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| Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: August 29, 1986 |
Starring:
Clyde Kusatsu, Kay Tong Lim, Madonna, Paul Freeman, Philip Sayer, Professor Toru Tanaka, Richard Griffiths, Sean Penn, Sonserai Lee, Victor Wong
Summary:
Glendon Wasey is a fortune hunter looking for a fast track out of China. Gloria Tatlock is a missionary nurse seeking the curing powers of opium for her patients. Fate sets them on a hectic, exotic, and even romantic quest for stolen drugs. But they are up against every thug and smuggler in Shangai.
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The main problem here is less a lack of competence than a lack of
conviction. No one involved in the film believes for a second in the story
that's being told, and so there is no real sense of danger, no suspense, and
no warmth in the romantic interludes. Shanghai Surprise must have been
meant to be a light-hearted romp, but even a romp requires a touch of
substance. [31 Aug 1986, p.8]
Penn and Madonna both do a fine job with their roles, the supporting roles are excellent, the direction is passable, the camera work and art direction are accomplished, and the script mindless and predictable. There's nothing to create outrage, and there's nothing to stimulate excitement, which is probably why there was no substantial interest in SHANGHAI SURPRISE.
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Someone must have told Sean Penn and Madonna that people would come to see them in anything -- and poor fools, they believed it. "Anything" in this case amounts to nothing: Shanghai Surprise, a quintessentially misbegotten fiasco even in the year of "Under the Cherry Moon." [24 Sept 1986, p.D2]
Aug 21, 2022
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
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