Search - An American in China on DVD

Terrible- Great Concept, Bad Acting, Terrible Script

Scott Allen | New York | 06/06/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This movie had a lot of promise- although the concept seems cliche, it could have been an interesting movie. China is a great backdrop for movies, a film-maker's dream with interesting settings. The premise of Romeo & Juliet, cross-cultural "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" meets China is great.



This film is terrible. I have seen better acting in a Skinemax late night soft-porn movie. In fact, in the first five minutes of the movie, the sister of the lead character is in a little music-video style vignette which showcases her washing a car in a wet t-shirt and eventually bending over to show her posterior charms. I'm not joking - this really happens. Then five minutes is wasted with the men playing volleyball topless and wrestling around in a faux fight. I mean, really bad. This script writer would have been thrown out of a freshman film school class.



When the hero finally gets to China and meets the girl of his dreams, her dialogue is unintelligible because of her heavy accent. Worse yet, it's obvious that even in her native tongue she can't act. I'm no Method Acting coach, but these two leads are pathetic. This man, acting drunk, just comes across as stupid. The woman that plays the mother of the leading man literally appears insane in her shots - I'm not sure why she's even included. The sexy sister appears to be latina and could not possibly be a member of the family. I think she thought she was acting in a different type of movie altogether, if you know what I mean.



I stuck through the entire movie just to build up my pain tolerance in case I ever need to go without sleep for 3 days straight. Just awful."