Hong Kong crime movies frequently fall apart when you pick at the story mechanics a little. But characters choosing or being blackmailed into dumb courses of action in order to move the plot ahead and set up a fight seem more tolerable in the quickie-made almost improvised atmosphere of Hong Kong actioners. Hollywood movies spend so much time in development and are made so carefully on a technical level, however, that the slick professional final product cannot as easily contain vast lapses in logic and bad judgment by supposed 'professional' underworld characters. I won't itemize the idiocies here to avoid spoilers, but they were frequent enough to almost have me banging my head on the seat in front of me (empty, as was most of the cinema).
Inept story mechanics aside, the few set piece action numbers were nearly worth the price of the ticket. Jet Li's fights are good, and the opening vault job is riveting. The climactic showdown, was disappointing though, especially for Kelly Hu fans. American moviedom's top fighting female should not have been so incidental here.
I really wanted to like this movie, but I didn't. I gave it a four.
Inept story mechanics aside, the few set piece action numbers were nearly worth the price of the ticket. Jet Li's fights are good, and the opening vault job is riveting. The climactic showdown, was disappointing though, especially for Kelly Hu fans. American moviedom's top fighting female should not have been so incidental here.
I really wanted to like this movie, but I didn't. I gave it a four.