People hope that Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger will be generously compensated for the disaster of lending their names to the Iron Mask.

The movie is sold in the United States as Iron Mask, an action fantasy epic starring Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is actually a sequel to the 2014 Russian blockbuster Viy (and released in the United States as The Forbidden Empire). No Chan or Schwarzenegger is an unofficial remake of the 1967 Soviet film based on the story of Nikolai Gogol in the 19th century. understood? The production history of Iron Mask is only a little less confusing than the movie itself. This is a multilingual international co-production, in which the plot, dialogue and performance seem to be lost in translation.

Chen and Schwarzenegger did appear, although much shorter than their appearance in promotional materials. On the contrary, the protagonist is again the British cartographer, scientist and explorer Jonathan Green (Jason Fleming). His goal seems to be to discover supernatural phenomena all over the world, and most of these supernatural phenomena are Scooby-Doo-like hoaxes. . In the first film, Jonathan travels to Ukraine, where he comes to a small village that is said to have been threatened by a curse. That movie mixes action, fantasy, comedy and horror, placing the rational Jonathan among a group of superstitious villagers.

For director and co-screenwriter Oleg Stepchenko, this is also a tribulation that lasts for several years. The success of this film proves his efforts. He came back to find Iron Mask, which discarded the horror element (and any connection to the original Viy story) and transferred most of the action to China, presumably to use the available funds. After leaving Ukraine, Jonathan rode a steampunk-style carriage to Moscow, but he was quickly ousted by the ruthless and corrupt government, sending him and former prisoner Cheng Lan (played by Yao Xingtong) as an assistant to China for a cartographic expedition. Jonathan believes that Cheng Lan is a boy captured by the Russians, but she is actually some kind of princess related to the ancient dragon who lives in a remote village in China.

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So Jonathan once again came to a small town ruled by supernatural fear, most of which were just smoke and mirrors made by imposters posing as Cheng Lan. You may be wondering, where are Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger? Well, they went back to England, where Chen played a role known only as a master. Master is Cheng Lan's father. He has been kept in the Tower of London for many years for unknown reasons. Schwarzenegger plays James Hook, the prison guard of the Tower of London, who has nothing to do with the plot (not to say that it is easy to tell what is related to the plot at any given time).

Anna Churina returns as Jonathan’s fiancée Emma, ​​and this time she has at least more things to do than sitting in her luxurious manor with her father, Lord Dudley (Game of Thrones’ Charles Dance, almost No guest appearances), and read Jonathan’s letter. She started looking for Jonathan, but for this she needed Russian Tsar Peter the Great (played by Yuri Kolokolnikov), who was imprisoned in the Tower of London together with the master. Of course, the reason is not clear. In addition, he wears an iron mask, so he has your title.

After an hour of careful arrangement, including Emma pretending to be a man and boarding the boat bound for China, most of the characters gathered in Cheng Lan’s village, where they encountered many fancy, poorly rendered CGIs that were weightless and inelegant. However, both Master and Hook stayed in London because Chan and Schwarzenegger (their appearances were advertised as "special participation" and both received the honor of the producer) apparently did not sign more than a few scenes. Even Fleming, who was the obvious star of the first movie, was recruited to show Western audiences a familiar face, and disappeared for a long time in this movie.

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Chen and Schwarzenegger do have a fight scene, at least, this is what most viewers would like to see from this movie-and it’s an action movie with an under-budgeted budget between the two older people you would expect. deep impression. Despite this, these two big-name actors still have important movie star charms, and their appearance (which basically ends after 45 minutes of the two-hour movie) enhanced the entertainment value of the first movie. People hope that they will be generously compensated for lending their names to this disaster.

Back in China, Jonathan, Emma, ​​Cheng Lan, Peter the Great, some random sailors, and a strange little creature left over from the first movie, are all fighting against imposters so that Cheng Lan can sit on her. In some positions, direct ugly-looking people. CGI dragon monster. None of this makes any sense, and none of the characters are interesting or compassionate, or even coherent. Everyone, even English-speaking actors, is dubbed to have poor English, which does not help. Among all the ugly and offensive CGI effects, there are some impressive martial arts moves, but none of them are exciting or important.

In the past year or so, "Steel Mask" has been released in various countries under various names, and Stepchenko has planned to make a sequel that will bring Jonathan to India. He clearly knows how to combine the dazzling special effects, the power of international stars and the noisy action, leaving the audience stunned, so we are likely to launch another misleading title within a few years and sneak into the American home video. market.

"Steel Mask" starring Jason Fleming, Yao Xingtong, Anna Churina, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Charles Dans, Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger is now on VOD It is available on and will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday, November 24.

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Josh Bell is a freelance writer and film/TV critic living in Las Vegas. He is the former film editor of "Las Vegas Weekly" and has written articles about films and pop culture for Syfy Wire, Polygon, Inverse, Film Racket, Crooked Marquee, etc. He co-hosted the Podcast Awesome Movie Year with comedian Jason Harris. Follow him on Twitter @signalbleed and Josh Bell Hates Everything on Facebook.