“Weekend in Taipei”, written by Luc Besson, a down-to-earth action film but without too many ideas

Doubtful twists, commonplaces… This explosive blockbuster by George Huang is especially worth it for its supercharged actor, Luke Evans, and his perfectly choreographed scenes of fights and chases.

Couple Yohan Haddad

Published on September 27, 2024 at 2:00 p.m.

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Bwelcome to Taipei, the ultra-trendy capital of Taiwan, where everyone speaks English, due to the magic of cinema, and where the rich hold a significant share of the national capital. Among them, Kwang, a tycoon specializing in the exploitation of raw materials (we will never know which ones) is preparing to be judged for some of his practices, which kill hundreds of thousands of dolphins each year. To stop him, John Lawson, an American agent who fights against drug trafficking, will have to betray his superiors and come there to save the planet, but also Kwang’s wife who, by chance, is part of his past…

We will have understood, this explosive blockbuster is not about lace. George Huang, accompanied on the screenplay by our national Luc Besson, willingly plays with the worst clichés of action cinema: the rebellious cop, the femme fatale, the Asian bad guy, the authoritarian boss, the child smarter than everyone and the stoic cop cross paths, collaborate, then all plot against each other, in a redundant game of cat and mouse, in the style of director Luc Besson’s latest films (LucyAnna), who also multiplied the dirty tricks and the dubious twists to keep the intrigue going over time.

The action scenes, impeccably choreographed, fortunately save the day of this Weekend in Taipei. They are worn by a Luke Evans in a state of grace, a sort of Jason Statham of the 2020s (with extra hair), introduced during an enjoyable sequence in the kitchen of a large restaurant. And who manages, in an aberrant final part, to establish himself as an all-powerful savior, to the rescue of a country in crisis. This shows that hints of American patriotism can also appear in a Franco-Taiwanese production…