Save your money for something good and enjoyable

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

You have to completely suspend disbelief to enjoy this movie. If you enjoy watching things that make no sense whatsoever then this is a movie for you, other than that stay clear of it.

I'm finding that I like the Milkyway Image movies where Johnnie To is just a producer more than the ones where he is the director, though Breaking News was pretty good. Eye in the Sky starts off with Kate Tsui on a training mission to see if she is good enough to become a cop in a special surveillance unit. She has to study Simon Yam and be able to give every detail of what he did during the day. And just like every Milkyway movie I have seen, they connect a certain scene at the start of the movie with one that happens towards the end. So she gets the job, but just barely. Simon Yam thinks she has potential, so he decides to let her on the force. Tony Leung Ka Fei plays the leader of a gang of bank robbers. He sets everything up, and the rest of the guys do the roberies. So now of course this is where Kate Tsui and Simon Yam come in and try to catch him.This is a pretty standard story, but well done. I enjoyed the movie a lot. Kate Tsui does a decent enough job in her role, Simon Yam is good just like he usually is, and Tony Leung gives a magnificent performance. I thought the last couple of scenes were kind of disappointing, but the scene towards the end with Tony Leung and Kate Tsui in the restauarant, and the scene where Simon Yam struggles to finish his joke makes up for it.If you are looking for a good cop movie that has a couple of well done sudden violent moments, then there is a good chance you will like this. If you are looking for an action packed or highly stylized movie, look elsewhere.And one more note. This movie is a tight 90 minutes (actually more like 85 if you don't include the beginning and opening credits), which is one of the many reasons why I liked it. And it doesn't feel like it should have been longer. Movies to me are just getting too long these days.

Forget about the intriguing posters for this one. For those expecting a sophisticated updating of Enemy of the State or some such paranoid-conspiracy theory number, much disappointment lies ahead.And it didn't even take Big Brother to stamp out any creativity in the project. Seems like Eye in the Sky fell victim to its own hushed and brief proviso, amounting to one of the most perplexingly short and underwhelming releases so far this year.Expectations run high as Tony Leung Ka Fai and Simon Yam saddle up to what by all rights could have been so much more. Opening sequences do bring with them fleeting glances of the delightful hi-tech, surveillance-rich spy mood the movie's promotional material sort of wanted you to buy into, but that's the extent of titillation they managed here.We soon realize Eye in the Sky is nothing more than yet another cops and robbers affair, and not even remotely one of the more poignant you've never seen. It does come across that director Yau Nai Hoi previously worked with Johnny To and his crew on stuff like The Mission and Expect the Unexpected, but apparently on his own he can't match those classics.Instead, we get a minimal story, paper tiger villains who crumble all too soon and a fatherly good cop character that seemingly can't die. That last one really pooped the party, which sounds mean, but after building up the melodrama in an almost-touching scene having the guy come back from the dead is simply awkward.So both Simon Yam and good old Tony Leung fail to make a lasting impression here, but what about the supporting cast? Well, a mixed bag as usual. Kate Tsui is Little Piggy, a new recruit to the HKPD's surveillance unit, a gathering of people with the knack to be anyone, anywhere and anyhow. They even know where you buy your saltines and soda. That aside, Tsui is OK for some scenes, but overall there's no raving about her output in this film.Likable soap opera Wayne Lai does his best and is impressive, but gets about ten seconds on screen so what can you do? Likewise, Maggie Siu (PTU) is cool as a constantly-cussing commanding madam, albeit doesn't get explored much beyond.To its credit, Eye in the Sky does have numerous instances of the beloved F word, and finally a classic shootout-with-vans-on-a-deserted-Hong Kong-overpass type of deal between the crooks and bemasked tactical unit cops. Not bad that one! Sadly that last exclamation does not apply to the rest of the movie. Eye in the Sky is simply not worth getting excited over nor keeping your peepers peeled for.Rating: * * *

First time director Yau Nai-Hoi's Eye in the Sky gets the two thumbs up from me. It's an excellent movie with a strong storyline that gets zoned into the moment, with no room spent on unnecessarily bloating the movie beyond what it should be. Director Yau, a frequent collaborator and scriptwriter for Johnny To classics, brings to Eye in the Sky, a taut 90 minutes cop-robbers story on surveillance, of the men and women who do the thankless anonymous tasks behind the scenes on following suspects and trawling the streets for them.Surveillance is never easy, and trust me I know, from work experience. While there are countless of CCTV cameras and various technologies, nothing beats having up to date field intelligence. The opening film of the HKIFF, I had hoped to have watched this on its first screening, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I had one week to trawl the streets of Hong Kong and Kowloon, and being able to identify the locales used, was an added thrill.Although this is a cop thriller, it doesn't have the usual car chases, explosions or fancy gun battles. It's quite muted in these aspects, however it brings about a refreshing realism to the story, a great departure from the days when action has to be stylized (flying through the air shooting two guns anyone?) The way the surveillance team operate, with its arsenal of disguises, tricks and vehicles, and the skills that one must possess - keen observation, alertness and an elephant memory, makes it like a cross between The Recruit and Mission: Impossible.Eye in the Sky tells the story of a new recruit, nicknamed Piggy (Kate Tsui) by her mentor Dog-Head (Simon Yam), as she undergoes an on-job training of sorts in their case to track down some armed heist robbers, led by "Hollow Man" (Tony Leung Kar Fai). It becomes a tight cat and mouse game as identities are attempted to be established, and the team comes up against a villain who's truly aware of his environment, turning the tables as the hunter might become the prey.There are strong performances all round, led by the veterans Simon Yam, in a change of alignment given his outings last year as villains, and Tony Leung, as a chillingly observant, cool and methodical sudoku-playing mastermind. In her first movie role, I thought Kate Tsui did remarkably well in her role as Piggy, the newbie lacking field experience, yet being thrown in the deep end of the pool to sink or swim. Perhaps it is truly her being new to the scene, that eased her comfortably into a role which is similar to herself, but the story does allow her room to showcase some of her acting chops, and she holds her own well against the veterans. Maggie Tsui too added some comedic moments as a foul mouthed police madam.Eye in the Sky is a recommended Hong Kong cop thriller (time to let go of mole stories) which is tight, and keeps you on the edge of your seat as you follow the surveillance team through high angles (akin to CCTV camera angles), tight teamwork and features an incredible soundtrack as well to keep it fast paced. You must watch this when it makes it to our shores in Singapore, tentatively scheduled for mid April.