Starring
Donnie Yen, Joe Chen, Kang Yu, Directed by Ka-Wai Kam. (2018/101
min).
On
Blu-ray from WELL GO USA
Review
by Tiger the Terribleđ¸
When
it comes to reality, Big Brother is to education what Star
Wars is to space travel. But let’s not hold that against it.
As
a longtime teacher in the real world, I speak from experience. In 20+
years, I’ve never said or done anything that makes an
entire class of delinquents suddenly think I’m cool. I don’t
visit them at home, become their buddy or fix their broken homes. I’m
not idolized by the entire student body, nor do they line up to
take selfies with me. And I sure as hell haven’t used my
considerable martial arts skills to save the entire school from the
local mob (this movie’s goofiest subplot).
But
who the hell wants a movie showing a dedicated teacher in the act of
actual teaching? Or grading papers on weekends? Or attending
weekly staff meetings? If said-teacher is played by Donnie Yen, we
want him to kick some serious ass in the name of education.
 |
| A thumb war is declared. |
Big
Brother is sort-of like Stand and Deliver...with fists. As
such, the movie is a lot of fun, even as we’re rolling our eyes over
the absurdity of it all. Though he has zero experience, Henry Chen
(Yen) manages to land a job as casually as applying at 7-Eleven. In
quick order, he manages to whip his kids into academic shape, five of them, in
particular (because screw everyone else). No student has an
extracurricular problem that can’t be immediately solved by Chen’s
wisdom, encouragement and a few roundhouse kicks to the right faces.
He even becomes a local celebrity by pummeling a crooked MMA
fighter.
You
won’t believe – or be surprised by – a single minute of it. But
when you’ve got Donnie Yen at the head of the class, who cares? In
addition to his considerable physical skills, he’s always been a
charismatic actor and is certainly likable here. So even though most
of his actions would have a real educator hauled before a review
board, Henry Chen is the guy real teachers dream they could be.
Alas,
it’ll have to remain a dream for now. But until that fine day when
teachers are unleashed to take education by the balls and beat it
into submission, we can experience it vicariously through movies like
Big Brother. Though outlandish and completely predictable,
it’s the lighter side of Donnie Yen and one of his more
entertaining recent films.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
3
TRAILERS
KITTY CONSENSUS:
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS
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