Director Jacky Lee's action slam may not attain John Woo heights of balletic mayhem, but it should satisfy niche-viewer tastes for well-mounted, larger-than-life, Hong Kong crime pictures, wherein Crazy Good-Looking Asians let loose with martial-arts stunts, car crashes, and hailstorms of gunfire.
In 1998, police in Macau intercepted a weapons shipment to out-of-control local gangs. But the raid went tragically wrong, with officers killed, as well as civilian losses to friendly fire, and one prominent bad guy escaped with a bullet in his head.
Respected Superintendent Tam (Patrick Tam) and a surviving policewoman conspire to cover up the disaster—putting them on the wrong side two decades later when the department takes an infusion of younger female officers (girls who look Victoria's-Secret stunning in evening-wear, incidentally, while infiltrating a gangster's inner sanctum). But a trio of drugged-up young men, plus the elder veterans of the 1998 raid, are still at large, planning acts of terrorism, kidnapping, and generally forcing a showdown over unfinished grudges and justice went awry.
There is minimal breathing space to establish motivation and backstories, and even at that, good luck trying to figure out relationships and allegiances. At one point it seems like everybody just turns their firearms abruptly on everybody else (an ultimate explanation provided in the twist revelation of one character's true identity).
Viewers not inured to the wild mood swings of HK popular cinema may be caught up short by intrusions of pop tunes, cleavage shots, and self-mocking comedy in what is otherwise a largely relentless barrage of savage ammunition (though protagonists tend to walk calmly through fields of fire without much physical damage) and brutal hand-to-hand kung-fu combat. A sequel seems to be promised at the end.
Violence-hungry western viewers may note it as a plus that actual nudity, sex, and swearing are banished. As is traditional, stunt outtakes play over closing credits (otherwise, aside from Well Go USA trailers, no real disc extras). A strong optional purchase. Aud: P.