B gai waak

'Extreme crisis' is a pretty decent action movie that gets better as it goes along. Their are a fair few familiar plot devices (we have 2 minutes to disarm this bomb before we're all blown to smithereens!), but the action is tense and refreshing.

It's good to see an action film that is precisely that, and not trying to incorporate humour and drama everywhere where it doesn't belong.

I bought the DVD for Shu Qi's appearence, but her screen-time in minimal in the role of the newsreader/girlfriend.

This is one of those movies that had a lot of potential, but just didn't quite live up to it. It's apparently loosely based on that crazy doomsday cult in Japan that used Sarin gas - but in this case, the cult is much more competent, and received military training from Russia. The opening is of the cult's military trained members fighting a Japanese SWAT (or SDU as they call it) team, which has one survivor (one half of the main duo in the film).

But then the leader gets captured in Hong Kong. So the cult wants him free. The Japanese want to extradite him. So both the Japanese cop and the cult visit Hong Kong. There the Japanese cop joins forces with a Hong Kong cop who sort of goes rogue, because he screwed things up somewhat, and because he's angry with how the lady cop who is in charge of the case is running things. Meanwhile the cult members start working on a big sarin gas bomb, in order to force the Hong Kong authorities to release the cult leader. And the lady cop handles tracking down the cult, but doesn't seem too concerned by things.

Part of the trouble is that the action is often told from 3 viewpoints - the cult members, that of the duo, and that of the regular police (led by a lady cop). This can be confusing, and apparently one reviewer missed why the duo visited a school that the cultists were using as a base (they didn't stop randomly, they heard a police report).

Also, since it's apparently a Japanese-Hong Kong production, language difficulties add some weirdness to it. The Hong Kong cop speaks Chinese, which gets subtitled okay. But the Japanese cop (and sometimes the Hong Kong cop lady and a few others) speak English, but is sometimes not the right words (or phrased oddly), and often is different from the subtitles. That doesn't help things.

But the real problem is the action. There are a lot of gunfights, but somewhat they aren't as exciting as it should be. It's hard to put my finger on exactly, I guess for one, there really isn't a huge body count, at least not among the bad guys. But for another, the ending part of the movie involves a hostage situation, and there's just so many hostages, it's hard to see what is going on.

I think there are a lot of comparisons to be made with John Woo's "Hard Boiled". Especially the ending. I wouldn't say this mimics that exactly, some aspects seem borrowed from Die Hard as well, but it falls far short of either movie. A lot of people get killed in it, but it's not overly bloody. There are some rather disturbing scenes of how people are killed, so definitely not something you want children to watch.

I liked it, and the story is original enough that I didn't know what the ending was going to be like, but probably wouldn't want to watch it again.

Being a huge Shu Qi fan, when I got my DVD in the mail, I was very excited. I knew that she didn't really have a gigantic role in this film (only supporting actress), but that didn't matter. I immediately unwrapped the packaging, ripped open the case, and popped in the DVD.

I never really have a very high expectation of the quality of Hong Kong action movies. In general the plots are fairly weak, the acting is usually pretty good given the writing that they have to work with, the special effects and CGI are more hilarious than realistic, and the subtitles are just a pure riot. But that's sometimes exactly what you're looking for - just something to kick back with your friends, pop open your favorite brand of beer, watch someone kick the living crap out of someone, and laugh hard.

From the osnet of this movie, something was different. The opening scenes put me in a place that many a Jerry Bruckheimer / Don Simpson film has - on the edge of my seat, watching the good guys heroically get smoked and explosions going off in either large quantities, or quality. The plot is believable, especially given the terrorist attacks in the Japanese subways a few years back, 9/11, and Madrid - which is also a trademark of Bruckheimer (that being quasi-believable plots). The special effects were not something that reminded me of a Hong Kong film, it was more of a Holywood film. Even the musical score sounds like something pulled out of "The Rock." Midway through I was expecting to see Sean Connery come into a scene give his, "winners go home and F the prom queen" speech.

In fact this movie paralleled "The Rock" in many ways. Terrorists go and steal some pretty bad stuff and try to use that as leverage to get what they want. The lock themselves inside a pretty defendable place, place their motion sensors and make themselves home. The calvary of Special Operations Team comes in and heroically dies (this is one of the cooler scenes in the movie). Then it's up to the pair of guys who have been chasing them from the get go to save the day.

The acting is pretty good, in comparison to your average Bruckheimer film, and i was interested throughout the movie. If you're a fan of Bruckheimer, you'd like this movie quite well. The only movie from Bruckheimer that I'd ever rate over an 8 would be Pirates of the Caribbean, which is why I'd only give this a 6.5 / 10. If you love Shu Qi or like Bruckheimer, see this one.

If you are both, get this one.

"Extreme Crisis" is what we typically refer to as a "no-substance" kind of movie. If you want things like character development, cohesive plotline, and drama... go watch "Infernal Affairs." If you want a movie that's about 20% talk and 80% action, then this movie's right up your alley.

The story (thin, but still present) revolves around Kenya Sawada's character, an SDU team leader whose entire squad is wiped out by a terrorist cult in the first 5 minutes of the movie. Stricken with grief, he visits all of their graves on a regular basis. One day, though, a hot-shot cop (played by Julian Cheung) meets up with him - because as it turns out the terrorists that had killed the SDU team are now planning a sarin attack on all of Hong Kong.

Much shooting, exploding, and chasing ensues.

In this movie, the terrorists are extremely cold-blooded. When they take over a TV station, you can be assured that there'll be more dead hostages than living ones by the end. There's even a scene where a child gets shot at point-blank range. Also, don't get too fond of the characters in this movie. Without spoiling anything for you, I can say that not many of them make it to the end.

All of that aside, the movie's strength rests in its action scenes - which are some of the most well-done I've seen in a long time. My favorite would probably have to be a tense shootout/fistfight inside of a restroom. There's also other eye-candy as well, like a scene in which a row of police cars are simultaneously blown-up, flipping in the air almost like an automobile-ballet.

So, in the end, if you just want an action movie for action's sake, Extreme Crisis is a good way to go. If you want something that'll leave a lasting impression on you, look elsewhere.

In the opening credits for Extreme Crisis, Bruce Law identifies himself as Director.Stunt Co-Ordinator. This movie would be about eight minutes long of you removed all the stunt work and action sequences. There are plenty of stunts, shootouts and explosions, as a tough Hong Kong cop teams with a Japanese Special Details Unit (SDU) officer to filght a Japanese cult that is trying to free their imprisoned leader, held in an HK jail. Before HK authorities can turn over the cult leader to the SDU officer for extradition, "Lone", another cult member, goes on a killing spree in downtown Hong Kong, trying to force the release of his leader. While the story seems to have borrowed from Die Hard, including the villain Lone's attire, Extreme Crisis is a tougher movie. In this movie, there are no jokes, little chit chat and no attempt to humanize the psychopathic villains. What stands out is the destructive action sequences, such as when five parked cars on a downtown street are simultaneously launched skyward by a terrorist bomb. Extreme Crisis is all graphic detail, told in a linear story with no flashbacks to slow the action. If it is action you want, it is action you get from ace stunt director Bruce Law.