A W
My favourite movie of all time! 100%
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
11/26/23
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Audience Member
Will always be an All time fav 👏🏾
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
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Audience Member
Un film grandioso que nos muestra la historia de un grupo de amigos que la codicia los terminará enfrentando contra muchos enemigos y hasta entre ellos mismos. La acción será brutal y el final es absolutamente épico. Una de las obras maestras del gran John Woo.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Review:
I really enjoyed this epic movie! It's full of intense action/drama and the performances from the three childhood friends were great. The movie is set in Hong Kong, 1967, were best friends Ben (Tony Leung), Paul (Waise Lee) and Frank (Jacky Leung), brawl with rival gangs, to gain respect. During Ben's marriage to his long time girlfriend Jane, Frank takes out a loan, so he can pay for the reception but he is attacked by a rival gang, who attempt to take his money. Frank manages to escape with a severe cut to his head and the money he borrowed but everyone at the wedding can see that there is something wrong with him. After the wedding Frank tells Ben about the fight with the rival gang and they head out for revenge. Frank ends up killing the leader of the gang, which puts both of there life's in danger. They then tell Paul about the fight and they decide to leave Hong Kong and head for Vietnam because they heard of a smuggling scam which could make them some money. As soon as they reach Vietnam, there cases with the contraband are destroyed because a suicide bomber attempts to kill a highly ranked officer of the army. After being wrongly accused of the bombing, they meet up with Luke (Simon Yam), to discuss the missing contraband and they soon become friends and meet his boss Leong. Whilst in his club, Frank bumps into an attractive singer, Sally, who agrees to meet him the following day. She then tells him about her love for Luke and how they planned to escape Vietnam but there plan was cut short when Leong's henchmen caught them in the act. Now that Luke is forced to work for Leong and Sally is forced into prostitution and drugs, they put together a plan to kill Leong and escape Vietnam forever. During a big shootout in Leong's club, Paul comes across a suitcase of gold, which is the only thing that he is interested in but the rest of them are fighting to get Sally to safety. During the shootout, Sally gets shot, so they have to try and keep her alive whilst trying to get there escape point. After a long battle with the army and Leong's henchmen, Sally dies and they are captured by the Vietcong and taken to a concentration camp. The Vietcong take the gold and find intelligence documents that Leong was going to sell to the North Vietnamese. After a brutal interrogation, Paul claims to be working for the CIA to save his friends. Frank is then forced to kill other prisoners and then Ben takes over and turns the gun on the officers that have captured them. Whilst escaping, Luke arrives with a elite squad and Paul goes into hiding with the gold. Paul finds Frank and urges him to be quiet so they don't get caught but Frank has become to distraught and he can't keep his mouth shut. Paul then shoots Frank in the back of the head and then he flees with the gold. When Luke finds Frank, he puts him on a rescue helicopter while Ben chases Paul, who destroys a peaceful village for no apparent reason. When Ben tries to save one of the villagers, Paul shoots him and escapes on a boat. Ben is then saved by some monks and eventually makes his way back to Saigon were he bumps into Luke, who has suffered some injuries to his face during the whole rescue attempt. Luke then takes him to Frank, who has severe head injuries and become addicted to heroin due to his injuries caused by Paul. Ben tries his utmost to get sense out of Frank but he has gone to a dark place and has completely lost control of his mind, so Ben puts him out of his misery. Luke then decides to stay in Saigon and Ben returns home to his wife, who has given birth to there child. After everything that had happened in Vietnam, Paul has become a successful businessman who is due a promotion. When Ben turns up at his workplace with Frank's skull, he confronts him about his actions in Saigon but Paul doesn't want to hear any of it. He then waits for him to finish work and they go head to head in a epic car chase. After destroying there cars, they finally come face to face with each other and Ben fights to redeem Frank's name. This must be the longest review I have ever typed! There is just so much going on in this film and I don't think that I would be doing it any justice if I covered it in a few words. It's a very detailed storyline which has every element covered. Like many John Woo movies, the gun action is great and the chemistry between Ben, Frank, Paul and there new found friend Luke, who I personally thought was the best character, was also great. The intensity is brilliant throughout and the cinematography made the film seem authentic and real. I would have liked to have seen what happened to Ben and Luke but that just me being picky. Enjoyable!
Round-Up:
This is another great achievement by John Woo, 69, who made this movie 3 years before he went to Hollywood and made the awful Hard Target with Jean Claude Van Damme. He did bounce back with Face/Off and Mission Impossible III but like Jackie Chan, he decided to turn his back on Hollywood and go back to making movies for the Oriental market. I personally hope that he gets a massive budget to make a epic movie for a worldwide audience, before he decides to stop making movies because he has a unique style of telling any story with detail and emotion.
I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/crime/drama's starring Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee and Simon Yam. 8/10
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
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Audience Member
The best John Woo film in my opinion
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This is one of the first John Woo films that I was hooked in. Action films that have great depth, drama, and more of an ambitious story. Two hours of run time. For the first half, I've seen flaws on it like they over dramatic stuffs in there, Woo tries to do a multi setting action crime which involves the Vietnam War. Which gives more of a plot hole instead. But the dramatization, and the acting in here are great. I love the "feels" in this film, especially the moments of expression from each character's faces, you can see it. And also, it has some brutal scenes, which is inhumane for some. For a 90's action, gun fights are pretty legit. Nonetheless this is one of Woo's finest films and still very memorable. But I was disappointed on the Blu version of it. Not the picture quality that I wanted. 3.5/5
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
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