Hon zin 2

Horrific, incoherent hack job of a film. Greedy producers bank on the finest actors in the region, and completely neglect the more important aspects of a film (eg. captivating story, interesting and diverse characters, logical process of events etc.). If anything, the music composer should have his license taken away and be sent to Bollywood. The abysmal, grotesque agglomeration of computer-generated french horns, generic clave rhythms, boring string ostinatos and a sound effect selection that is stubbornly stuck in the 80's. The amount of cliché and cringe in this film is overwhelming to the point that I wanted to disappear down my shirt collar. Famous actors mean f**kall when the writers have no idea what they're doing. The tragic part is, being a sequel to a much better film, this movie will likely do just as well, if not better, than its seasonal competitors, allowing producers to cry into more, thicker wads of $1000 banknotes as they scroll down the review section. AVOID at all costs

The first movie was nice and complex but this second was simply made up, bad directed story and lots no illogical nonsense scenes stories. 1. MB Lee has gone so hard to meet the ex CP and his son but both of them drive him back? What a big laugh nonsense. 2. If they are so professional, why nobody guard that workshop backdoor? 3. The underground tunnel is another big laugh showing Rambo never dies even with machine guns and special guns. 4. Even I not a cop nor any near professional, also knows I will not fall for the CP tricks to lure the bad guys out. 5. When these bad guys so professional can make bombs and detector, why the junk yard has no other detectors? 6. A simple gangster has few phones and why top police has no money to carry any extra? Why there is no other to take the new position CP and still the same CP?

This movie is another ordinary simple actions, bombing, shootings, fightings that cannot grasp a real memory to audience. HK was never near the top 10 safest city or country. It was once known as no 1 in Asia and top 5 in the world as crime city or country. But this last decade had changed because China had took over and lessen democratic while increased dictatorship. HK is also a small place so governing is easier than most countries, hence crimes further reduced. This motto is to promote HK and cover the dark side of HK.

While I really enjoyed the first film in this series, this follow-up isn't anywhere near so good. It follows straight on from the first one but brings back characters whose arcs were already complete for a new story that feels like it was made up on the spot. All of the major players return (Andy Lau excepted) with newcomer Chow Yun Fat playing the role of a lawyer eager to prosecute corrupt cops. What we get is a needlessly complex, laboured and occasionally histrionic story that has a few cool action sequences (dodgy CGI aside) and very little else. The actors are fine but but the screenwriter not so...

Let me start out by saying that "Cold War II" from 2016 was just every bit as entertaining as the first "Cold War" movie from 2012. And with that being said, take it for what it was. If you liked the first movie, then you will also like the sequel, and if you didn't, then chances are that you will not like this movie either.

I found it to be adequately entertaining, although it wasn't particularly outstanding or memorable - just as the first movie had been.

"Cold War II" continues on a short time after the events of the first movie, and we see familiar characters return to the screen in this sequel. And having established characters return was a good thing.

However, it just felt as if directors Lok Man Leung and Kim-Ching Luk set out wanting to accomplish too much with "Cold War II" and only delivering on about half of this.

There was just a sense of it all being too rushed and forced, as well of an element of too much chaos going on. Which didn't really help the movie in any way.

As in the first movie, "Cold War II" does have some impressive names to the cast list, including Aaron Kwok, Tony Ka Fai Leung and Yun-Fat Chow.

"Cold War II" failed to make a lasting impression and also failed to stand out in the Hong Kong cinema. Surely, it was an entertaining enough movie, but it is hardly one that you will be watching a second time around.

My rating of "Cold War II" ends on five stars out of ten, similar to the first movie.

I very much disagree with the people here saying that the first film was better and strongly disparaging this one (such as the review by 'Uhungmax') Yes, in the first movie, technically, there was a lot more 'stuff' happening. And, in a sense, although it was indeed engaging and exciting, after it was over I felt that some of the key plot elements and character actions did not really make a lot of sense.

However in this 2nd film, although the plot is much more direct and simple, to me personally I thought that the story was much more tightly plotted and a lot better constructed. Here you didn't have the apparent twists and turns of the first film, usually an element that I like very much. But, like I said, AFTER watching the movie and thinking about it, there were certain character motivations and actions that didn't quite add up to me. Whereas with this movie, the story itself seemed to flow much more naturally. In my lowly and wretched opinion, I honestly felt that as a FILM in and of itself, it was put together and executed in a more streamlined and believable manner. Not that I mind AT ALL when movies are complex, or seemingly disjointed, or non-linear. I DO very much like that ***IF*** everything is well thought out and put together in such a way that it fits the internal logic of the film, and as a WHOLE all the parts work together.

I think the tricky thing about comparing the two films is that the first one had a LOT more going on and was more complex. NORMALLY, that would be something that would be very appealing to me. But in this movie, I had more of a feeling that I was being carried along by the story and much more involved in what was happening, and therefore the overall effect had more substance, and I felt that the tension of the story was much more compelling. It's like with the first movie they were almost trying to be TOO clever with the twists and turns of the story where maybe it at times had the effect of almost stumbling on itself. Don't get me wrong... I liked the first film and it was quite good. But, I feel that this one was better...

These 2 films seem somewhat different for movies coming out of Hong Kong in the sense that you normally would expect them to be a LOT more Action oriented. But, both films dealt more with inter-departmental politics and connections with highly placed officials than they were on action. But, with that said, there is ONE action scene in the middle of film that was quite effective and will blow your socks off (so to speak...)

So, that is why I feel that on the SURFACE some people may get an impression that the first film was better with more 'going on' and more twists and turns. But, I honestly feel that this one was put together in a much more cinematic way with better internal logic (being a simpler story) and more believable character interactions that had a more substantial impact in the long run...