HIGHLIGHTS AND STUFF YOU'LL REMEMBER: Cynthia Khan is hanging from a bus but still manages to hinging axe kick a guy positioned slighty above her position. Sweet. John Salviti shows off his hyper active, retarded crackhead kung fu style. Funny. Donnie nails John S. with a jump spinning hook/side kick combo that you ain't ever seen and you won't forget. F'n awesome! Previously mentioned short dude from the end fights. Dude fights with the energy of someone that is aiming to hospitalize.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Absolutely essential for any fu-fanatic. And is anybody with me when I say I want to see Donnie Yen as Shang Chi master of kung fu in a live action movie adaption of the comic book?

Yuen Yat Chor's Luk is really the only compelling character in the whole film and he is unfortunately brushed to the side so that Yen and Khan can bicker like the parents of a precocious child. Luk, as played by Yuen Yat Chor, possesses a likability comparable to that of Jackie Chan, a harmless guy thrown into hazardous situations forced to fight back. Luk would have been a great character on which to center the movie; instead he is used as a plot device to set up the various fights.

And fight they do. There's a joust on motorcycles between Yen and longtime nemesis Michael Woods. Plus, Yen vs. John Salvitti using what can only be described as spaz-fu. Khan has a great deal of kicking to do here as well along with some very scary stunt work on, in, and almost under a speeding ambulance (inspiration for Michelle Yeoh's scene in Supercop?). The extensively doubled Michael Wong even gets into the act. Finally, the marquee match-up is a lengthy, ferocious hand-to-hand battle on top of a building pitting Yen against Woods once more. All the fights are fantastic, tireless Yuen Woo Ping trademark brawls that are expertly executed, but unfortunately when they are performed by near-robots like Yen and Khan, nobody cares.

These depressive thoughts and many more entered my mind, after I had finished watching this great action movie by Yuen Woo Ping, starring the amazing Donnie Yen. This is the kind of action which HK was known for, was famous for, will forever be associated with...it's action every 5 minutes and it's GREAT! So it's a huge shame that nowadays, these kind of movies don't get made anymore. I don't know exactly who is responsible for this. It might be the HK audience who decided they had enough of brave stuntmen risking their lives on amazing, unbelievable stunts, and of the leads who actually had talent for on-screen action, or it might have been some dumb-ass executives in a high office somewhere on Hong Kong Island, who donŐt know shit about good movies but just think about money and decided movies would make much more cash if they would just make some romantic comedies and CGI-action movies with young pretty people who can barely hold a tone, let alone act.

Ok...on with the review now, cause we pretty much all know about the problems in the HK movie industry nowadays.

It's a blast! Sure, no-one will expect a brilliant story or great acting from this movie. I sure as hell wasn't. There is only ONE reason you should watch this movie; ACTION! It's your basic cops story, which starts off in America, but it quickly moves the story back to Hong Kong. It's about the CIA dealing in some drugs and a innocent chinese guy gets caught up in all of this and thus becomes a target for the CIA. Donnie Yen and Cynthia Khan are also after the guy, because they first think he might belong to the drug-sellers, but they soon find out he was just at the wrong place, at the wrong time; Bummer(!) They soon get help assigned to them in the form of the horrible Michael Wong (famous for having the acting-abilities of a grape-fruit) who soon turns out to be EVIL, and also working for the FBI. Like I said, story isn't that important in this movie...it's all about the action. Let me tell you; It's GREAT. It's inventive, fast and varied. It's the kind of stuff that makes you want you want to be a HK action hero too! We have fights all over the place, we have people jumping from cranes into water, people getting kicked of bikes, bike chases, a fight on top of a driving ambulance, a white guy using some form of CRAZY-FU or whatever (GREAT FIGHT!), a big-ass black guy with a huge body (and a baaaaaaaaad mo-fo-ing moustache), an ugly white chick falling down an elevator shaft and even more. Hell, we even get some sword-fight by Michael Wong(!)

The fight-scenes featuring Donnie Yen are some of the best in HK cinema's history. I haven't seen Tiger Cage 2 yet, which I have been told to have even superior action, but after this movie, it's pretty near the top of my wish-list.

I won't give this a 10 outta 10 or something, cause like I said, it doesn't have a great story or acting, plus it has Mike in it...so that would just be wrong. Action-wise it gets a 9 out of 10 from me, primarily because of the great fights by Donnie and the nice stunts, plus it's fast paced and stuff happens all the time.

Overall, it gets a 8.5/10;It's one of the best HK-style action movies out there and it's a real shame movies like these don't seem to get made anymore.

This is arguably THE classic Hong Kong actioner--no story, no great acting, with characters taking blows that could kill an elephant. Plain looking, but filled with great fighting, great stunts--but most importantly, the action is very original and inventive, nothing like you see in an average Hollywood production.

Highlights of the movie: the ambulance scene, dirt bikes scene, Yen-Woods fight (when Yen makes Woods fall of the roof it looks so natural, unlike a similar scene in "The Protector" where the bad guy was actually waiting a few seconds for Jackie Chan), the whole final showdown, and to me personally, the brief but very impressive fight in the hospital.

There is a slow spot in the movie (just think about it: "A" slow spot!) when they visit Luk's mother, but it was not that bad. I thought the woman playing Luk's mother did a good job in this scene.

Cynthia is lovely and Donnie Yen is VERY fast!

Oh, almost forgot, there is no wire-fu, which I hate!

A must-have!

If you're looking for action, there's plenty here. Almost every 5 minutes or so the action of fights, vehical chases, guns, etc. come. It's the unstoppable style. Not forgetting that they are perfectly choreographed by the genius Yuen Wo Ping. The martial art styles in this movie are a mixture of taekwondo, kickboxing, and regular boxing, as well as Chinese kung fu. Now that's what makes it good, all these style incorporated into one movie, including intense fight scenes, good plot, Donnie Yen, fabulous visual quality and slow motion effects etc. There's loads more but I can't talk about everything this great movie has to offer. The best fight scene was of course the Donnie Yen vs Michael Woods scene (it is unique to this film!). What else can I say? It's a classic movie, especially of how well it did in the box office and the extra features on the DVD version. Trust me, all martial artists, action fans, and Donnie Yen fans will be happy! Go get it now!