In case you're new to Hong Kong cinema (or if you've been hiding in a cave), the Twins of this movie actually consist of a bubblegum pop duo known as, well, Twins. Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi are the hottest commodity in HK entertainment right now, already having put out a string of hit songs and appeared (like many HK pop stars before them, including co-stars Edison Chen and Ekin Cheng) in a few movies. The Twins Effect is the first time they've done an action film -- can two insufferably cute pop stars outdo Buffy and save the world from a vampire scourge?

Like most "popcorn" summer movies (The Twins Effect came out during the busy season and beat out many Hollywood heavyweights such as Matrix Reloaded to become this year's reigning box-office champ), the plot here is pretty slim. Ekin Cheng portrays a vampire hunter named Reeve, whose partner (Josie Ho) dies fighting a particularly nasty vampire played by Mickey Hardt; in case you were wondering, the vamps in this movie are closer to the ones in Blade than your usual HK hopping vampire. At any rate, when his new partner (Gillian Chung) arrives, it sets off some tension between him and his sister (Charlene Choi), especially since she has started dating a vampire prince (Edison Chen). The girls must eventually team up to stop the evil gweilo blood-sucker after he obtains a special book that will give him unlimited power.

The script isn't exactly Shakespeare, either. Of course, a love story develops between both Gillian/Ekin and Charlene/Edison, but nothing is really done with this. This could be due to the Twins' squeaky-clean image, but it smacks of lazy writing, as these just seem more like relationships for plot convienience and little else. Things could have also been trimmed down a bit, especially with Jackie Chan's extended cameo. The scenes with Jackie are good for what they are (actually, in some ways, they're more enjoyable than much of his recent US work) but they really don't add to the film in any way -- it's almost like the producers just said "Hey, we can get Jackie Chan, so write something in there for him".

Despite these flaws, I still enjoyed The Twins Effect. The plot and script are fairly dopey, but the actors carried this a long way. As you might expect, the Twins have a lot of charisma onscreen and its' through their spunky performances that the viewer manages to forgive a lot of the crud floating around the movie. Except for a couple of parts where the girls scream (literally) rather than act, they do a fine job. I don't see them as being the next major female action stars or anything, but they didn't look totally out of place like the ladies from Charlie's Angels. The other stars do well also; even Edison Chen (probably my least favorite HK actor) comes off well, and Anthony Wong (who plays Edison's servant) is in top form, delivering some wonderfully dry comic relief.

Actionwise, the film also delivers, with some solid work directed by Donnie Yen, who manages to reign in some of the gimmickry that has hurt some of his other work (such as using too much undercranking in films like Legend of the Wolf) and create some exciting set-pieces with mostly neophyte action "stars". The CGI and other special effects in the movie were also handled well. There was enough to make things look interesting without going overboard as with The Medallion. Even if it might be that this movie's budget was significantly lower (US$6.4 million compared to Chan's latest, which had the highest ever budget for a HK picture with US$41 million), I'd like to think that it was some restraint on director Dante Lam's part. Having CGI is all very well and good in movies, but the eye candy can quickly turn into a crutch for real film-making -- just look at recent trainwrecks like Legend of Zu.

Overall, The Twins Effect isn't anything great, but it does fit the bill for a no-brain action picture. It's one of the first HK movies I've seen to really successfully blend eastern and western styles. The production obviously had a high budget and everything is polished, but there is still that spark of inventiveness (mostly thorugh the action scenes) that HK film fans know and love. If this is the direction HK movie companies are trying to head in, I hope they try and accomplish more films like this, instead of MTV-wannabe crap like Tokyo Raiders.

RATING: 7.5

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