Well, we made it. Our Review Stew started back on January 6th with Deluge and we’ve added an ingredient every Monday since. Today we add the final ingredient with… Weekend in Taipei (2024).
Title: Weekend in Taipei
Director: George Huang
Released: September 19, 2024 (Qatar)
Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
Available to stream on: MGM+
John Lawlor (Luke Evans) is a DEA agent who finds himself in Taipei chasing a tip.
For years, he has been trying to collect enough evidence to put away a drug lord by the name of Kwang (Sung Kang). In fact, he almost had Kwang dead to rights before an undercover operation went belly up.
This latest tip comes from an anonymous individual who claims to have the ledger of Kwang Enterprises. To be more specific, the tipster believes the ledger will prove that Kwang Enterprises has knowingly engaged in environmental pollution leading to the death of dolphins.
Might not be the break Lawlor is looking for, but he’ll take what he can get. All he has to do now is meet up with this tipster. But he needs to act quick because Kwang has already discovered who the mole in his network is.
It turns out that the mole is a boy named Raymond (Wyatt Yang) who just so happens to be the adopted son of Kwang. If that wasn’t complicated enough, Raymond is actually Lawlor’s son. His mother, Joey (Gwei Lun-Mei), knew Lawlor was the father but decided to keep it from him.
Now with the stakes even higher, the race is own for Lawlor to save his son and take down Kwang.
Just because a movie is incredibly predictable doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.
Weekend in Taipei (2024) is the perfect example of this.
The story doesn’t break any new ground, it isn’t the best fight choreography that you’ll ever see, but it still manages to be an entertaining watch.
Evans, Kang, and Lun-Mei all turn in solid performances as our three leads. You never really find yourself waiting patiently for the next action sequence to occur.
Speaking of the action sequences, when we do get them they’re a lot of fun. The fight in the kitchen, racing through the streets, and the movie theater fight all come to mind as standouts.
If this was released 30 years ago, it would be a mainstay on TBS weekends.
In 2025, Weekend in Taipei (2024) makes for the perfect mindless weekend stream.
Have you seen Weekend in Taipei (2024)?
If so, drop a comment below or reach out on Bluesky to tell me what you thought of it!
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Next week will be the first installment of Disc Dive where I review a movie from my physical collection.