Mang lung

I was just given the chance to sit down and watch the 2005 Hong Kong action movie titled "Dragon Squad" (aka "Mang lung") here in 2021. And this was actually my first time to watch it. Sure, I had heard about the movie before, but I just never have gotten around to watch it. So of course I jumped at the chance to do so now.

And I will say that "Dragon Squad" was an adequately entertaining action movie, though it wasn't among the best that the action cinema from Hong Kong has to offer. But it is definitely an entertaining and watchable movie.

The storyline told in "Dragon Squad" was a bit simplistic and linear. Sure, it made for proper entertainment, but the writers Daniel Lee and Ho-Leung Lau didn't really venture into new territory, deciding to play it safe and following a strict how-to-make-an-action-movie blueprint.

The action sequences in the movie were nicely choreographed and executed on the screen, and there was indeed an abundance of action throughout the course of the movie. And director Daniel Lee brought this to life on the screen in a good manner with lots of high speed and adrenaline.

"Dragon Squad" has a rather impressive cast list ensemble, which includes Shawn Yue, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Maggie Q, Andy On and Simon Yam; so there is an abundance of familiar faces in the movie, if you are familiar with Hong Kong cinema. And it was an absolute blast to have Michael Biehn in the movie as well, and he was definitely back in form here.

I found this 2005 movie to be a nice surprise, and it definitely proved entertaining enough. However, I don't think that this is a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time though, as the storyline just was a bit too weak for supporting multiple viewings. My rating of "Dragon Squad" is a six out of ten stars.

Objectively speaking, this was your typical formulaic Hong Kong cop thriller. Sammo Hung plays the once brilliant cop, Kong Long, with issues as he heads to retirement. One of his issues surrounds an old case in which his team gets wiped out by a gang. Meanwhile five superstars (Shawn Yue, Vaness Wu, Eva Huang, Xia Yu, Lawrence Chou) in the Asian entertainment scene play five international cops who are there to testify against a mobster. However, on the way to court he is "rescued" by the gwei-lo, a former SAS man, Petros (Michael Biehn) and his team (which contains the delectable Maggie Q). Not surprisingly, once the mobster escapes, the young cops are after them and a chase ensues, following a path of history that Kong Long is all too familiar with.

Unlike most HK cop thrillers, there is more of an element of psychology involved and there are mind games that you, the viewer, do get caught up in. It is intelligent in parts, triggering some suspense. However, the downside is that this wasn't consistent throughout the film and much of the rest of the plot is rather weak and predictable. There are some action scenes that add a bit of excitement, but overall the script is the usual formulaic stuff that is much a throw-back to that seen in the last three decades of HK film.

But for most, like many Hollywood efforts of this type of film, the film appeals to the mass market. Some very big names in the world of entertainment in the Far East appear in this movie, including boy band F4-member, Vanness Wu, veteran kung fu supremo, Sammo Hung, and former model Maggie Q. It isn't a sublime work of art. It is meant to be seen at face value. And in that, it might have some success.

Overall, this film breaks no boundaries, in fact it stays well within the outfield. But, it's a fairly solid film that the masses will probably enjoy. One for a bit of action.

The cast in the movie do their best to give this movie an edge!. That they fail is not their fault. Because at least they try to make something of it! When i heard that Micheal Biehn would star in this movie I honestly didn't know what to expect! To my surprise he ( together with Jun-ho Heo and Sammo Hung)provides some good acting to make the story believable! As for the direction I am a bit disappointed! The first half of the movie is too chaotic for my taste. In the second half the action scenes do pick up! Nice shootouts and one big martial arts scene between Sammo and Jun-ho Heo! This is what the fans want! It is too bad the director didn't use the actors to their fullest potential! I've seen "What price Survival" from director Daniel Lee where it also was more style than substance! It is a shame to see he hasn't learned much from those mistakes! Thanks to the cast this movie is fun to watch! Don't expect anything special,it's average!

Five agents(not sure what it is that makes them the dragon squad… if they are) are sent to take on a gang, but there are experts on the other side, as well. Yeah, that's basically it. We don't even get details on the criminal activities. I guess they're "just bad". The characters are all so sparsely developed that it can be difficult to remember not only who is who, but what side someone is on. Instead, the time is spent on plentiful stylish(too much so for many(it looks like a video-game at times, honestly), and a ton of slo-mo), over-the-top, bloody action, with shoot-outs, martial arts(unarmed and otherwise... and *everything* is a weapon in the hands of these guys) and build-up. It is intense and fast. This is visually impressive, nicely edited and filmed and at times almost poetic. There are dueling snipers and machete-wielders, and of course no one can hit squat when they are aiming at anyone important(of which there is an excessive amount). Biehn is of course absolutely awesome and bad-ass... what else is new. Early on, this seems to suggest that there will be twists or something brainy to it. There isn't. The "moral" makes little sense. There is some humor, though the funniest thing is the utter abandonment of logic, and how everyone can talk to each other even though they speak different languages to each other(mostly Cantonese, and the text is that, too... are some of those supposed to be chapter titles?). Everything is subtitled to English, don't worry(well, if you get the right version). All in all, 109 minutes sans credits is a bit much for something this focused on superficial entertainment. I recommend this to those who love Hong Kong flicks of this genre. 6/10

When a fellow countryman calls this "visually the most glorious movie I've seen", I feel compelled to shout out to the world (well, IMDb review readers) that his statement, even in 2005, when it was written, hardly represents an average Finn's opinion. If this is visually the most glorious movie *anybody* has ever seen, they really need to see more movies. Or study the meaning of the word "glorious". It seems, based on the average IMDb rating, that most people deem this movie anything but "glorious."

Hong Kong action films set in the time period when they were made should not be judged on terms of characterization, dialog, plot or acting (Mou gaan dou a.k.a. Infernal Affairs excepted). Most of them are meant to entertain with action sequences. This movie does not do that. Apart from the duel near the end *without* guns, the action sequences in this movie make Michael Bay seem a genius. The first question that came to my mind when watching this movie was: "What the frak was wrong with the editor?" The chaotic action sequences where you can't tell who's doing what thanks to ADD editing and visual effects that are all over the place were already bad enough, but what makes most of them downright disasters is the fact that it seems some shots that should have been between other shots to form, you know, a *coherent* visual flow, were either never shot in the first place, or ended on the editing room floor. Characters practically teleport instantaneously from one spot to other presumably because it was deemed too boring to show them moving.

Urgh. It's sad to see so many legendary actors' CV tarnished by this mess. I miss the golden age of John Woo. His movies had grace. A word that doesn't probably even exist in the vocabulary of the makers of this 4/10 example of how to ruin a perfectly entertaining action movie with horrendous editing.