Flaming Brothers

Two street rats named Alan and Ah Tien (Alan Tang and Chow Yun-Fat respectively) grow up to become members of the Triads until Tien finds a girl he fell for during his childhood, and decides to settle down with her. But things aren't that simple, and the conflicting interests of a powerful gangster are about to bring them back together.

Flaming Brothers is... well, it's pretty bad. Enjoyable, and hilarious, but for all the wrong reasons. The stock sound effects for the action scenes are distracting, and the acting by most of the cast is more scattershot than a blast from a Mossberg in the hands of a child. Characters die hilariously--I'll never forget the guy who kept himself alive just long enough to shoot the fuel tank on a forklift before lying down and "dying" instantly. The film is filled with moments like this, and all the better for it. Otherwise, it would be a boring mess.

It's toned unevenly, as Ah Tien bonds with his love interest while his brother Alan tries to work an arms deal. One is silly romantic slapstick and the other is amateurishly made action drama. It just doesn't mesh well.

Despite its massive flaws, though, I enjoyed Flaming Brothers, only because it's so bad, it's good.

Good production values, fair acting, good to brilliant action sequences, but what an accumulation of cliches, of caricature characters and foreseeable dialog.

The time between two action phases feels so long and empty that when the dramatic moment arrives, one is more or less disengaged from any possible outcome.

On the back of the dvd case this film is described as a blood soaked gangster thriller. In actual fact, the film is actually just a romantic melodrama with a couple of violent shootouts. A big disappointment.

Before watching this movie I didn't have high expectations about it but when I finally saw it I was truly satisfied with it. Its the story of 2 ''brothers'' who are living a criminal life until one of them (Chow Yun fat) meets the woman of his dream and wants to stop being illegal and have a normal life. The main character is Alan's one and Chow yun fat comes close second. The actors are good, the story is alright but some of the gunfights deserve a look.I counted 4 good gunfights in the movie, the last one is especially good ;it's very intense and gritty. Overall definitely worth a look especially for the last gunfight!......................................................7,9/10

The Flaming Brothers is an entertaining and better than average entry in. the flooded Hong Kong market of post A Better Tommorow gangster films. While the film has its flaws, it still is a good watch and is better than a lot of them. The Flaming Brothers has similar themes that are prevalent in the genre revenge, love, brotherhood and are done much better by John Woo. The Flaming Brothers may not have been directed by John Woo, but it does have Chow Yun Fat, who is sworn brothers with Alan Tam. In this film, The Flaming Brothers is an apt title as it is implied throughout the film the two brothers take the brotherhood thing to another level in an implied homoerotic relationship. The film is over the top as a whole and the love story with their women, the brotherhood and the action are split up in a way that they are almost 3 different films thrown together. The action/violence is very extreme with an amount of bullets and blood 10 times what John Woo would use. The way Woo would do it, it was graceful, here it is presented in a gristly, extremely brutal fashion. The Flaming Brothers checks a lot of boxes with standards/cliches in the heroic bloodshed genre with lots of melodrama, crazy action, good/bad gangsters and tradgedy. However, it is it's excesses that set it apart and in case I failed to mention Chow Yun Fat is in this.