Set in Hong Kong and Vancouver, the story follows Mac Ramsey and Li Ann Tsei, lovers and professional thieves who are separated while fleeing the powerful Hong Kong underworld crime lord who raised and trained them. After being imprisoned in Hong Kong, Mac is forcefully recruited into a clandestine international crime-fighting unit by a hard-nosed, menacing Director. He is teamed in Vancouver with Li Ann, who thought Mac was dead, and her new fiancé Victor Mansfield, an ex-cop who is attracted to the unorthodox methods of the agency. Conflict flares between Mac and Victor as the trio take on their assignment. They soon learn that their principal target is their foster brother Michael Tang, who had been given Li Ann as his future wife and who has vowed to hunt down the pair for their disloyalty to the "family".
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Reviews
Simply Perfect
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
I was very disappointed with this, considering that I love John Woo, but the story and dialogue are so full of holes, contradictory and hypocritical that I just turned it off...In every single other John Woo film I've seen, characters have been well fleshed out and reasonably likable (both bad and good characters too) and whilst I had no problem with most of the main cast (Sandrine Holt being particularly pleasing) the main character played by Ivan Sergei was so stupid and ridiculous that I found myself calling him "git-face" every time he was on screen. His motives, lines and general dialogue were so stupid, contradictory, lying, and self-serving it was unbelievable that a women such as Holt's character would ever find him attractive, and I'm afraid I just didn't like the actor on first view, like I just took and instant dislike to him, thats just the way it is sometimes but I expect John Woo to cast just the right people for his works.This feels like Woo was just going through the motions and that it might be just a contractual obligation of some kind...not even the action scenes are that good and also few and far between. It feels more like Woo was an 'executive producer' than at the helm on this one.
I haven't seen that many of Mr. Woo's movies, but I've heard enough to know that this movie is a new low for him.The fact that this is a TV movie already hints at the disappointment to come, and the 90-minute ride can be easily split into three pieces: 33% of the movie is bad acting, mediocre dialog telling a barely mediocre story, 33% of the movie is mediocre shooting scenes which lack John Woo's trademark bravado, panache and any spirit at all, 33% of the movie is slow-motion shots from several angles of the action scenesSo basically, with this movie you'll watch all the battles twice and follow a barely mediocre story with bad actors. What was Mr. Woo thinking?
Very bad acting combined with an utterly unbelievable chain of events lacking any kind of coherency and spiced with one of the worst dialogue I've ever encountered. This was actually pretty bad even for a purely television production.At times the "movie" felt like a group of stuntmen rehearsing for a neat action flick. At times the dialogue and cinematographic choices made me feel like I was watching a bad soap.The effects were overblown and yet looked cheapish. Shooting scenes had a faint of the usual John Woo in them, but there was no coherent force that would have made the scenes fit with each other or lend them a shred of believability.Stealing the Rembrandt painting and creating a duplicate of it (in such a short time!) was the absolute worst this movie put in front of my eyes. It just kept on going and going ... and going ... with those dudes hanging in the chandelier.While I've watched and liked a number of Woo movies, this is (so far) the absolute worst of his I've encountered.
alright.... i'd have to say this isn't the worst in the john woo catalog.... i found myself laughing and getting that rush you only get in one of his movies.... i thought the characters were enjoyable and after reading the john heard book, 'ten thousand bullets: the cinematic journey of john woo', i had new respect for the man....no, the legend.... i would only recommend this movie, however, if you're a true woo-phile.... it has all the earmarks of a good woo flick, just like balckjack and even hard boiled.... you just need to understand the man loves to make movies.... he doesn't care if they're TV movies or theatrical releases or straight to video....he just loves his art.... i have one problem with this flick and one large focus of praise.... now, not seeing the original....(john woo says it's not something he was ever happy with....) i'm not sure if my thoughts are whole, but here goes.... the bad thing....not enough of the double gun action.... the good thing....was a scene where the two good guys, the one bad guy and the girl are all in a mexican standoff and the girl, (who all three guys are in love with....) steps in the middle and they all carefully lay their guns down just long enough to get her to safety and then all heck breaks loose.... that was a cinematic masterpiece....! over all i'd give it a good rating....not to shabby for TV....
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