On the brink of turning to Hollywood, Ringo Lam's The Adventurers, shot in both Hong Kong, USA and the Philippines, could be lazily described as a warm-up towards that type of filmmaking lacking the uniqueness of said director's work at home grounds. You should stop right there because Lam, at least whenever making his classics and personal films (City On Fire, School On Fire), never made stylistic statements as such. His choices, statements in itself, concerned characters and a nod towards gritty realism in the violence so therefore The Adventurers doesn't seem to stray as such. The only way it does is by performing a heck of a lot worse than we've come to expect from Ringo.

Fresh from his excellent tour of duty in the Wuxia genre (Burning Paradise), Lam has simple and quick goals to accomplish (quick being a keyword). Going routine by Recycling the back story structure set against war torn, political turmoil carried into revenge-seeking adulthood, when Lam sheds blood, it's an effect and here's where probably the "Hollywood filmmaking" is at its least apparent as almost everyone is sacrificed in the opening reel. Threats of turning Andy Lau's character journey into pretentious symbolism for the masses via a short shot of a Buddha statue being stuck in the fire of his childhood home in Cambodia, Lam does achieve a fairly chilling effect early on that demands attention. When setting aside later that the film won't be a Chinese Top Gun either, the revenge thread takes center stage as well as the portrayal of a torn undercover agent. Ring a bell?

Unfortunately it does and creativity with character drama is nowhere to be found in Lam's frame. While the majority of the proceedings leans more towards being efficient on a B-movie scale in a world perspective (it's an A-movie in Hong Kong), obviously time is set aside to explore emotions of characters but a feeling sinks in that Lam knows he's been here before and isn't interested in following through again. Considering the editing in the middle takes GIGANTIC leaps in time, the project has made up its mind what it wants to be with Ringo supporting it via a half-hearted attempt. The imprint is missing

Having charisma at the forefront in the form of Andy Lau isn't a drawback for this production however. Automatically looking rather calm and cool, Lau does decent work when venturing into displays of emotions having to do with his mission at hand and being stuck between priorities, including the two women. David Chiang's veteran, elder presence could be sleepwalked through arguably but it's a welcome act. One who can't fail no matter what she does or says is Wu Chien-Lien who always seems to treat her material with outermost dedication and she again emerges as the biggest winner of the film, without her range equaling reference material. A much missed actress in films. While as usual given little to do, Rosamund Kwan logs a sexy, commanding and even deliciously evil supporting act as Ray Lui's price trophy girlfriend. In the bad guy camp, Paul Chun's standard act done almost solely behind sun glasses is not an original and Ben Ng, at the best of times the most dangerous motherf*cker on two legs in Hong Kong cinema, lingers in the background as a requisite left hand to the villain.

Having these performers at hand but instead allowing them to break out into colourful rants or acts of harsh violence could've made The Adventurers turn into a shallow exercise in unashamed nastiness but as it stands now, the minor ventures in those areas are the only ones that warrants attention. The gore is handed out quite frequently but in the end with a hint of disinterest from a Ringo Lam heading out. It turned out to be a much better time at the movies when he was heading in again.

Andy Lau travels from Cambodia to the US and on to Hong Kong as Wah, a man looking for revenge against his father's murderer. The man responsible, Ray Lui (Paul Chun Chui), is now a leading figure in the Hong Kong triad and the odds are definitely against his would-be assassin. When the first assassination attempt fails, Wah tries to get to Lui through his daughter, played by Wu Chien Lin, but ends up falling for her and then gets into a compromising situation with Lui's ruthless concubine played by Rosamund Kwan. Only tragedy can follow, and does.

Certainly ambitious in scale, the film seems almost to come unstuck at times (in terms of convincing plotting) but Ringo Lam just about manages to hold things together. Despite not being an example of Lam's best work, 'The Adventurers' features some decent performances from the main cast members and boasts some well choreographed action scenes reminiscent of the heroic bloodshed genre.

The Adventurers starts out well, but once all the characters are in place and the plot is set in motion, things begin to fall apart. There is little in the way of character development, the plot is transparent (I could see the next "twist" coming a mile away), and, perhaps worst of all, there is no action. Ringo Lam's movies don't need a ton of action to be interesting -- Full Alert is good proof of this, but that movie had two good lead actors in it. In The Adventurers, we have Andy Lau attempting to act. There is one scene where he is supposed to be all dramatic as he is realizing just how trapped he is, but all little Andy can do is raise his voice and look constipated.

The movie does try to redeem itself at the end with some action, but it's too little, too late. Some guys get shot, some (well, a lot) of stuff blows up, but there's nothing behind it and so there's no interest for the viewer -- it's just pyrotechnic mastrubation. The only thing I really liked about The Adventurers was Rosamund Kwan's performance. She steps out from the usual goody two-shoes she plays, and breathes a nice bit of life into what is usually a stock character. It's too bad that it's the only piece of life in this movie -- despite its' high budget and star pedigree, The Adventurers comes off as plastic, lifeless, and perhaps most damningly, unoriginal as most of the Hollywood action dreck out there.