Flashpoint

I've been a fan of Donnie Yen for over twenty years now and had heard that the fight action in Flashpoint was amongst his best work. I hadn't heard wrong: the hard-hitting full-contact mixed martial arts scenes are as awesome as they say.

It's a shame then that the plot for Flashpoint is so unremarkable, a routine Hong Kong police drama—cops vs triads—which introduces lots of indistinguishable characters in such quick succession that, for a while, it's hard to work out precisely who is good and who is bad.

The dull plot trundles along, with the occasional brief spot of action or brutality to spice things up, and it gradually becomes clearer who is who: Archer Sin (Ray Lui), Tony (Collin Chou) and Tiger (Yu Xing) are Korean brothers who run a smuggling operation, Sam is a gangster who has ratted on his bosses, Wilson (Louis Koo) is a plucky young undercover cop working with tough police inspector Jun Ma (Yen), and Julie (Bingbing Fan) is Wilson's really hot girlfriend. So far so mediocre.

The final third of the film, however, is a whole lot better. A non-stop, blood-soaked, showdown between Ma and the bad guys, with incredible gunplay and some of the most painful looking fight choreography I have ever seen, it is everything I had hoped for and more, leaving the viewer with a better impression of the film overall than it probably really deserves. Hence my more than reasonable rating of 7/10.

If you're an avid Donnie Yen fan, than no one has to sell this movie to you. If you like Asian action movies in general, than you'll be watching this too. What about the others, who are not that familiar with those types of movies? There's not that much back-story to hinder the action too much, neither are there real character developments, this shouldn't be a problem with you (if it is, don't watch the movie)

What should be considered, is the action, that is spot on here. Mixing many styles, Donnie Yen has created some extraordinary fight scenes for this movie. And although I'm for a little bit more character and story driven movies, I liked this one, because it was straight forward. And the action holds up to the promise it gives you ... That's all I can say, now it's up to you, to decide whether you want to watch it or not

Went out of my way to find this film based on a recommendation from a friend who insisted this was one of best kung fu films ever -- this film also pops up in a Google search for top kung fu films.

Reviewers notes: 1. Yen will go down in film history as one of the best MA stars. He can not only pull off the gravitas to play IP MAN but he is a natural in these police dramas. Manages to appear stoic but involved at the same time 2. There is a final fight scene over 5 minutes long which is worth the wait. Lots of MMA moves including some pro wrestling moves. Many fans call this "modern" kung fu but is probably the wrong name. Fun anyway 3. Aside from Yen and the final fight -- forgettable

to keep it short, i was highly surprised from it's great entertainment value.

the plot is hollow (good cops vs bad guys) but the good cast, camera work and fight scenes are over the top. speaking of the fight scenes, very impressive style from Donnie Yen (with age 44) and also the bad guys hand out some damage before they go down.

the first movie half is slow, but the ending will round it up. this action flick was nice done by the film crew, they put some work & love in it, something you miss in many HK movies nowadays.

(don't miss the end credits :)

If you're like me, after watching roughly 3 billion similarly themed period piece kung fu and wuxia movies, you're relieved when a contemporary kung fu flick comes along. This seems to be Donnie Yen's bread and butter. Sure, he was excellent in Hero opposite Jet Li and even Circus Kids was entertaining, but his performances in those films just don't match up to SPL or this film, Flash Point. He seems made for modern kung fu.

I'll leave plot explanation to others as it's a pretty standard cop-on-the-edge film that seems to have been done to death by Hong Kong over the past 15 years or so. What sets this apart is Yen's phenomenal and somewhat unique brand of kung fu and, for the first time (to my knowledge) his surprisingly good jiu jitsu. The flashy kicks and punches are standard Yen affair, but it's a bit of a shock to watch him pull off a slick arm bar, arm triangle, or leg triangle.

Yen's performance is only strengthened by a very talented supporting cast. There's no push-over fights here...it's like everyone is really fighting for their lives. That alone should be enough to get you past a fairly overdone plot (it's not bad, but if you've seen it once you've seen it 1,000 times). It's definitely worth the 85 minutes of your time if you're even remotely a fan of the genre.