It doesn't begin with much promise. After the credits, an unexplained fireball slams into the camera. Near the end, there is the climactic shoot out aboard a freighter smuggling Chinese illegals into the country. In between, photographed in lurid colors suggesting grindhouse, there is a car chase through the streets of New York's Chinatown that slaughters innocent bystanders. More ammunition is expended than during the entirety of World War II and a Chinese girl wearing no knickers licks Mark Wahlberg's naked back.
The story itself has Wahlberg as an NYPD detective assigned to 15 precinct, Chinatown, and forced to work under the supervision of Chow Yun-Fat. It's a complicated narrative full of characters and twists and I don't think I'll describe it much further because there is a surprisingly successful element of suspense built into it.
Initially, when Wahlberg shows up at the precinct, it begins to look like very familiar stuff. Wahlberg is the only white guy on the roster and the Chinese cops taunt him and ridicule him. When Wahlberg says he goes by the book, the others scoff. It appears to be still another story of the veteran showing the naive rookie how the cow at the cabbage.
But then it gets into far more interesting stuff and in a way that involves the viewer. The crosses and double identities are so thick that I lost track of them at time but they gradually became clearer as the story unfolded.
Both the principles do well by their roles and the director helps by avoiding contemporary clichés -- the zap of instant editing, the whirling camera held by the drunken photographer, the glitz and whams on the sound track. It's all done neatly, in classical style.
You may find yourself getting into it, and the kids will enjoy the furious action sequences.
The story itself has Wahlberg as an NYPD detective assigned to 15 precinct, Chinatown, and forced to work under the supervision of Chow Yun-Fat. It's a complicated narrative full of characters and twists and I don't think I'll describe it much further because there is a surprisingly successful element of suspense built into it.
Initially, when Wahlberg shows up at the precinct, it begins to look like very familiar stuff. Wahlberg is the only white guy on the roster and the Chinese cops taunt him and ridicule him. When Wahlberg says he goes by the book, the others scoff. It appears to be still another story of the veteran showing the naive rookie how the cow at the cabbage.
But then it gets into far more interesting stuff and in a way that involves the viewer. The crosses and double identities are so thick that I lost track of them at time but they gradually became clearer as the story unfolded.
Both the principles do well by their roles and the director helps by avoiding contemporary clichés -- the zap of instant editing, the whirling camera held by the drunken photographer, the glitz and whams on the sound track. It's all done neatly, in classical style.
You may find yourself getting into it, and the kids will enjoy the furious action sequences.