Him gok

Tricky On (Alex Fong) travels to Macau to help rescue the kidnapped daughter of his best friend Ban (Lap Sam Lam). Assembling a crack team consisting of cocky sharpshooter Wood (Ken Chang), sadistic S&M assassin Rain (Anya), and talented driver Kangaroo (Danny Summer), On successfully completes the mission, only to discover that Ban hasn't been entirely honest with him.

Produced by classic kung fu studio Golden Harvest and directed by 'Bloody' Billy Tang, who made the excellent Cat III classic Red To Kill, action thriller Sharp Guns attempts to recapture the energy and style of late 80s/early 90s Hong Kong action cinema, blending the high octane, bullet riddled action of the 'bloodshed' genre, known for its impossibly cool characters and outrageously bloody set-pieces, with the sexiness of the Femme Fatale sub-genre, known for its impossibly hot women in very revealing get-ups.

Sadly, what we get is a very pale imitation of those HK classics, a disappointing popcorn flick saddled with a forgettable gangster plot that involves unlikely crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses (hell, there may have even been a quadruple cross in there somewhere), a team of anti-heroes who share zero chemistry, and surprisingly uninspired action scenes from Tang, the director striving too hard to be cool when he should be concentrating on generating pulse-pounding scenes of majestic blood-drenched chaos.

Despite their best efforts, the cast do little to help matters, with star Alex Fong trying hard to replicate the charisma, confidence and panache of Chow Yun Fat, but only managing to come off as incredibly smug, while eye-candy Anya confidently struts her stuff in low slung jeans but comes nowhere near to the effortless sexiness of Chingamy Yau.

In Hong Kong the cars are fast, the women are lethal, and nothing is comprehensible -- but it is fast !!

The story is that a rich man has his daughter kidnapped, and wanting her back he hires a professional by the name of Tricky On to free her. When he arrives he gets his briefing, hires a male and a female assassin to assist him, and sets out to complete his mission. But he soon realizes that something is wrong and that he has been fooled. The question is: what is wrong, and who has fooled him.

This is how a great action looks. Don't mind if I was often lost about what was really going on. The pace doesn't slow for a second to look back; this is not for reflective minded person. It is somewhat like "Enemy of the State" (with Will Smith). Several twists in the plot ensures that nothing works out they way it was planned. Or maybe it does?

In the lead parts we have some tough people, all though we won't be learning anything more extensive about them -- there is no time for that -- but it doesn't matter in this type of action movie. The female killer is certainly a sexy thing, yet her performance was in no way breath taking, she was too stiff for that. I doubt she is really an actor, she acts more like a model or a pop singer. The others were not as charismatic like, say, Chow Yun Fat or Jackie Chan, but this story does not focus on any single individual, they are rather a team of commandos where everyone has his/her part, so they play they parts well.

No martial arts. No gore. Many of the scenes are set inside cars since they are driving around a lot, but the scenery and directing was all in all impressive, hardly do we see the same places twice.

Smart, fast and mind boggling. 9 / 10.