Xiong Xin Xin, the martial arts choreographer is also a martial arts actor. See him as an actor in these films! Once Upon A Time In China #3 (with Jet Li) Wonder Seven (with Michelle Yeoh) Once Upon a Time in China 6 (with Jet Li) once New Dragon Gate Inn (with Jet Li) The Blacksheep Affair

Visit the Musketeer movie official website the-musketeer.com Reported by Kuan-Lin "Connie" Wang It is said that martial arts stunt choreographer Xin-Xin Xiong (Time and Tide) is one of the most revered choreographers in Hong Kong. This may be true, but the man is only as good as those he surrounds himself with. The Musketeer is an exercise of what not to do in an action film, or any film for that matter. Director/Cinematographer Peter Hyams does a horrific job of filming yet another butchering of Dumas’ classic, The Three Musketeers. The film is lit so badly, it is hard to appreciate Xiong’s masterful choreography including a reinvention of the ladder scene from Once Upon a Time in China. With the lack of martial arts expertise in the star studded cast (Tim Roth, Mena Suvari, Catherine Deneuve, and Justin Chambers), the choreographed sequences were forced to be cut and edited in such a way that you never see the face of the fighters as they are stuntmen and not the stars. (Case in point, Xiong himself stood in for Roth during some of the intricate ladder work.) Don’t even get me started on the rappeling up the tower fight scene. Absurd and… well, let’s just not go there. The darkly lit wine barrel fighting scene would have been impressive if I could just plain see it. The actor was wardrobed with the baggy clothing prolific to the time thereby allowing any number of stuntmen to stand in. The scene was dimly lit so you could not see the face of the stuntmen and the scene was cut from so many different angles, it felt as if I were watching a movie video. Don’t see the film for plot (although the writing was witty at times), watch this film for the mastery of Xin-Xin Xiong. Perhaps, you should wait for it on video/DVD so you can adjust the brightness of the film to be able to see it. Meanwhile, rent some of Xiong’s other films to enjoy his poetic retelling of the martial art. ADDITIONAL LINKS: See the trailer: http://www.the-musketeer.com/trailer_media.jsp?movie=trailer Watch the Justin Chamber interview: http://www.the-musketeer.com/clip_qt.jsp?speed=56 Download Justin Chamber's picture: http://www.the-musketeer.com/desktop.jsp?file=dartagnan_640x480 Click on the FLASH GALLERY and watch the ladder fight scene: http://www.the-musketeer.com/main.html

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