![]() Danny (a slippery but endearing Alain Uy), once the leader of the pack, is now a bitterly sarcastic divorcee who drives a minivan, wears a bluetooth earpiece - is there anything less kung fu than that? - and reliably disappoints his young son during their scheduled weekends together. Needless to say, things haven’t really panned out for Sifu Cheung’s three Tigers they don’t even speak to each other anymore, thanks to an incident of some kind at a kung fu tournament some 25 years ago. In fact, “The Paper Tigers” starts on such a high that its record-scratch jump back to the present is even more jarring than intended. Tran flexes so hard during the opening credit sequence that you almost expect him to burst a blood vessel behind the camera in the span of just a few low-res minutes, the writer-director introduces his three leads, sketches their reverence for sifu (and irreverence towards everything else), implies how their kung fu served as physical and cultural self-defense against whiteness (in a funny way!), and sports a few quick bits of fight choreography that hit harder than the brawls at the end of most Hollywood action films. With that ominous threat hanging in the air, “The Paper Tigers” jumps back in time for a camcorder montage of the late sifu’s three sworn disciples training together in the ’90s, and this is where the movie’s charm is honed into a lethal weapon. Tran establishes his old-school Kung Fu bonafides right from the jump, as the action kicks off with a shadowy prologue in which the great Sifu Cheung (Roger Yuan, whose natural gravitas lends this film some much-needed heft) is killed by an assassin’s deadly palm technique in the alley behind the Chinese restaurant where he works these days. The 25 Most Momentous TV Deaths of This CenturyĢ023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Animated Program 'To Catch a Killer' Review: Shailene Woodley Tortures Herself (and Us) in Dull 'Silence of the Lambs' Copycat ![]() 'Ear for Eye' Review: This Rebellious and Revolutionary Masterpiece Demands to Be Seen If “The Paper Tigers” sags around the middle and loses its focus as it limps towards a finale that doesn’t hit with the force that it should, well, perhaps that’s to be expected from a martial arts movie whose heroes can’t throw a punch without pulling a muscle. Unfolding like a silly-sweet cross between a Shaw Brothers classic and the kind of dad movie that USA Network might air between golf tournaments on a Saturday afternoon (“Wild Hogs” would seem an obvious point of reference, but this is a positive review), Tran’s debut feature delivers a ton of charm for a kung fu throwback, and kicks a lot of ass for a broad comedy about some old guys relearning how to honor each other and fight for themselves. The first thing you should know about Tran Quoc Bao’s “ The Paper Tigers” is that his low-budget kung fu comedy - the heartfelt tale of three arthritic middle-aged Seattle men reuniting to avenge the murdered sifu who mentored them as teenagers - is often just as winning and delightful as you would hope from its premise.
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