China O'Brien

Starring:Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, Keith Cooke, Doug Wright, Nijel, Arturo Rivera, Scott McMillan, Patrick Adamson, David Blackwell (VI), Chad Walker (II), Stanton Davis, Robert Tiller, Lainie Watts, Jaren Harbrecht, Rip Black, Gae P. Cowley, Steven Kerby, Nicole Christie, James Hennessy, Paul Lechance
Director: Robert Clouse
Studio: Studio / Sterling
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Action diva Cynthia Rothrock stars as a former big-city cop determined to both avenge her father's murder and succeed him as county sheriff in this entertaining action vehicle. The good-natured cross between Billy Jack and The Candidate doesn't exactly break new cinematic ground, but the martial-arts prowess of five-time world kickboxing champion Rothrock, frequent Jackie Chan collaborator Richard Norton, and hunky newcomer Keith Cooke (who would later star as the malevolent Sub-Zero in the Mortal Kombat films) more than compensates for the threadbare production values and some voluminous plot holes. For extra fun, try to count the number of times a certain thudding sound effect is recycled (hint: It's in the high double digits). Director Robert Clouse is no stranger to the martial-arts genre, having directed both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan in their American debuts (Enter the Dragon and The Big Brawl, respectively). Every election campaign should have this much full-contact mayhem. This full-frame DVD includes the original trailer, production notes, and cast and crew bios. --Andrew Wright

Customer Reviews:

Missed it by THAT much! "Walking Tall" in heels........2007-01-12

China O'Brien stars Cynthia Rothrock as a big city gendarme who returns to her itty bitty home town when her father decides to retire as the local sheriff. Of course, the bad guys give him a dose of the ol' Lead Pension plan and before you can say Hackneyed Plot Point China is running for sheriff so she can bring in the desperados who gunned her Daddy down! She joins forces with that same Australian karate guy thats shows up in most of her movies(like Tiger Claws) and a one handed, motor cycle riding Indian kid who had a hand chopped off by the same guys what iced Daddy O'Brien.(These evil dudes are busy. Maybe the local Villains Union is understaffed) Everything is pretty typical and if you like Cynthia then you'll most likely enjoy this flick. However, if you aren't more than a casual fan of the star or genre, look elseware. The acting is waaaay too stiff. If the actors had lightened up and Rothrock was allowed to show some personality and charm the movie could have had some genuine appeal. That's all it needed.

I used to love this movie when I first saw it 13 years ago.......2005-06-11

This movie is particularly good for martial artists, for everybody else you may want to pass on this one. The fight scenes are done in the "last dinosaur" style, by that I mean that the action is very close (or closer) to how a real martial art fight would be and NOT like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon like most modern martial art movies are. Not to fear though, the action is not dull in any sense, the fight scenes are similar to 'The Best of the Best'.

The story goes like this, a female cop/martial artist quits the force after an incident in a back alley. She goes back home and her father/ex-sheriff is murdered so she decides to run for sheriff and clean up the town. Then she and her high kicking boyfriend proceed to whip everybody's you know what that gets in their way. Cheesy...maybe but the action is good. Also, there is another character in the movie named "Dakota" who is awesome; to me he almost stills the show from Cynthia.

There is even a sequel to this, which is even better (action wise), called China O'Brien 2.

Watch it as a comedy.......2004-03-03

As long as you go into this movie knowing that it's terrible: bad acting, bad "effects," bad story, bad... everything, then you'll love it. This is one of my favorite "goof on" movies; watch it as a comedy and have a dozen good laughs!

Welcome to female butt kicking........2004-01-18

With Cynthia Rothrock taking on the american film industry, starring as China O'Brien, a karate teacher, whom resign s her badge/gun after a alley-way shooting, returns home to her "sheriff" father. After witnessing her father been killed, she decides to campaign for her fathers position as sheriff, vowing to clean the town of all its corruption, she enlists the help of her young sweetheart, played by fellow blackbelt Richard Norton (whom she stars in numerous films after) helps clean the town, with their extreme talent of martial arts, only seen in most hong kong movies, (minus the dubbed dialogue, of course). This is a must for all martial arts like me.

My, oh my..........2002-08-25

My wife rented this recently just so that she could see Keith Cooke, a martial artist whose work she admires. (He's of mixed Japanese and American descent, but he plays a Native American martial artist here.) Do not see this for the plot, the acting, the setting, or if you like movies with characters you actually care about. Do see it if you want to watch a female martial artist beat the snot out of a bunch of rednecks. There is no other point to this movie.

Average customer rating:

Not the Hot and Spicey Dish I Ordered
poignant
A comedy???
A Movie With No Ending = 1 Star
A Neo-Realist Flushing

Combination Platter
Starring: Jeffrey Lau , Coleen O'Brien , Lester Chit-Man Chan , Colin Mitchell , and Kenneth Lu
Director: Tony Chan
Manufacturer: KOCH LORBER FILMS
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0006A9I52
Release Date: 2005-01-11

Description

The story of a Chinese restaurant in the New York City area and its employees. One of these workers is Robert, an illegal immigrant, who is desperately seeking a green card. His best route to attain this goal, he admits, is to marry an American woman. Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Customer Reviews:

Not the Hot and Spicey Dish I Ordered.......2007-05-31

Although the subject of the film is very timely and contemporary because it deals with illegal immigration, as a whole the film is rather bland. It deals with Robert a Chinese illegal alien trying to get his green card. Robert is a waiter at Szechuan Inn, a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, New York. He saves his pay and tips to send money home to his parents in China. He writes to them regularly and tells them what they want to hear: that he is dating a nice Chinese girl (which happens to be untrue). The restaurant occasionally gets unannounced visits from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services who inspect the premises to round up illegal aliens - so far Robert has managed to elude them. Eventually, Robert hopes to receive his green card so he can remain legally in the U.S. A good friend advises him of his only two options: either his employer needs to sponsor him or he must get married, even if it is a "marriage of convenience" [he pays someone to stay married to him for two years] so he can remain legally.

His friend introduces him to an American Chinese girl who is very outspoken and self-absorbed. She knows no Chinese. They negotiate for her to marry him for the sum of $25,000. Unfortunately, she senses his desperation and refuses, unless he will pay her $50,000. The sum is too large, he can not afford it. The friend provides him another option, date an American woman and try to marry her. Robert finds this choice uncomfortable but he has little choice so he goes along with the plan. He is introduced to Claire, an American young lady who works with computers. Their first date is to a movie, where Robert nearly falls asleep and Claire raves about the film, while Robert agrees with everything she says since he does not remember anything about it. Unfortunately, when Robert tells Claire he has no green card, she believes he is dating her only to obtain one and she drops him. In the whole film, there is just one ironic twist at the ending regarding the American Chinese girl to whom Robert was first introduced. Robert is asked to place a message in a Chinese fortune cookie by the American guy she is dating. Robert works very hard to remove the previous fortune and place the new one inside ... Unfortunately this last scene does not redeem the entire film.

There are definitely some funny moments in the film, for example, when Robert is asked by his American bus boy how to say, "Luck off" (substitute "F" for the "L") in Chinese, which he *does* teach him. Another amusing scene is when the waiters demand the food be ready quicker and they exchange vulgarities in Chinese which nearly results in a physical fight. Unfortunately overall, the film is rather mild and bland, not at all what I had expected since it won a Sundance Film Festival Award for screenwriting. I hoped to see some unexpected, out-of-the-ordinairy, surprise behavior in Robert's character or some complex turn in the plot but none of these occured. The film seemed to deflate. It ended on a rather flat note. While it is a film worth viewing, do not expect excitement or any falling off your seat laughter. It does however provide "a slice of life" [as stated by David Mills, Washington Post] from the point of view of a Chinese illegal immigrant but that is about all. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

poignant.......2006-10-24

I am amazed at the many reviewers who dont like it... then it strikes me,
that is precisely what the movie is about!

A Chinese illegal immigrant (Robert) who is seriously worried about survival and staying on in America - like all immigrants including legal ones like myself.

An American woman (Claire) for whom life is about self-fulfillment including a casual romance.

When these two worlds meet, grapple and try to come to terms, it comes apart.

The chinese man works as a waiter in a restaurant and there are true vignettes of chinese restaurant life.

Unwittingly perhaps, the director let on that many Chinese are not very truthful or in their culture it is not valued highly. When Robert (our hero) decides to come clean and honestly tell Claire what he wants, she doesnt recognize it because of the white lies he has told before.

Unfortunately the reviewers below are unable to appreciate the subtleness and some sadness - much like real life. They are like Claire in the movie.

Great movie - could replace Chinese with Indian, Hispanic etc and would in many places still be accurate.

A comedy???.......2005-10-26

Come on now, let's face it: This movie is awful! Another reviewer, trying to be kind, I think, suggests it might be enlightening for those who don't have the experience of living in an ethnic neighborhood. But really, there's nothing insightful about the situations in which these characters find themselves; they're boring, and offer no new aspects of a foreigner trying to make it in a foreign land. It's all cliches, and loaded with scenes with absolutely nothing happening! Okay, how about the positive aspects? Well, some of the characters are pretty likeable in my opinion--the main character and the hostess in the restaurant, in particular. That's the only positive thought I can muster for this one! And by the way, someone called this a comedy? I must have fast-forwarded through that part.

A Movie With No Ending = 1 Star.......2005-06-01

This movie was a Sundance winner? I heard this was a great movie so I was very excited about my lucky purchase. But I'm not sure what bothered me more: the poorly lit sets or the wooden acting by some of the lead actors. Probably the most bothersome thing about this film was the lack of an ending to the story.

Did the writer forget to add on the final scene so the audience would have some sense of where the lead character's life would take him? Or did the director just decide to call it a night knowing the audience would be denied have a satisfying (good, bad or ugly)ending to almost 2 hours worth of watching and caring about the lead charcter.

A celluloid slice of life into the dilemmas of the expatriated maybe, but we still need some kind of conclusion.

A Neo-Realist Flushing.......2004-11-11

Some of the other reviews compare COMBINATION PLATTER to MARTY. I don't know where this comparison began, but it's not apt. Although both films have to do with ethnic characters, MARTY, by Paddy Chayefsky is more character-driven, while COMBINATION PLATTER, though it follows a single protagonist, works more like an ensemble piece, following the adventures and misadventures of the waiters, cooks, dishwashers, hostess, and owner of a familiar mid-scale Chinese restaurant that caters to a predominently white clientele.

That said, what is strongest about the film is when the filmmaker and camera take us out of the restaurant and into the streets. Anyone who is familiar with Queens will instantly recognize Queens Center, Main Street, and the coup de grace, the old DRAKE movie theater, which was on Woodhaven Blvd, before it went out of business. These settings in and of themselves don't make for a movie, but they lend the film an authenticity of place.

The lead actor is also very convincing and with his muted performance conveys the angst of an immigrant seeking his place in the U.S.

Although the major dramatic question of will this illegal immigrant find a way to stay legally in the U.S. isn't answered at the film's end--the question is actually just dropped and forgotten 2/3 of the way in, the film does a good job of sustaining viewer's interest by picking up various strands of the ensemble drama. Will the hostess learn Chinese? Will the waiter with the gambling problem get caught? etc.

The film works and is an impressive first feature. The question in my mind is, whatever to the director Tony Chan? Has he done other films since? Anyone know?????

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