Raging Fire

RAGING FIRE is a fitting swansong for Hong Kong director Benny Chan, who died during post-production. It's a cop thriller throwback to the likes of NEW POLICE STORY and INVINCIBLE TARGET, with Donnie Yen typically playing a dedicated cop on the trail of a gang of robbers headed by Nicholas Tse. The film suffers from being overlong - half an hour out would have improved that - and from over-complexifying a rather straightforward scenario. But the action zings, particularly in Donnie's two fight scenes, and the climax is a real delight. It tends to avoid cheese and overwhelming sentiment which is good too.

The movie has ample amount of action and some good hand to hand combat but somehow i cudnt care about any of the characters and the movie aint engrossing enuff.

I found it to be an excellent action movie.

I went to go see Donnie Yen bring it and he delivered, despite this feeling that Yen is hit by old age. You can tell he was avoiding the quick punches from Ip man that he most likely cannot pull off any more, but he makes up for it with this new raw, tough and tumble style, made to look special with some great camera work.

Than again, another reason for Yen's change of styles could be that I was expecting a kung fu flick but what I got was just this complete action film. It has everything you would expect from an action flick: Gun fights, car chases and fight scenes and what makes it nice is that you get more than one of all these things.

I can't honestly give a good examination on how the story goes as my mandarin is non existent and I read subtitles at a 6th grade level, but I'll give some credit to the acting that got me engulf in a story I was barely picking up. Some good character development was going here on the big screen.

I would love to say that this movie is as good as Heat, or somewhere around there because the movie feels like they 're trying to get there, but that's a little too ambitious. It's a decent police drama with a whole lot of amazing action and I'll leave it at that,

Whilst the plot is nothing new, Raging Fire is an absolutely incredible action thriller full of memorable set pieces and is definitely a superb and bittersweet final film for director Benny Chan.

Donnie Yen gives an excellent lead performance whose physicality is balanced against more dramatic moments. Nicholas Tse is a superb villain, equally physically capable with believable motivation yet still managing to be gleefully evil.

Benny Chan's direction is phenomenal with a variety of standout set pieces including hand to hand combat, shootouts and car chases. The music by Nicolas Errèra is great, consistently ridiculously bombastic which helps to make everything even more dramatic.

Good editing can improve on a so-so script but not even the best editor can improve on a convoluted, disjointed mess like this one. Good production values are no substitute for a solid story that hooks the viewer. An hour into this, you may still be wondering who you are supposed to root for. Yen playing a stoic cop looks lost.