Reviews of The English Teacher 2

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  I Accidentally a memory card in Taiwan. Is This Bad?
  A review of The English Teacher
  by DarkMoonINC on 03/15/2009
  I have to say that the recent few scripts I’ve read have been badly formatted and filled with obtuse dialogue and action descriptions. Suffice to say I was pleasantly surprised to come across this well formatted and well written piece. On a technical level, this looks like a Hollywood script and I have little to complain about. Which means this review will be half as long as... I have to say that the recent few scripts I’ve read have been badly formatted and filled with obtuse dialogue and action descriptions. Suffice to say I was pleasantly surprised to come across this well formatted and well written piece. On a technical level, this looks like a Hollywood script and I have little to complain about. Which means this review will be half as long as normal reviews – I only kid. It’ll be long but I will review it in a different manner then normal.
  
  First, let’s set the frame for what this movie is. This is simply a thriller action movie in the veins of James Bond or Point Grosse or even The Transporter. The only main difference is that the main character is just an average joe who teaches English in Taiwan. As a thriller this movie builds on the suspense of the main characters not knowing what is actually happening, and the tension flows up and down as they try and survive the events around them. As an action movie, it has brief snippets of fast, violent, brutal action. It delivers on all points and I will address my only problems below. I read this script right after finally watching Crank and let me say, any action movie is better then Crank as far as story and character and acting go.
  
  The concept is average for an action movie. This does not hold the script back but will not allow it to hit the potential of an epic story. Which of course is my own little quibble, not every movie can be some epic story. The plot is two layered dramas that lead to violence and death. The first drama sees our main character gets wrapped up in a love triangle with a high school sweet heart type and the daughter of the Taiwan Mafia Boss. Typical sweet innocent girl next store who is safe and you’ve known forever, versus the mysterious and unique mischievous girl who shows up in your life to create chaos. I could probably list a dozen movies that use this format but here it works well. So there is something to be said for relying on what works. The second plot layered on this is one about global corporations doing unethical activities and a memory chip that ends up in the hands of our main characters. From there the stories weave around and through one another as the main character escapes Taiwan, thinking the Mafia is after him for his affair with the Boss’ daughter (which they are) but also narrowly avoiding the corporation goons who are after the chip. The following segments of hide, wait, chase, hide, wait, kill, lather, repeat are well done. The main character keeps his girlfriend oblivious to the problems arising – this I really loved and think drove the story along very well. As the story reaches a climax, you see plot twists, betrayals, mistaken identities, and not one but two of the main characters die! I was thoroughly impressed. A majority of Hollywood movies make the mistake of keeping every “good guy” alive, which is required to suspend your disbelief: often mainstream movies present unrealistic characters doing unrealistic actions to stay alive until the end. This movie does NOT disappoint in this area, as the character never seemed to me to do anything unrealistic and prove that there are serious consequences for trying to deal with the mob and corporations. The only complaint I may have is with the drug induced flashback which suddenly sets up background and character development explanations. While I understand the writer’s need and inclusion of this segment, I find it unnecessary and detracts from the frantic chase seen it is embedded in. By the time it occurs, at the end of Act II, we already pretty much know the characters and can assume most of what is shown in the flashback – other then establishing the main character’s violent tendencies and short temper. If you do anything from my advice, whittle this down slightly or make sure when it’s shot the flow of it is shortened or layered with other scenes to not make it sudden and dragged out. Concept:A+
  
  As for the characters, I have to say that as an action movie, there isn’t much character development needed. The characters pretty much exist as realistically as possible and we kind of tag along with them and watch their lives. At no time do I feel pulled out of the story by any inconsistencies. What is also amazing is that the characters don’t change much but don’t really need to. This is not the Hero Cycle and they don’t need to be epic mythology. This is regular people faced with dangerous events, and their actions and following consequences. Now, to be fair, this story had great character design and did have development but was not overly extreme and the fact that I didn’t notice anything means the writer is doing his job, he’s making them exist so subtly that I don’t notice anything out of the ordinary – this is the way it should be. It’s when I notice the lack of these aspects in a story that it becomes apparent. As once said “If you do things right, no one will know you did anything at all.” So Yes! kudos to you.
  
  The dialogue wasn’t anything to write home about. I mean that in both ends of the spectrum. It wasn’t the last script I read, that tried so hard to channel the over the top, intellectual, witty Tarentino-esque blocks of dialogue. It wasn’t like Poultrygeist or a Schwarzenegger movie where every piece of dialogue is some ridiculous, catchy one liner. But at the same time it didn’t stand out as bad. It wasn’t so glaring with error-filled speech that I was forced to stop and stare slack jawed at the writing. It uses what this movie needs – realistic, ‘average person’ dialogue. At no point did I feel any character was talking like a movie character, they were all talking exactly like expected for some bumbling average people. So yes, it worked awesomely. Two thumbs up.
  
  I consider this movie a thriller first and an action movie second. It was focused mainly on building and releasing the tension. It rolls along like a well built rollercoaster and I come quickly to the conclusion that it attains something most modern action movies lack – pace. It starts out tense, has a quick death, then relaxes to a paced slow-building tension-filled romantic triangle. It then twists to tense chases which the protagonists escape and then while it tries to relax the reader, you feel this slow tension building even as they flee to safety. Quick violence reminds us we’re still in a thriller and death is close. The tension rises and falls during their Thailand trip but you can feel it slowly building higher overall. We end with sudden twists and tense standoffs and plot twists, and then everything drops off in one final climax that made me feel really bad for the main character. I have to say: this is a damn well done thriller. The action is not overdone with long gunfights and ridiculous car chases. This is not the popcorn cinema feature that gets churned out with a dozen sequels. The action comes seldom, but quick, violent, and brutal. While it doesn’t read like a messy gory film (can probably get a PG13 rating), the consequences of the violence is felt and the hammer of justice strikes very fast when it does hit. I say tension and action combines well here, this is a 10/10.
  
  Story may be the only downfall of this. The big badguy who is the mob boss is seen in a couple scenes and isn’t talked about much afterwards. The big badguy who runs the corporation shows up at meetings and on TV. Neither come anywhere near the main characters, neither seems to meet their karmic justice. If this was Hollywood, they would have both died epic deaths while the main character screamed one liners, or would have been arrested in some brilliant scheme to save the day for our heroes. But this isn’t Hollywood. This is a realistic movie and I LOVE it for that. The main character basically evades mob hit men and corporation assassins and at the end isn't even integral to the resolution, most of it is resolved entirely without him and he shows up to finish the job and escape. It doesn’t feel like this character was in charge, leading the story, or able to wrap every loose end himself – in fact I praise it for not doing any of these. The character is never really in charge, he’s constantly running the entire time from danger. The antagonists and their search for the memory chip with the protagonists is what drives the story, and the main character has little to do with it. At the end, hundreds of small things are left unresolved – what happened to the mob boss’ daughter? I applaud these with a standing ovation. I am tired of mainstream movies wrapping up every single unnecessary loose end. In the real world, there are many things we will never know, and this world lives and breaths with us not knowing a lot of things about it. The only reason I feel that the story may be a downfall is in the end, it’s like a report of news about what happened but doesn’t push knowledge. It doesn’t further intellectual thought much, there’s little existentialism or look into the mythologies of our culture. If you are looking for a tense, well written, awesome thriller with lots of action – you have the best movie there is. If you want some theological debate that stimulates your mind, this is not it. So the only real fault here is my expectations, not the movie itself. This isn’t Watchmen or Holy Mountain and it won’t make you reevaluate our culture much. But it is damn fun. I give this one a pass to not be voted off the island.
  
  Overall structure. Hurm. I must say that this movie is not very deep or thought provoking. That aside, it is well conceptualized, well written, and exactly what the genre looks for. It is right up there with the Bourne movies and Taken. I have really no complaints for it and suggest someone pick this up and make this movie. In the future I look foreword to this writer’s further works.
  
  Thanks,
  Shawn read
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  English Teacher Review
  A review of The English Teacher
  by videogeek on 03/14/2009
  It started off rather slow. probably because the abundance of characters. Definitely all were'nt needed. Most of the school teachers didn't seem to play such an important role. Jo, she's not in there much, but she does get killed. With the way her death scene went, you wouldn't loose anything to cut the scene entirely. Or you could juice it up. But if Huang is a good... It started off rather slow. probably because the abundance of characters. Definitely all were'nt needed. Most of the school teachers didn't seem to play such an important role. Jo, she's not in there much, but she does get killed. With the way her death scene went, you wouldn't loose anything to cut the scene entirely. Or you could juice it up. But if Huang is a good guy, why does he kill Jo? But there were so many bad guys, it's hard to keep them straight. I could be wrong about Huang. But back to Jo's death scene. Why don't we see Huang break in and torture Jo for the info he needs before killing her? It seemed empty the way it is now.
  
  Action paragraphs were overly descriptive. So much info in there we don't need. Makes this script too long and weighs the story down. A lot of scene could altogether be cut too. Such as the montages. I didn't see the point of the long one. Other than showing Sean when he knew Marcus and Michaela earlier, they didn't serve much purpose.
  
  So was it Lacey's mafia family that wanted that memory stick from Sean? That part of the plot wasn't so clear. But other than that, the plot is simple. Bad guys want to get that memory stick, right? And like i said before, the were too many bad guys. and definitely not enough good guys. Marcus was an unlikable jerk. Not sure you even need him. Lacey was whiny and connected to the bad guys, even if it's inadvertently. Huang, couldn't figure him out. Jo, wasn't much about her. Michaela, not really much back story with her either. And that leaves me with Sean. Definitely not likable. he's a womanizer who cheats on his girlfriend. And then lies about it. he causes all of his friends to die and doesn't seem to care a bit. Doesn't try to save them. He did have that really long flashback with Michaela in it. But the flashback montage was mostly about himself. And he didn't even have anything to do with anything. he just accidentally possessed the memory card.
  
  I have to be honest here, it wasn't the easiest and fastest paced script I've read. Too much description and too many characters. needs to be tightened. Needs more likable characters. hope this helps. read