Flashpoint

to keep it short, i was highly surprised from it's great entertainment value.

the plot is hollow (good cops vs bad guys) but the good cast, camera work and fight scenes are over the top. speaking of the fight scenes, very impressive style from Donnie Yen (with age 44) and also the bad guys hand out some damage before they go down.

the first movie half is slow, but the ending will round it up. this action flick was nice done by the film crew, they put some work & love in it, something you miss in many HK movies nowadays.

(don't miss the end credits :)

Went out of my way to find this film based on a recommendation from a friend who insisted this was one of best kung fu films ever -- this film also pops up in a Google search for top kung fu films.

Reviewers notes: 1. Yen will go down in film history as one of the best MA stars. He can not only pull off the gravitas to play IP MAN but he is a natural in these police dramas. Manages to appear stoic but involved at the same time 2. There is a final fight scene over 5 minutes long which is worth the wait. Lots of MMA moves including some pro wrestling moves. Many fans call this "modern" kung fu but is probably the wrong name. Fun anyway 3. Aside from Yen and the final fight -- forgettable

Flashpoint is a beautifully shot film that moves a long at a fast pace. I was never much of a Donnie Yen fan but I have been converted to one after seeing this film. Hollywood needs to bring him back, at least as an action choreographer. The action scenes in this film are far more sophisticated than anything Hollywood is doing.

Wilson Yip did an amazing job as director. It's a shame this didn't get a U.S. theatrical release. If Hollywood is smart, they will recruit him.

Bingbing Fan is a beauty that should also be brought to Hollywood.

Flashpoint doesn't break new ground in terms of it being a typical cops and gangsters flick, but it is as good as any of them.

The fights are excellent and realistic.

Flashpoint is highly recommended for HK movie fans.

Being a fan of Donnie Yen I eagerly anticipated "Flash Point". There was good and bad in it... first the good: The fight scenes are pretty awesome - in particular there is one which takes place at a driving range that lives up to what I was expecting. The introduction of grappling techniques (paying homage to MMA) is pretty cool. Cinematography & scenes of HK are at some times very stylish.

Now the bad: Kind of moves slow in the first half. In fact after the initial 5 minutes of action the next 20 minutes drags. The plot is not that great, and in the first half of the movie the action isn't enough to make up for this.

All in all, I've been a little disappointed with Donnie Yen's last two - this one and Dragon Tiger Gate. Neither raises the bar or comes close to the amazing SPL of 2005.

I've been a fan of Donnie Yen for over twenty years now and had heard that the fight action in Flashpoint was amongst his best work. I hadn't heard wrong: the hard-hitting full-contact mixed martial arts scenes are as awesome as they say.

It's a shame then that the plot for Flashpoint is so unremarkable, a routine Hong Kong police drama—cops vs triads—which introduces lots of indistinguishable characters in such quick succession that, for a while, it's hard to work out precisely who is good and who is bad.

The dull plot trundles along, with the occasional brief spot of action or brutality to spice things up, and it gradually becomes clearer who is who: Archer Sin (Ray Lui), Tony (Collin Chou) and Tiger (Yu Xing) are Korean brothers who run a smuggling operation, Sam is a gangster who has ratted on his bosses, Wilson (Louis Koo) is a plucky young undercover cop working with tough police inspector Jun Ma (Yen), and Julie (Bingbing Fan) is Wilson's really hot girlfriend. So far so mediocre.

The final third of the film, however, is a whole lot better. A non-stop, blood-soaked, showdown between Ma and the bad guys, with incredible gunplay and some of the most painful looking fight choreography I have ever seen, it is everything I had hoped for and more, leaving the viewer with a better impression of the film overall than it probably really deserves. Hence my more than reasonable rating of 7/10.