Once a Thief

alright.... i'd have to say this isn't the worst in the john woo catalog.... i found myself laughing and getting that rush you only get in one of his movies.... i thought the characters were enjoyable and after reading the john heard book, 'ten thousand bullets: the cinematic journey of john woo', i had new respect for the man....no, the legend.... i would only recommend this movie, however, if you're a true woo-phile.... it has all the earmarks of a good woo flick, just like balckjack and even hard boiled.... you just need to understand the man loves to make movies.... he doesn't care if they're TV movies or theatrical releases or straight to video....he just loves his art.... i have one problem with this flick and one large focus of praise.... now, not seeing the original....(john woo says it's not something he was ever happy with....) i'm not sure if my thoughts are whole, but here goes.... the bad thing....not enough of the double gun action.... the good thing....was a scene where the two good guys, the one bad guy and the girl are all in a mexican standoff and the girl, (who all three guys are in love with....) steps in the middle and they all carefully lay their guns down just long enough to get her to safety and then all heck breaks loose.... that was a cinematic masterpiece....! over all i'd give it a good rating....not to shabby for TV....

John Woo directs a TV drama about a couple of thieves (Ivan Sergei and Sandrine Holt) who escape to Canada after dishonoring their former boss in Hong Kong, however Sergei is caught by the cops and comes to Canada after his time only to find Holt and Lea in a relationship their soap opera antics must wait while assassin Michael Wong looks to do in our trio out of revenge for their disloyalty. Before Woo stunk up the multiplexes with Mission Impossible 2, Windtalkers and Paycheck. This and Blackjack were regarded as Woo's worst movies. Blackjack believe it or not has it's merits, it was plot heavy but it featured some good action and decent thesping in making for at least a tolerable movie. Once A Thief however is a sub-par take on Woo's own original and although I haven't seen it yet, one doubts it is as bad as this stinker. The main problem with this movie is just how much it feels like Melrose Place with two guns. It becomes so soap operish in it's moronic threads involving the three leads that I for one was hoping somebody would put a bullet in all three of them. Also it takes talent to be an action star, Chow Yun Fat, Jean-Claude Van Damme,John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Dolph Lundgren and even Christan Slater are far more credible than our teen leads which never convince us that they would do anything but crap their pants when the guns went off. Sergei in particular is a charisma-less lunkhead who seems to have wandered in from a stoner commercial. This is a very dull movie and the action sequences would be good had they not been botched beyond belief, Woo films no suspense and somehow the movie just keeps going for a ridiculous amount of time. This is for only die hard John Woo fans and only they will be disappointed by the awfulness here.

* out of 4-(Bad)

This is John Woo made for television--that should tell you everything. Those looking for head-spinning, high-tech shootouts that "The Killer" and "Hard-Boiled" made him famous for will be disappointed. Those looking for any kind of perverse twists of plot, such as those which were plentiful in "Face/Off" will demand their money back.

If there were anyone else sitting in the director's chair, I'd say "Not bad." But it's John Woo, and I expected better.

You have been warned.

To tell you the truth I don't know why I gave this movie 4/10 ... I really don't, I shouldn't have rated this so high ... but I think I gave this TV movie more credit than it deserved (imo), just because I didn't want to rate a John Woo movie too bad! And although sometimes this movie has some good scenes, it is always apparent that it's made to start a TV show/series ...

It's a shame, because this is a remake of a quite good (not excellent, but still good) HK action movie, that Woo made himself. You can check that out under "movie connections" on the (currently) left bar side of this site.

The actors are not up to much and it's only the few good action scenes and some pieces of the original story/movie that do convince ... Not recommendable!

What can I say, I love this TV movie! It combines a wonderful mix of Action and Humour, the acting is top class and it is directed by an action legend JOHN WOO!!! If you like being entertained and trilled then please, for your sake, watch this movie and perhaps the series that followed it if you can, superb stuff!!!!! As the tagline says: The Art Of Action!