Nam yee boon sik

Some spectacular action scenes, i miss old style Hongkong action movies. So much grit and realism, no stupid vfx .

I wish story had more humor and glamour.

Some slow motion scenes would have helped.

Director Benny Chang's fast paced crime thriller follows three Hong Kong cops relentlessly pursuing a ruthless gang of highly skilled crooks and murderers.

More entertaining and absorbing than you might expect, it's not often that action films which are over two hours long can hold the audience's attention for the duration, but in this case the film rarely retreats from the explosive opening scene. Perhaps it dwells for too long on the inherent good nature of the police officers, and there are no strong female characters worth noting. However, if it's violence, explosions and a possibly interpretive subtext you're after, this is a film you are more than likely going to enjoy.

Guns, martial arts, explosions, stunts and a pinch of philosophy: Invisible Target is a film almost as thought provoking as it is entertaining. IT

Director Benny Chan and staff do a mighty fine job with their cops and robbers story, Invisible Target. Seven orphans who grew up in battle torn countries take on most of the Hong Kong police force. These orphans mean business as they go about their criminal activities. The movie is almost all kinetic action, chases where the actors seem to jump 20 feet down from roof top to roof top, as the HK police try to stop the gang from getting the loot they are after. There are dull sections,especially when Jaycee Chan is describing his bland philosophy of policing, but, hey, the Chinese censors won't allow movies to be released on the mainland unless they put the police in a good light.

In Invisible Target, you don't see any police (aided by goons hired by real estate developers) clubbing farmers whose land was stolen, so a new factory can be built, enriching the local Communist Party boss who gets an ownership share in the factory. In the Shanxi province that would be the brick factories that used kidnapped children and mentally challenged adults as slave labor. But dealing with life's grim reality in one of the world's great bastions of robber baron capitalism would be too dull for most viewers, besides getting the HK filmmaker in big trouble with the People's Public Security Bureau if he or she ever set foot in mainland China.

So Benny Chan and company go the crime drama route, with shootings, car chases and a great explosion sequence at the start that keys in a major plot element. If there is one thing wrong with this movie, it is another scene at the start where Jaycee Chan's cop gives a ticket to a guy for parking illegally, a big mouth who is out with his young son. When Jackie Chan's cop character in Police Story 2 stopped and ticketed a line of trucks (all Nissan trucks, then and now a Chan corporate sponsor), it showed Chan was no nonsense when it came to his job. Jaycee's parking ticket scene is a crummy way to introduce his character, people nowadays don't like cops or anyone else who gives out parking tickets.

Invisible Target is a good way to spend a little over two hours watching a very well made if improbable crime story.

What can I say that the other rightly so positive reviewers haven't said? Not a lot really.

This was such an enjoyable film. It was reminiscent of the days of old for an Hong Kong action flick....crazy stunts with a second replay (like the old Jackie Chan flicks), plenty of excellent martial arts, explosions and gun play. I felt as if I was watching an early 80/90's film.

What impressed even more was that there was a very strong story to this film. Everything blended nicely. The main leads has good character development and were very likable. The bad guys.....they were bad!! No messing about, no morals...just downright bad.

With some of the so called action movie tosh that America churns out today, the west should start looking to Hong Kong and Korea to take a leaf out of their book to see how things are done (Flashpoint was also very good).

Watch this and you won't be disappointed.

Sometimes I'm a bit surprised when IMDb ratings jive with what I'd rate a movie on a 1-10 scale. I think this movie is a pretty solid 7 so I'm glad to see that's pretty much where it is. But enough of that, onto the movie itself.

Released around the same time (and probably competing for much of the same audience) as the fantastic Donnie Yen movie Flash Point, Invisible Target provides some legitimate competition, albeit in the same sort of tired fashion of OCB cops doing the wrong things for the right reasons. If you're at all a fan of HK cinema you've no doubt seen this plot done to death but for some reason you're still a sucker for it. The fight scenes are very well done (would you expect any less from Jackie Chan's son?), the movie seems for the most part well paced, and it's got a solid story.

Now for the bad news. There's not much mind you, but there's some. First of all, for me, the movie seemed too long for it's own good. Yeah, it's only 2 hours but at points it feels stretched and padded for time. Where Flash Point is quite a bit shorter, it leaves you wanting a little more whereas Invisible Target makes you feel like you got too much. And the glass, oh the glass! Don't get too attached to anything breakable in this movie because it will invariably be punched through, kicked through, or fallen through. HK glass makers no doubt loved this movie...it's putting their kids through university.

All in all I'd definitely recommend this movie to anyone who's a fan of contemporary kung fu...just make sure you've got a good chunk of time set aside to watch it.