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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 2565884" data-attributes="member: 812">Neither.Ekin Cheung is notoriously pretty, and Jet Li has huge amounts of charisma, personality and acting chops. Watch his great films: My Father Is A Hero, Fong Sai-Yuk, Swordsman II, or Once Upon A Time In China. The man is a HUGE star for some very good reasons: his kung-fu is strong, but more importantly he's IMMENSELY charming, and he can act. That his charm and his chops have not been used in his recent films I agree. But watch the man's big pictures. He's a star for a reason.Likewise, just to offer my two bits on both his and Jackie's receptions in Hollywood -- there ARE directors who know how to manage these guys. Shanghai Noon and Rush Hour are the best two films Jackie's made since the mid-90's (with a nod and a "maybe" to Who Am I?).I think a couple of things are conspiring against these two: firstly, their age. They simply can't do what they used to be able to do. Their bodies can't take the punishment any more. That said, they ought to be looking for less action-oriented roles. Both of these guys can ACT. Jackie has said, though, that he's afraid nobody wants to see him acting, they just want to see him kick butt. I say it's time Jackie (and Jet, though I think with him it's less problematic; he's not as old) stepped away from the action roles and looked for some acting to do. The man is a gifted physical comedian with all kinds of range and expressiveness -- surely he can find something he can do. But Jackie seems obsessed with "success" in Hollywood and is frankly embarrassing himself in his pursuit of it. He's started blaming the poor performance of his films on the scripts, the directors, the whatever. I don't disagree with his assessment, but I wish he were showing a little more class.Secondly, the environment in which they made their great films is gone. You just can't casually throw actresses out of helicopters or onto moving trains the way you used to in Hong Kong -- and you haven't been able to do that in Hollywood in decades. The legal consequences are too severe for anyone to risk it, and so you just don't see the kind of bruising sequences you find in their earlier films.But I don't buy the argument that Hollywood has "ruined" them. It doesn't wash. The Medallion wasn't directed by some American dope; it was directed by Gordon Chan, who did, among other things, Fist of Legend, which, while it's not my favourite Jet Li film, is certainly an integral part of the Li canon. The guy isn't inexperienced, nor is he a Hollywood hack. And yet The Medallion was utter trash. And Jackie's HK movies have been, if anything, WORSE than his Hollywood ones. Gorgeous? That film was embarrassing.</blockquote>

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