China Moon (1994)

Too much of everything

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is a mostly predictable neo-noir film worth seeing for the fine acting. There's at least one surprise twist in the story to spice it up. I have some issues with the Ed Harris character making some rather dumb moves. I wanted to yell at the screen. I suppose that was needed or they'd have no movie, as my wife pointed out. And besides stupid moves are often the case in films where a femme fatale has some poor guy blinded by love and lust. Often an otherwise intelligent law abiding man throws it all away for the love of an attractive woman in trouble. The movie was visually impressive at times and the ending will stick with you. I rate it 6 out of 10 stars.

This is worth a watch just for the 3 main leads. Ed Harris when he had some hair, Benicio before his eyebags got too dark and Madeleine Stowe at her most beautiful. The camera spends a lot of screen time focussing on moonlight shots of her lovely face.The story itself is predictable and familiar but that's okay. Beautiful woman married to brutish wealthy man who cheats on her (why would someone cheat on such a beautiful wife?). A cop falls in love with her and guess what bang bang the husband is dead. The conclusion feels a bit cheap and weak and that is disappointing.Despite its flaws I think it's worth a watch for the actors just don't expect a great story.

Talk about plot twists! Just when you think you've got this movie figured out, it yanks the rug out from under you and it's a whole new storyline.This is an outrageously unlikely but entertaining thriller that pays homage to "Body Heat" in ways that kept me consistently suspicious of the Madeleine Stowe character. How wrong I turned out to be. And she keeps on surprising up to the film's final frame. Ed Harris does a great job of playing the fall guy; a kind of double agent -- criminally tampering police detective probing the murder to which he is an accomplice. Bravo, Ed, and I loved the red hair.Plaudits, too, to Benecio del Toro as a schemer of almost Shakespearean proportions. He's excellent as a Jekyll-Hyde-like wet-behind-the-ears rookie and criminal mastermind.If you like movies that keep you guessing, take a look this one at the next full moon...

First of all, the acting was great. Ed Harris was just plain wonderful. While I don't require perfect realism or logic and understand the noir conventions that rely on twists and coincidences,this movie is hurt by inconsistencies that happen because of inconsistent application of intelligence. Kyle is smart and not a noir chump. He isn't brought down by accidents or because he is just too dim to figure things out. Kyle just acts dumb and/or unobservant sometimes and that is hard to buy into. Had the script relied on something other than Kyle's uneven smarts, this could easily have rated an 8 or 9 just on the strength of Ed Harris' eye contact with Ms. Stowe.