Skyline Cruisers is a good-looking but ultimately boring movie because the thieves have a gagdet to get out of any situation -- these guys make James Bond look like a cheapskate -- and that kills any suspense, which is key for a heist movie like this. For example, while being chased by some guards, Jordan Chan hits a button on his truck's dashboard which sends Sam Lee and Michelle Saram flying out the back with oversized rollerblades strapped to their feet so that they can shoot at the guards. Wouldn't just sticking your head out of the window suffice? One wonders if they need some kind of special apparatus to wipe themselves on the toilet. Not only is Skyline Cruisers' action gimmick-heavy, the film itself is as well, with too many uses of slow motion/point-of-view/computer morphing shots. These things in small doses can give a movie a nice visual flavor, but when they are overused (as they certainly are in this case) they get bland and annoying after a while.

Like many recent Hong Kong action movies, Skyline Cruisers seems to be trying too hard to deliver everything to everyone, and delivers very little as a result. I'm getting a bit tired of films (from everywhere in the world) being so self-conciously "hip" or "cool" (case in point here: Michelle Saram's ridiculous orange-blond dye job -- I thought good thieves were supposed to be inconspicuous) and overusing wires/computers to make their stars look like good fighters; Jordan Chan is a good actor, but, please no more Matrix-style wall run gags from him. Skyline Cruisers almost translates into the "so bad it's good" category, but in the end I was just too bored to even nitpick at the asinine attempts at action sequences.

Leon Lai leads a team of professional thieves, including Jordan Chan, Sam Lee and Michelle Saram, to steal a newly developed cure for cancer. Obviously they're not the only ones who want it as the team soon realise. The plot is filled with the usual amount of double crossing and ambiguous characters but, while it might all be a bit predictable, that's not really a problem if the rest of the film delivers. But it doesn't.

Visually the film is very impressive and maintains a very stylish and contemporary look. However this movie really is all about style over content with more attention paid to flashy (and highly unlikely) gadgets and cool camera angles than to plot or character development. Maybe its a problem with the editing but the story just didn't seem to flow very well with moments that left me wondering what was happening. This was obviously apparent to the scriptwriters also who must have seen it as a big joke as there is a scene where Jordan Chan is asked to explain what is happening but when he answers his reply is drowned out by the sound of an aeroplane taking off.

None of the characters are developed well at all but with a running time of only 85 minutes there simply isn't time. When the villain is finally uncovered (quite ridiculously I might add) you feel that you don't know anything about him at all, which you don't as he's only appeared in a couple of scenes. Also the way in which Shu Qi's character is dealt with at the end of the film seemed like such a waste and is maybe further evidence that the script writers just didn't have any idea as to what they wanted to do with the characters.

The film also has a big problem with the action. The first real action scene doesn't come until about 40 minutes in and for a film that is only 85 minutes in total that is far too long. Despite nice camerawork and editing the action scenes are still rather unsatisfactory, the worst being when Jordan Chan uses nunchaku. This could have been brilliant but is sped up ridiculously as a sort of parody.

I tend to be a bit more forgiving that a lot of people when it comes to the recent crop of Hong Kong action movies, but even I would have to say I was disappointed. It's certainly the worst one I've seen for a while.