-action dubs. So hey, maybe I skipped out on an awful English dub. But again, I have no idea what the English dub sounds like. And if I really bothered to watch this thing a second time, I would go back and rewatch it with that dub. However, I'm probably not gonna be doing that, seeing as how this movie isn't really all that good.
I will say, though, that the fight choreography and the stunt work is all really good. Like I mentioned earlier, this movie does have some redeeming qualities, and the fight choreography is certainly one of them. All of the fight scenes are choreographed really well, and it really is cool to see all this in action, as you get to see some awesome-looking stunt work involving the bicycles at one point during the movie. However...there is one problem, and it's gonna tie back into the pacing. You see, all of the fight choreography and stunt work is very spaced out. You get to see two of them in, I think, the first 25 minutes or so. And then you don't get to see them again until well over an hour into the movie. And that, like I said, is just horrible pacing. It also doesn't help that the third fight scene involving Jukkalan is mostly done in slow-motion. And considering how bad the pacing was in this movie, doing a fight scene, mostly, in slow-motion doesn't really help things. But regardless, the fight choreography and stunt work is all great, even if it is rather spaced out. There's only one mention I have to make involving special effects where, during the final climax of the movie, where it's mostly just a shootout, there's a CG snake that appears out of nowhere. Don't ask why, it doesn't make ANY sense why that's there. It might've been hinted at earlier, but like I said, I gave up on following this story well over an hour into the film. The CG is passable, I guess, but it's nothing to really write home about.
Camerawork here is really good, save for some bits of shaky cam during a couple of fight scenes. Lighting here is lit rather well. Sound-mix here is competent. Most of our score is rock music, and, of course, there is that bit involving one of our villains singing his own theme song. Which was pretty cool, but it wasn't anything amazing per se. So, the score here is kinda forgetful, overall.
So, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "This Girl Is Badass"? Honestly...no. The only people I can recommend this to are fans that are into plotless action movies. But again, there actually is some plot here, which isn't even that interesting, personally, that probably would've worked in a completely different kind of film. And also, like I mentioned earlier, this movie's action scenes are rather spaced out. And by that point, I could just say go look these scenes up on YouTube somewhere, because I'm sure you'll be able to find them on there. But as for this movie, I seriously can't recommend this to anyone else. And if you were curious just solely based on the title alone, like I was, then this review should be an indication that it's not worth your time. And you know how, earlier, I mentioned that I kept seeing this movie at one of my local video stores mainly for it's title? Well, it's basically another lesson of curiousity being a bitch. And that's what I get for being curious about cool titles. Now...I'm gonna go and watch another action movie. Preferably a better one. And I got plenty of options to choose from. Well...seeing as how it's the month of Halloween, and I mentioned "Doom" earlier, I'm gonna go watch my copy of that next. Because while that movie is by no rights amazing, it's certainly is a hell of a lot better when compared to what I just watched. Plus it is, technically, a horror movie, too. So, I'm gonna go ahead and do that next after I'm done putting this review together.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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