‘Weekend in Taipei’ Review: A Squealing-Tires Tour of Taiwan Sights for DEA Agent Luke Evans

variety.com:

Dennis Harvey Film Critic In 1982, Prince urged everyone to “Party like it’s 1999.” Aiming to party somewhere roughly in the middle of that timespan is “Weekend in Taipei,” a throwback in the sense that it recalls the unpretentious — if also unmemorable — pleasures of many boilerplate action movies released in the peak VCR era.

Luc Besson is both a co-writer and producer on this French-Taiwanese enterprise, which provides George Huang his first directorial feature in some time, 30 years after his very different debut, “Swimming With Sharks.” With “Fast & Furious” alumni Luke Evans and Sung Kang as the male leads, this tale of a DEA agent venturing East to battle a crime syndicate raises expectations of flashy chase and fight scenes.

Those are duly met, even if the script Huang and Besson have devised is flimsy stuff. These 100 minutes offer the kind of energetic, no-brainer fun you may remember little of the morning after — but at least there’s no hangover.

After a hyperactive opening-credits montage of everyday Taipei life, we meet the latest CEO Kwang (Kang) of Kwang Enterprises, a vast multinational concern he’s apparently dragged into the mire — and into a courtroom, where various violations of law (from environmental to drug-trafficking related) will be scrutinized.