Paul M

Tsui Hark is one of my alltime favorite directors and he handles this story with such style and effectiveness it rates right up there with The Killer as one my favorite action movies. The action sequences have to be seen to be believed with some of the most origional concepts I have ever seen employed recently.

I have never seen Nicholas Tse before in a movie, but he's a great actor and handles the top role quite well. It was great to see Anthony Wong have a supporting role. His role as Johnny Wong in Hard Boiled ranks him as one of the best villians in HK cinema.

It's interesting to note how some action concepts have come full circle. Hark used wirework with great effect and it influenced the Wachowski's when they did the Matrix. Hark borrows a page from the Wachowski's and uses bullet-time in this movie (special effects weren't that bad eitheir!)

Great dubbing too, the voice acting was top notch.

Now the flaws...their seems to be a story working here but darned if I could follow it. It seems that this story was edited so heavily that it left some glaring plot holes in order to speed up the narrative. Only the most concentrated of viewers will be able to pick this up the first time. Some parts were in Spanish w/o subtitles! In one sequence we don't know what is being said and seems to be Jack's reason for going it alone. More attention needed to be given to the subtitles for non-native speakers.

All in all, great film with some minor things getting in the way. 8/10

"Love and a Bullet" adds nothing really new to the hitman genre but its a fun movie all the same. There are some really funny parts such as how Pretty Nate's crew gets down...but as mentioned before the last twenty minutes are horrible. Like a video game where you have to beat a boss w/ some special capability.

Also the whole, "I'm a professional" statements got old quick. Treach like Ice Cube can handle acting and his charisma carries over from music to screen.

6/10

This made for t.v movie premiered on TNT almost ten years ago and promptly forgotten...why I have no idea. Macy is incredible as Lang and Mategna is at his most menancing. This is a dark film but a great one, if you can rent do so, you'll enjoy it.