How to Watch: Rent on Amazon and Youtube from $3.99
Starring: Donnie Yen, Joe Chen, Kang Yu
Director: Ka-Wai Kam
Writer: Tai-lee Chan
Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
Rating: (Unavailable, but probably equivalent to PG-13)
Release Date: 8/31/2018(U.S.)
Style: Action, Comedy, Drama, Martial Arts
More information on this movie can be found on its IMDB page.
A Little Backstory
Recently, I took a wonderful and much overdue vacation to the Philippines, where my wife was born and most of her siblings still live. As a quick aside, if you have ever had any desire to visit the Philippines, I highly recommend going there if that is feasible for you. My family and I had a great time and I found virtually everyone we interacted with there to be pleasant, friendly, and positive. Not to mention that the country itself is beyond gorgeous with a wealth of places worth visiting. I truly cannot wait until I can go back and spend time with my family there again!
But I digress. The reality of traveling to a place that is almost exactly on the other side of the planet from where I live is that it takes a while, even by plane. Being a very captive audience in a flying sardine can for 6, 14, and 5 hours on consecutive flights presents a fantastic opportunity to catch up on all of those movies that you have been missing out on (assuming they are on the screen mounted to the back of the seat in front of you, of course).
I watched A LOT of movies, but there are three that I will be covering here on Martial Journal in the near future. Big Brother was one of those movies that I was especially excited to have a chance to watch. I have not found the movie on any of the big streaming outlets and I would never remember to go out of my way to look it up and rent it. So I happily got out my headphones and plugged in for what I had hoped would be another great Donnie Yen movie.
So was it? Read on to find out!
Overview
[From the movie’s IMDB page]: A soldier-turned-high school teacher uses unusual methods to reach to a class of poor students, while dealing with a greedy entrepreneur and his gang of fighters as well as the government.
Story Review: 7.5/10
Pros:
The story set-up here is quite endearing and very positive in tone. Introducing Donnie Yen’s character with almost no backstory and slowly revealing his history to you over the course of the movie was a good move. It shows a level of patience that creative teams from many movies simply do not have. Donnie Yen is simply fantastic in the role with his usual charisma and acting-range on great display here. The main side characters are also fleshed out well enough for their roles to have weight during the dramatic elements.
Cons:
If you have ever seen the movie Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfeiffer, then some of these story-beats found in Big Brother may feel familiar. I know this movie is a bit on the “family-friendly” side, but some of the conflicts were resolved a little too easy for me. Also, I felt some of the side-characters backstories and resolutions are a little glazed over.
Martial Arts Review: 7/10
Pros:
If you like Donnie Yen doing martial arts on screen, then you are in the right place here. The choreography of the fights with the MMA fighters and the final fight is very good. I did note that his fights in Big Brother had a little more of a “fun” component to them than many of his other movies. This was right in line with the tone of the film, however. I also noted that the final fight had more story-driven “weight” than I see in a lot of martial arts films with a twist that I never saw coming.
Cons:
The biggest drawback of this film is the lack of action sequences, especially if that is what you were expecting. This movie is more of a comedy/drama that happens to have some martial arts choreography in it. The action does not start until almost halfway through. That doesn’t mean that the first half is boring, just that the rating for this section suffers a bit for this reason. Ip Man, this is not.
Overall Rating: 7.3/10
As I step back and look at the whole movie, I have to say that I really enjoyed it. While I will always sign up for a Donnie Yen martial arts movie, I have to also point out that I would also enjoy any non-martial arts movie he stars in. He is THAT good of an actor, which is a rarity when it comes to martial artists in movies. Big Brother is a movie that is a pretty decent, family-friendly affair that is elevated because of Donnie Yen.
Have you seen Big Brother? What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments section below!
Big Brother
The Good
- Fun and family friendly
- Donnie Yen makes every movie better
- Patient storytelling
The Bad
- Some plot beats are derivative
- Not much martial arts choreography
- A few "easy" plot resolutions
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- “Big Brother” Movie Review - July 19, 2019
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