New Line Cinema, Rated R
Directed by James Foley
Written by Robert Pucci

Just when Chow Yun-Fat is finally given plenty of lines of dialogue, and good ones at that, he's saddled with a movie with a poor plot and snail-like pacing. Last year's Replacement Killers was no The Killer or Hard Boiled. But at least it kept you awake. Yun-Fat fares better here and co-star Mark Wahlberg shows off actual acting chops from time to time (almost making up for last year's other John Woo-produced loser The Big Hit, still my least favorite movie of last year). But the movie is utterly gratuitous in everything except for characterization and plot. Wahlberg plays Danny Wallace, a cop starting out in Chinatown under the tutelage of Nick Chen (Yun-Fat). At first Danny is treated badly because no one thinks he's cut out for this job in this rough part of town. I believe Yun-Fat actually says the line, "Quit now before it's too late," which makes this exactly the millionth time that line has been used in a buddy-cop flick. You could almost hear the entire audience's eyes rolling at that one. Foley does not over-stylize it, trying to hard to be like Woo, and I must applaud him for that. In fact, the movie is rather well-directed. But I was still waiting to find one reason to care about the characters when the movie ended.
It turns out Nick is in cahoots with the Chinatown crime bosses and soon Danny finds himself in the same boat. Since these are Chinese crime bosses, prostitution is of course involved. I still wonder why Asian American groups have not protested this obvious stereotyping. I guess it's because most of the racial remarks are aimed at Wahlberg's character by other Asians. Still, as another critic remarked, women would be lucky to be used as window dressing in this movie. The supporting characters are paper-thin and Nick and Danny are just barely above that. The movie winds down to a barely-satisfying conclusion, not unlike that of Payback, but nowhere near as "exciting." The movie has its strong points, besides the direction, there is the performance of Wahlberg, which shows he has potential. There are several scenes in which his character is trying to decide whether or not to do the right thing and the expressions in his eyes, highlighted by Foley's cinematography, give that away perfectly. Yun-Fat actually has a personality here, unlike in The Replacement Killers and some of the action sequences come close to Woo-like heights. Still, I don't think I'll be rushing to see Chow Yun-Fat at the cineplex anymore until he has a great script and truly great director like he had in Hong Kong. **