Shanghai Surprise

Back in the 1980s, "Shanghai Surprise" was a notorious stinker...a film EVERYONE seemed to hate. And, with a score of 3.1, it's obvious that even today many people hated the film....and with good reason. The story is a confusing mess. A missionary girl (??) (Madonna) seeks the help of a ne'er do well (Sean Penn) to locate some jewels or opium (they never seem sure WHICH they are seeking) in China in 1937. All sorts of bad people try to kill them and along the way they take time to have sex (which is quite strange for a missionary who just met this guy). So why did I hate the film? There were many reasons and the most obvious is Madonna. Her performance mostly consists of her shrieking and whining...to the point where you wonder who, if anyone, would find her character anything other than 100% annoying and hateful. It was much like her poor performance in "Swept Away"...but even worse and more grating. Second, the script was inept....with lots of story elements that simply didn't fit together...such as the missionary girl who boinks the hero AND spends much of the film trying to find opium. What sort of religious mission is this she's running? Our Lady of Perpetual Whining, perhaps?! Third, having the ultimate treasure being opium suggests the 'heroes' want to get rich by selling horribly dangerous drugs...which seems anything other than heroic....and so it's hard to like or care about them. Fourth, the direction was poor and many re-shoots SHOULD have been made (such as any time Madonna opened her mouth). Overall, a painful vanity project with several songs by, of all people, George Harrison! Odd and not enjoyable....just grating.

As you can see by the name in my email adress, i am a huge fan of madonna, but in this movie she performs her worst acting.... I personally think it's because of the cooperation between husband and wife (madonna and sean penn). In the past this combination of husband and wife playing together in the same movie has to end in a bad trip! Examples: Bruce willis & Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise, i am sure you can name one couple for yourself who are acting in a movie, but the acting isn't worth the movie.....

Missionary `Madonna' hires adventurer `Penn' to capture a cache of stolen opium in 1937 China, but only for medical purposes. The plot seems simple but it reserves great unforeseen turns of events, with a lot of action, a tender love story and a little bit of humor, on the backdrop of a beautiful 30s' China. `Shangay Surprise' takes the best from 30s adventure films and re-propose it with the freshness of the 80s. The cinematography and the musics are very suggestive and Madonna gives a good performance. She is a chameleon not only for what concern her looks but also getting into very different part (an explosive street girl in `Desperately Seeking Susan', a modern `Betty Boop' in `Who's that girl', a seductive 30's night club star in `Dick Tracy', a baseball girl in `A league of their own', just the `Body of evidence' in the homonym film, an actress in the mirror in `Dangerous game', the first lady of Argentina in `Evita'…etc. ) and I think that this is the most important quality that an actress should have! Penn is good too. Thrilling…exciting...really a good film!

I'm really surprised by the extremely negative reviews and poor box- office results for this expensively made and -- to my mind -- quite entertaining movie. Admittedly, I thought the violence a bit overdone, but the characters seem to weather all the storms with surprisingly little pain. Perhaps there were also too many twists in the narrative, but it certainly kept moving at an admirably fast clip. Production values are absolutely superb. Perhaps Madonna is not always photographed to her advantage, but you can't look luscious all the time, and I thought that she and Penn delivered quite charismatic performances. The support cast was great too.And the wonderful music score from George Harrison was an added delight. And I've no complaints whatever with my Artisan DVD. I thought it was perfect. In all, 93 fast-moving, adventurous minutes.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who thinks this film isn't a complete waste of time. I first rented the movie waaaaay back when it first came out on video and actually quite liked it. Then when it became available to buy, I hot footed it down to HMV to get my own copy, and I wasn't disappointed. Let's start off with Madonna. First of all, she looks gorgeous in this. And you know what, her acting isn't that bad. Yes, you read me right, she's not bad. What lets her down, however, is the clunky dialogue. Not even Meryl Streep could do much with this. But she's more than competent with what she has to work with. As for the story, well, it was never going to be a contender for film of the year, but it's straight forward enough and even has a little twist at the end (and no, I didn't see it coming). Madonna is a missionary out in Shanghai, trying to procure opium while Sean Penn is a... not sure exactly what he is, but he ends up helping Madonna against the baddies. Yes, it's full of clichés, but it's upbeat and doesn't take itself too seriously. I realise that the film won't be to everyone's tastes, but it's honestly not that bad.

What is it with bad reviews and pop stars who cannot act, huh? And this is the 80s! Did you think things would be different back in the day? Huh? I guess not! But I'm not one of those people - I do adore movies whose stars are none other than pop stars! It gives me a great chance to see pop stars in action - doing things that we cannot see on the radio because there's no screen on a radio! LOL However, there are screens on a television and a movie auditorium, and I can see the pop stars there! So why give negative reviews on movies like these when people like us give positive reviews? This movie is an 11 out of 10 stars!

OK, it's not a classic, not every movie is, but if you just want to see a tongue-in-cheek romantic comedy you could do worse. The music of George Harrison helps and I, for one, kinda' liked this unpretentious little movie. Not many movies were being made about China in 1986 and being set in 1938 during the Japanese occupation adds some historic appeal. The plot, although unbelievable, is not really predictable and some of the supporting characters are interesting to say the least. If you want to see a "great movie" then watch something else but if you like a fun movie with a few twists and turns then Shanghai Surprise might be just right.

There is no reason to struggle with justifications, nor to reach for words to describe such an amateurish, hackneyed, stilted, banal ... well, there I go. Just suffice to it say that it is completely understandable why the talented Mr. Penn reportedly chose to stay drunk for every shooting day of this miserable, limp, pointless ... you see where I'm going. However bad you remember it to be, you must re-see it to believe it. Madonna is the worst American actress of all time without peer. The only thing she's done on film that is worth seeing is Evita (a music video) and "Desperately Seeking Susan" (in which she has little dialog and rolls her eyes a lot).

The thought struck me recently that this movie was unfavorably received by critics and audiences alike at the time of its release (1986) because of the celebrity status of the two leading stars - Madonna and Sean Penn. But, if you watch the movie today, some twenty five years later, and if you are able to put the hype and the celebrity status of those two stars out of your mind, then, the movie doesn't seem so bad. In fact, it's actually a pretty good escapist adventure romp along the lines of an Indiana Jones movie. I watched this movie for the first time just recently, as I was scared away from viewing it all those many years prior, simply because of all the negative hype surrounding it - the hype that said it was a real stinker. But I actually found it to be a pretty engrossing story, with a nicely done cinematography that oozed a colorful, exotic, sometimes even enchanting Oriental atmosphere that was hard to dismiss. Some of the shots, as filmed, were... beautiful! So don't let 1980's critics scare you away: this movie is worth a shot, and if you can mentally distill the two leads down to just being a guy and a girl from 1930's America thrust into an adventure escapade set in a faraway exotic locale, then you just might enjoy this movie for what it was meant to be: pure escapist entertainment. Not perfect, but then again, NOT the stinker it has been made out to be.

Believe me this film is awful. Now I am a BIG Madonna fan and I have tried, out of duty, to watch and enjoy this film, but I can find no redeeming quality. The script is terrible, the direction is misguided, the acting dire...need I go on? I didn't even get as far as enjoying it, I have never seen it all the way through. Sorry Madonna, but as I am sure you know, this is a stinker!