I picked this up on blowout with some remaining Flix Bux, figuring, it was either this or "Avenging Angelo".

I have shamed Stallone greatly.

Well, Michael Wong plays a cop (gasp!) and in school-play mode, he takes down some VCD baddies, and then, to get back at Michael, the baddies get him charged with rape and his g/f must set him free. Then in a slew of events so boring that I might fall asleep if I tried to describe, Michael Wong is set free from jail, and goes after the real baddies.

Gee...where haven't I heard this before?

At the end, bringing a moment from Lethal Weapon, Michael Wong fights this kid, while all the cops and bad guys watch. You have to see it for yourself (no, I'm kidding), one minute he's getting beaten to a pulp, the next, he's goes Raging Bull on the kid.

Ultimately, avoid this turd at all costs. People and this film truly do need to be "Miles Apart."

As is usually the case with Mongkok, bad things are going down. The movie starts innocently enough with Sam Leung peddling pirated VCDs on the street. Michael Wong, newly appointed Mongkok Chief Inspector gets some info from the punk & proceeds to locate a central storage location for the goods. Everything's coming up roses until our man Michael (Miles Ma in the film, typically odd HK film title tie-in) gets framed for raping and attempting to murder a prostitute. Who wants Miles Ma out of the picture, how does it tie in to pirated VCDs, and what does police insider KC (Moses Chan) know about it all?

The acting is stellar all-around, though Michael Wong is both the film's strongest and possibly weakest point. He rarely does a poor acting job, but he hardly ever emotes beyond the standard square-jawed good-guy role. This inevitably makes his films bearable, but hardly ever spectacular. My hero, Simon Lui, is fairly sparse, as is crowd favorite Sam Leung, but Moses Chan does a good job of playing off of Michael Wong (Chan also plays a good role in Violent Cop.) Cecilia Yip ends up playing a satisfying, if somewhat standard, role as the stand-by-your-man love interest.

Though the film is quite solid, I can see how it might not be spectacular enough for some. There is plenty of Michael Wong, and that might be a bad thing if you aren't a fan of his stern, one-dimensional acting style. I thought the alternating English/Cantonese dialogue was done well, keeping the viewer's interest. No sappy melodrama, no plot holes big enough to drive delivery trucks through (except possibly how Miles Ma basically sweeps the whole frame-up under the rug after a 15-second conversation with KC and agrees to help him.)

Perhaps a bit dry, and possibly predictable, but solid nonetheless with great acting all around. If you like these types of routine cop films, you will not be disappointed.