After the success of the Ip Man films and a string of successful releases, Donnie Yen has become arguably the world's biggest martial arts star. But, for all his talents, Yen has never been known as a comedian, something which is glaringly apparent with Iceman, a remake of Iceman Cometh that misses the mark.

Bless his heart, Donnie does try, but given the material -- which is, at times, literally toilet humor, such as when he brags about the strength of his urine stream or evades the police by leaving an explosive turd in a toilet -- even seasoned comedic veterans might have a hard time slogging through. Even Wang Bao-Qiang, a huge Mainland actor in comedies, looks perplexed as to how to deliver the jokes, or lack thereof.

That sort of analogy applies to the movie as a whole. Director Law Wing-Cheong is not able to handle the genre mixing that Hong Kong cinema is known for, and, as such, Iceman comes off as a disjointed mess. Even visually, the movie can't keep its' focus, as the mandatory 3D "into the screen" shots just come off as schizophrenic, rather than exciting, especially when watching the 2D version of the film.

Of course, as you would expect from a Donnie Yen film, the action scenes are the highlight, but that is still a bit of faint praise. They overemploy wirework and CGI, showcasing very little of Donnie's formidable talent in the kung fu realm. Combined with a cliffhanger ending that sets up a sequel rather than resolving the film, Iceman as a whole tends to leave a bad aftertaste. It's certainly not the worst martial arts movie out there, but one tends to expect much more from Donnie Yen.

RATING: 4

Blu-ray Information

Well Go USA's disc is uncut, running at 104 minutes. The soundtrack is available in Cantonese 5.1, Cantonese 2.0, English 5.1, French 5.1, and Spanish 5.1, with English, Spanish, and French subtitles. The English subtitles do not appear to be dubtitles. The bonus content includes approximately 20 minutes of featurettes that are in Cantonese with non-removable English subtitles and several trailers. Both the Bluray and DVD have the 2D version of the film; the 3D version is only available via the Hong Kong Blu-ray issued by Panorama.

Screen captures are below. They were taken using Leavo Blu-ray Ripper and VLC Media Player. Click on each picture for the full resolution version.