My Review of "Big Brother (2018)"

Big Brother (2018) is yet another movie about out of control teenagers taught by a teacher with a heart of gold. I admit I got suckered into watching this movie because it's a Donnie Yen movie. With him in the lead I naturally assumed it would be a martial arts movie but that's not the main focus.

The movie starts out with a basic introduction to some of the troubled youth that our new teacher, Henry, is about to teach. Each one of them gets up and gets ready for school just the same.

What's strange is that Henry has no previous teaching experience however with a specific note of recommendation he's given the job. We already think something's up, but then again we've always been thinking that since it's Donnie Yen. I'm already thinking it's going to be another Kindergarten Cop. No this isn't exactly like that movie either.

Obviously we have our cliched opening where the kids don't listen to Henry. Then we have Henry doing some sort of attention grabbing thing that gets all of them to listen to him. It's been done in all of these types of movies. I'm okay with that. This is when it goes off the rails for me.

Instead of the usual cat and mouse game Henry researches each of the kids to see what their out of school activities are. He reaches out to each of these kids to help them do what they like to do. In doing so he kind of reconnects the kids with their guardians. I don't remember seeing that as often.

I started to get a little worried though because there isn't a lot of big action throughout this movie. It's only closer to the end of the movie that there is some martial arts action. Those fight scenes are pretty well done too. They look painful and visceral.

So I guess you can say you get a little of everything in this movie. In some aspects that's great but in some ways it also feels disjointed. This movie can at times feel all over the place. The tone of the movie switches dramatically from the start to the finish.

In the beginning it almost feels like a pre-school movie with the wacky antics that were happening. Closer to the end they have some meaningful questions that they ask the kids and the audience. They even question the current state of education in Hong Kong. It's a stark contrast from how we started the movie off.

Even the music throughout the movie can be at times off-kilter. There are some bubblegum pop music playing when it feels like there could have been a more serious tone to the scene. I know what they're getting at but there was just something off to me.

If you stick with the movie you will eventually have fun with it. The movie starts off where I really wanted to shut it off but I'm glad I didn't because it picked up in the later half of the movie. I'm pretty sure not a lot of people will have the same amount of patience as I did with this movie though.

Overall, I wouldn't go out of the way to recommend this movie to anyone. If you end up choosing it to watch give it some time and you may warm up to it. There are definite tone and pacing issues throughout the movie that you'll have to forgive. That's why I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. I think with a little more editing this movie could have been a much better movie.