精英出击

明嘉靖三十七年，宦官权倾朝野。方术国师为谄媚监首厂公，提出以“活虎心”炼丹，用以“壮阳重生”。故东厂在猛虎出没地——西南边陲小镇设立“司礼猎场”，猎捕猛虎用以炼化。但没有想到，此举使得奇异病毒进入老虎体内，让老虎发狂，并形成瘟疫迅速传播......

　　Kyohei Aizawa, an assassin for a covert non-governmental espionage group in Japan called "SEEK", is grieving over the loss of his girlfriend from a tragic plane accident. The leader of "SEEK",Ryo Mikumo, contacts him for an emergency mission; save a fellow agent, recover a new highly explosive liquid called "RDX@", stop a ruthless Yakuza leader, Sojiro Kotsuki, and his gang before they take over Japan. Although the Ninjas were thought to have disappeared... the new breed of assassins live on helping to protect Japan and all that is right; the Ninjas are coming soon.

唐僧（薛梅康饰）想要只身一人下山化缘，遭到了孙悟空（吴文超饰）的阻拦。然而，唐僧却并没有听徒弟的警告，一意孤行，结果在化缘途中遇见了居住在盘丝洞里的蜘蛛精（殷明珠饰）。蜘蛛精将唐僧捉住盘丝洞，想要献给大王，孙悟空久久不见师父归来，出发寻找。猪八戒亦邂逅了盘丝洞里的众美艳女妖，受到了女妖们的魅惑，鬼迷心窍的猪八戒放松了警惕，结果也被妖怪们抓获。孙悟空来到盘丝洞和众妖们展开了激烈的战斗，然寡不敌众，在这一紧要关头，观世音菩萨现身，教给了孙悟空一套降妖除魔之术。重装上阵的孙悟空再战群妖，并且最终获得了胜利。

　　影片由一个少年学艺、为父报仇的故事展开，发展为一个抗击恶势力、维护家人利益的励志故事，主角叶少侠在尚武镇历尽艰辛吃尽苦头，最终成为一代大师。剧中人物以喜剧表演风格将影片维持在一个轻松氛围中，所塑造的叶少侠行为上除了体现中国儒家传统的忠孝仁义等优秀品质外，还带有西方泊来的平等博爱等观念的影响。而叶少侠初期自身缺点——争强好胜的少年心性，也让他在励志学武过程中更加的赋予人物色彩。过程中武艺精进，实则是少年心性的塑造，开始的一心复仇，到了影片的后半部分更多的是迫不得已才出手，保卫“家人”而出手，复仇的情节早已在人物成长中有所释怀。影片对反派的恶丝毫不留情面，反派所代表的外邦势力，更能让人感受到故事发生时期人民所受的屈辱。这将是给主角展示能力的合理依据，不仅是反省，更是自强则国强的隐喻。

　　Having witnessed his junkie father killed Russell Stevens grows up to become a policeman and make a difference. When he is offered an undercover job by Gerald Carver he accepts and begins to build a relationship with David Jason in order to get to the main dealers. However as he is forced to deal drugs and kill to keep his cover he finds the lines between cop and criminal being lost – is he a cop pretending to be a dealer or a dealer pretending to be a cop?
　　Larry (as he was then) Fishburne's first lead role was a typically dark vehicle. The story is the usual one of cop losing himself when undercover, however it manages to be more than that for most of the time. Co-written by Tolkin, who wrote The Player, this naturally has a nice cynical edge to it when it looks at the US's hypocritical approach to drug control and the political links between the street hustlers and the political high rollers who court respectability. The story does eventually settle into a traditional setting but even then it works well as a thriller.
　　The multi-talented Bill Duke directs well with a gritty feel and a few nice touches. However several things are a bit iffy. For most of the film Fishburne's narration/voice over is a bit like a cross between Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner – it comes across as a little too dark and heavy and also explains things like we can't figure it out ourselves. However once you get into the film it's not as big a deal. My main problem lies with the characters.
　　Fishburne is excellent, a real model of underlying anger and violence, Goldblum is good but perhaps a little OTT on the yuppie/violence thing, but there's good support from Smith and Spin City's beautiful (and often underused – but not here) Victoria Dillard. However the two main white characters (Goldblum and Smith) are both smeared with racist insinuations – Smith appears to insult his black officers and doesn't care about the junkies, while Goldblum is fascinated about all things black and talks about them as wild beautiful beasts and loves having sex with "black'. These things aren't a major problem, but with basically only two white characters in it, it's a little worrying that both are given that edge.
　　However these are minor complaints that get lost with a good thriller. Fishburne excels and Duke delivers a story that is a good thriller but also has a jaded, subversive edge.