The Group in the movie refers to the 6 men and woman who all grew up in an orphanage run by their beloved Father Martin. Now grown up they all live by his life philosophy that you should do one good deed every year, even if the methods used aren't good. One day they get the shocking news that Father Martin have been killed, while doing volounteer work for the starving people in Somalia, and now they decide to gather together money for that cause. They go through with a armed robbery but run into complication when another gang robs the money truck they are after. They eventually get 'their' money back but more problems arise...

The Group offers more bad things than good so let's good the good out of the way first. As a director Alfred didn't stand out stylistically in On The Run and 12 years later he seems to be doing the same thing (which should be seen as a good thing). There's simple setups and a basic camera language combined with his use of scenes with colours that is most dominant but it doesn't intrude on the overall viewing experience. The action scenes were a little heavy on shaky cam though, which I'm not a fan of. An ok job technically but narrative wise this movie falls almost flat.

The opening shows off some promise though. After being subjected to a brutal baseball bat murder that turns out to be part of a movie shoot within the movie, Alfred moves on with separate character introductions. Each character get a minute worth of intro which is good since main characters often needs some background for us to relate to them through a movie. It's also soon made clear that The Group isn't going to be a gritty and violent movie but instead a lighthearted crime-film. The jokes aren't constant (some jokes are rather macabre actually) but still outnumbers the bloodshed. The group in the movie is supposed to be a mixture between what Robin Hood did and a Mission Impossible type of gang (we even get a reference in one scene to the latter) but, frankly, I didn't buy that these people could be all this. That they from orphans have grown up to become different things in life is plausible but the whole thief aspect of their characters seemed unbelieveable to me. Much have to do with the presence of the actors or rather non-presence since no one truly embodies and brings life to their respective character. The actors and actresses just seems to go through the motions and were probably only looking forward to the paycheck at the end of filming. Of course the script wasn't that strong to begin with so I'm not solely blaming the cast for their non-commitment. The script isn't that focused either and throws us into situations we know should probably happen but we still get confused as to what is going on.

All this happened quite early in the film and any hope that the movie could save itself was basically lost at this point. There lies a small serious tone to the film which I hoped would take over but when we again hear the 'funny' music underneath a scene, The Group is back in failure-land. What this movie needed was more edge and a sense of real danger. Even though Alfred's intentions are not that, I still think it would have made the movie ok at least. The whole Robin Hood-theme is well meant and the message is delivered, it's just not that interestingly done.

There's a fair amount of gunplay in the film that also feels rather dull but I should stress that it's hard to come up with new ways to present that each time. Gunplay is still gunplay and if you go into the John Woo-style of doing it, you'll probably be labeled as a copycat. With the light tone in the movie, the action never seems dangerous and we're never convinced that our main characters will get hurt, something that doesn't create any tension. However, in the finale we see a much better combination between humour and gritty violence.

The ensemble of actors was, as mentioned, something that drew me to this film. While Francis, Anthony, Christine and Miriam looks like they're having half of a good time, they still act on autopilot but we do get some amusing moments between veterans Francis Ng and Anthony Wong. Francis does reach the passed-level in terms of acting through his performance during the finale. Here he pretends to be totally crazy while shooting (with blank bullets) anything he sees and we see glimpses of that great versatality Francis possesses. Too bad there wasn't more of that.

Alfred Cheung can do better and while I respect where he wanted to go with this film, it still becomes a poor feature in the end. There were moments that seemed promising but this reviewer was honestly waiting for The Group to end!

The story follows a group of orphans who were raised by a kindly priest. Most of them grow up to be successful and lawful citizens (Anthony Wong's gangster being the black sheep of the "family") who try to repay the priest by carrying out a series of Robin Hood-style missions. The first one shown in the movie (after a canny bait-and-switch trick involving a movie set) displays a good sense of charm and style, as the group tries to stop a greedy landlord from kicking an old man out of his apartment. This first bit is breezy and fun; the cast all seem to be having a good time, and that feeling passes down to the viewer.

However, about halfway through the movie, the plot takes a more serious turn as the priest is killed while attending to starving children in Somalia. The group decides to rob an armored truck and use the money to feed the kids. Here, the film takes on a more realistic feel and it just doesn't feel right. Nothing seems to really gel during the second half. It's not horrible -- it's just very by-the-book, even down to the plot twists. Also, The Group succumbs to some very heavy-handed symbolism, even going as far as to paste a title card saying "They are all our children" at the end. If The Group had kept its' light tone throughout the movie, I feel it would have been more successful as a whole.

Still, I enjoyed The Group a good deal. The star power featured in the movie goes a long way in carrying it -- Francis Ng gives a delightfully sly performance, and this seems to be one of those rare films where Anthony Wong seems to be trying. Even though he really isn't in the movie that much, he manages to make the scenes that he is in that more interesting. Also, from a straight guy's standpoint, there is an awful lot of eye candy in the movie. Unfortunately, there's no boobs, but looking at a babe like Almen Wong is good enough in this case.

The Group is worth a look if you're into the "different" kind of crime movies. Despite its' flaws, it is still an enjoyable spin on the tried-and-true crime/action movie. Just don't expect anything on the level of Johnnie To's work.