Fung bou

They did what I'd thought impossible. So many bullets fired and stuff blowed up with an array of grenades and bombs that I actually grew bored when I should have been excited. The producers used up enough of an f/x budget for three of these movies, reducing the story to rubble as severely as to the buildings, streets and vehicles on the receiving end of the demolition crew's excesses. I expect more classiness and coherence from any film starring Andy Lau, making this even more disappointing. It devolved into the sort of direct-to-video fodder cranked out in low-overhead countries with a cast of deservedly unknown players.

Poor plot and acting from Andy Lau and crew. Trying so hard to make the bunch of criminals so tough when in reality its not that easy. Also trying so hard to evoke audience emotion and too obvious about it.

First of all, don't get fooled by the title or the description of the press release. There is no storm in this movie. I was expecting action sequences in the key of Korean movies like the drama-thriller ''Tidal Wave'' which takes place during a mega tsunami or the spy thriller ''Typhoon'' but ''Firestorm'' turns out to be a more conventional thriller. This movie may not be very unique but it's a quite entertaining two hours for fans of the action-thriller genre.

The story where a veteran police officer and his assistants face a notorious thief and his cruel gang is nothing new either but the movie includes a couple of side stories. Some people may say that these side stories are only hiding the weak main plot and rather distracting but I thought they were what made this movie a little bit better than just average. The relationship between a naive criminal who wants to leave his past behind and start all over again with his proud but sad girlfriend is really touching. This side story adds some emotional depth to the movie. The story of an undercover agent and his autistic daughter is also quite intense as it turns from a passionate story to the grisliest element of the entire movie which I found hard to digest but absolutely intriguing. The acting from the secondary actors is very good while the main actors Andy Lau and Hu Jun are not as outstanding.

An important element of this movie is obviously the fast-paced action sequences. Some of them are well filmed and really breathtaking. One can really see that these scenes were filmed by experts and that there is a solid budget behind the movie. I'm not a fan of CGI effects but the special and visual effects are bearable to well done in this movie. On the other side, some of these sequences are overused, repetitive and feel artificially stretched towards the end of the movie. Some of them are simply over the top even though these scenes are at least never becoming ridiculous slapstick elements as it's the case in several contemporary Hollywood blockbusters like ''A Good Day To Die Hard'' or ''Fast & Furious 6''. One really gets the impression that the action sequences and side stories try to hide the ordinary main plot which fails to come around with true surprises.

If you are feeling for a fast-paced and professionally shot action- thriller, you can't go wrong with this movie. Anybody who's expecting something more like a great plot, outstanding acting or revolutionary effects should watch another movie.

I watched the action film Firestorm on a boiling hot day, hoping a movie about a massive storm on the verge of infringing upon Hong Kong might cool me down. Instead, by the end, I was just as tired, sweaty and unimpressed as I was when I inserted the DVD into my player. Out of all the Chinese movies I have recently had the pleasure of watching, not only is Firestorm the most disappointing, it is almost incredibly unique, in that by the conclusion of the feature, I was bored to death - by the sheer wealth of explosions.

Police Inspector Lui (portrayed by the always entertaining Mr. Andy Lau) is a brilliant member of the Hong Kong police, who unfortunately finds himself in the middle of an escalating horrific situation. Not only is he trapped in the middle of a deranged action film, he has to contend with two forces: a storm, that threatens to turn Hong Kong inside out, and a crew of criminals hard pressed to do the same, who are led by the ruthless Cao (Jun Hu).

At the same time, Shing (Gordon Lam), a convict recently released from prison, is trying his best to be the man his beautiful girlfriend Yin (Yao Chen) has been waiting patiently for. With a direct connection to Cao's crew, it's no surprise that Lui and he eventually cross paths, as the police inspector comes to realize that usual police tactics will inevitably fail to bring justice.

Cao's crew, who at first glance appear to be thieves, are painted as murderous psychopaths. There is little background regarding their motives, and their unrelenting slaughter of civilians feels more like a slasher film with guns rather than an in-depth police drama. This same lacking characterization applies to every individual in the movie, including Lui. Although Mr. Lau has proved time and time again he is a brilliant actor, his character is eventually also pulled into the relentless shoot 'em up, spending more than half the film on the ground after being shot, punched, or blown away by one of many explosions that occupies the plot.

Although horrific tragedies do take place, which lead Lui down a questionable path, even in these moments, the audience, despite acknowledging the horror of the event, cannot become emotionally involved, because by the end, the characters remain a collection of total strangers. What's more, Lui's actions, which begin to blur the line between good and rogue have little affect on his character, who doesn't seem to care that the rules he swore to obey might very well be thrown out the window.

In the midst of the insanity, there are a couple of beautiful moments that show how family is not just those related by blood, but these are so fleeting, they are barely rememberable. Furthermore, although there are several great fight scenes, alongside a number of explosions that continuously look superb, these blur together overtime, and by the trigger happy conclusion, I was left shaking my head in disbelief, wondering what the point to any of it was. A scene involving white doves is surely a tribute to revered action director John Woo, however the fact there's several dozen of them is outrageously over the top, which clearly reflects the entirety of this production.

The strongest moments in the film often involve the arguments between Shing and Yin, where emotions run high and heartbreak and violence is potentially just a moment away. But the film fails to capitalize on the talents of the actors portraying these characters, or this sub-plot, that infrequently appears, and if the creator's had spent less time on the action, and attempted to stretch the back-story of each of the leads, this would have made for a far more effective story. By the end, there's a storm alright - it's just not the one we were promised.

Firestorm, the latest action thriller starring Andy Lau, is a character study trying to burst out of its commercial contraptions. The commercial aspects is a cops and robbers film with the volume turned up to eleven. Every moment is crucial. One can almost take the last frame of every shot, matte it and make a comic book out of the whole movie. The hidden art-house aspects are the character study of its two leads and the morality play of right and wrong, which emanates later in the story. Director Alan Yuen keeps things moving along, artfully combining these two components in such a way that there's never time for the audience to stop and think. For most of it, Firestorm is a fun ride.

Andy Lau leads the film sufficiently as the film's righteous hero, but the heavy lifting comes with a cost. Senior Inspector Lui is mostly an action-oriented role. And he only gets interesting till the later portion when the Infernal Affairs-like morality play begins. It's only then Lau holsters his gun and gets to chew some scenery.

It is great to see Gordon Lam, Hong Kong's most versatile working character actor, finally play a lead role in a feature film. Out of the two leads, Lam has the more complex character. Andy Lau is billed as the lead on the poster, but the story is arguably more about Gordon Lam. He's never given a bad performance and here he is the heart of the story. Yao Chen, who I thought would be a love interest for Andy Lau's character (as it usually would), is the romantic love interest for Gordon Lam. I doubt a modern working woman in this day and age will tolerate a convict boyfriend to the level that she does, but Yao Chen brings a much-needed believability to the situation by reacting.

For what the film does for Gordon Lam, it falls short with veteran actors Hu Jun and Ray Lui, who are oddly undeveloped villains. This is not the way to use actors of their caliber; they deserve better. Michael Wong also has a cameo as Andy Lau's boss. Does Wong treat every Chinese film producer to dinner every week or has comprising photos of them? He tries to be subtle, which for him means trying to whisper his lines in a high-pitched voice as if he breathed vials of helium before each take. He is god awful as usual, but fortunately there is very little of him.

The action sequences are all entertaining and it is impressive how they are all set in in busy Hong Kong locales. There's a sufficient amount of design going into the 3D for its action scenes; everybody uses tracer ammunition (which highlights the bullet trajectory) and there's a noteworthy portion with birds. One particular high wire action set piece got too ridiculous. Let's just say if I was dangling at a high altitude, I wouldn't purposely slam the scaffolding that's hoisting me. The finale shootout in Central's Queen Street is the price of admission. Suffice to say, mayhem ensues. For any Airsoft fans out there, with all the Hong Kong police uniforms, SWAT gear, guns and muzzle flash that appears on screen, this will be Disneyland for you.

To match its drama with an epic operatic grandeur, Firestorm's story is built around the metaphor of an oncoming typhoon blowing towards Hong Kong. As my creative writing teacher once said about one of my short stories, "Your pathetic fallacy is pathetic." Sorry, it is too over- the-top at times. For example, Peter Kam's bombastic operatic score is akin to a Final Fantasy game. It sounded like a choir of angels were chanting for Andy Lau's survival through the gunfire. The work Peter Kam done on Isabella and Throwdown has shown subtlety and used music as a way to bring the audience into its world. I noticed that the quiet contemplative score sounded one octave away from the Infernal Affairs score. This is not Kam's fault. I imagine this is the product of financiers citing references based on past box office success. Let's face it, current Chinese and Hong Kong cinema is becoming a producer's medium.

I was aware of how much commercial box ticking was going on throughout the film, but they were never overtly blatant enough to bother my enjoyment. Whenever Firestorm was being too loud and bashing my head, it was the hidden artsy choices, like Gordon Lam in a lead role, the undercover story arc with its morality play, that lifted it back up for me. It's a fun time at the movies and if you're going to see it, the 3D version will not disappoint.

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