The series starts to show its age in this installment. I guess cranking out four movies in little more than a year had its toll on both cast and crew. There's nothing really special here; most of the leads seem to be on auto-pilot all the way through. Even the great Anthony Wong (in a role that amount to little more than a cameo) doesn't seem to care, forgoing even the hair and makeup used in the previous installments to differentiate his character. The romantic subplots, which were treated well in the other movies, are painfully laughable here, especially the one between Cheng and Reis. Their love scene is so atrociously bad that I was actually groaning in disbelief.

The film isn't all bad -- Cheung is quite good as the villain and Chan turns in another good performance, though not quite up to the level of parts 2 or 3. Overall, Y&D4 is a by-the-numbers crime film that you might call "stunningly average"; fans of the series will definitely enjoy this one more than the casual viewer.

While a lot of critics like to blather on incessantly about the parallels between the story and China's takeover of HK or how the characters reflect society, I tend to take the Y&D films for what they are -- pop entertainment. Sometimes I think film "experts" tend to forget that people watch movies for sheer enjoyment, not for deep philosophical meaning. And that is why I think the Y&D series is so popular -- it's just quite enjoyable to watch these young men, in a sense, grow up in front of us.

It doesn't hurt that director Andrew Lau (not to be confused with the pop star/actor Andy Lau) packs quite a visual punch in the movies. Using steadicams (hand-held cameras) and working with sync sound, the Y&D movies have a fresh, flowing feel to them that perfectly captures the fast-paced lifestyle of Hong Kong in the late 20th century. Acting-wise, the cast list for the Y&D series reads like a "who's who" list of HK celebrities, from veterans like Simon Yam and Anthony Wong to newcomers such as Jordan Chan and Sam Lee. Combined with the intriguing, long-running narrative and well-paced, often violent turns in the story, it's no wonder why Young and Dangerous became such a phenomenon. In fact, the series and the similar films it spawns have become their own mini-genre, the "Triad Boys" movies.

After working on Y&D, director Andrew Lau went on to work on some of the highest-grossing home-grown films in recent HK history, such as The Storm Riders and A Man Called Hero. The series' top stars (Ekin Cheng and Jordan Chan) have become two of Hong Kong's -- and Asia's -- biggest box office draws, appearing (often together) in such high-profile movies as Hot War and Tokyo Raiders.

The series starts to show its age in this installment. I guess cranking out four movies in little more than a year had its toll on both cast and crew. There's nothing really special here; most of the leads seem to be on auto-pilot all the way through. Even the great Anthony Wong (in a role that amount to little more than a cameo) doesn't seem to care, forgoing even the hair and makeup used in the previous installments to differentiate his character. The romantic subplots, which were treated well in the other movies, are painfully laughable here, especially the one between Cheng and Reis. Their love scene is so atrociously bad that I was actually groaning in disbelief.

The film isn't all bad -- Cheung is quite good as the villain and Chan turns in another good performance, though not quite up to the level of parts 2 or 3. Overall, Y&D4 is a by-the-numbers crime film that you might call "stunningly average"; fans of the series will definitely enjoy this one more than the casual viewer.