Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

leonblackwood Review: Like the first movie, this complex storyline has enough elements to keep it interesting throughout and the gun action from Chow Yun-Fat was great. The showdown at the end was impressive and John Woo added some emotional scenes which will touch people who enjoyed the first movie. On the down side, there is a lack of action and it does look a bit dated but apart from that, it's an enjoyable ride. In this sequel Sung Tse-Ho (Ti Lung), is offered early parole to spy on his former boss, Lung Sei (Dean Shek) who is suspected of heading a counterfeiting money operation. When Ho finds out that his younger brother, Kit (Leslie Cheung) is working undercover on the same case, Ho agrees to go undercover so his brother can be with his pregnant wife. When Ho meets up with Kit, they agree to work together on the case. After a heated alteration with a crime boss, Lung is framed for his murder and he seeks help from Ho to escape to New York. While Lung is in hiding, he receives news about his daughters murder which makes him have a psychotic breakdown and eventually gets put into a mental institution. Ho then finds out that his old partner in crime, Mark Lee (Chow Yun-Fat), has a twin brother, Ken, who was a former gang member and decided to go legitimate by opening his own restaurant in New York. When Ho gets in touch with Ken, he asks for his help to nurse Lung back to good health. Ken is also being hunted down by American gangsters who want protection money for his restaurant, so he goes into hiding with Lung and tries to keep him safe from the assassins who want him dead in Hong Kong. After a massive shootout at there apartment, Lung gains his sanity when he sees Ken in trouble and he saves Ken's life by taking out the last of the hit men. They then go back to Hong Kong and link up with Ho and Kit to find out who is trying to murder Lung. He soon realises that his former employee, Ko Ying-Pui (Kwan Shan), has taken over the organisation and is responsible for his daughters death and the attempts on his life, so they put together a plan to take him out. Although Ho tells his brother, Kit, to be with his wife, he goes of on a mission to destroy Ko which goes completely wrong and takes his life. After Kit's funeral, Ho, Ken & Lung gather all the ammunition that they can, to kill Ko and his many henchmen. I'm glad that I watched these movies back to back because I didn't like the fact that they killed off Chow Yun-Fat in the first movie. His twin brother is exactly the same and has the same mannerisms as Mark, so I'm glad that they wrote him back in. Without him, the movie wouldn't have been anywhere as good as the first movie but as soon as his character is introduced, the film really does pick up. Both movies seem basically about Kit dragging his brother back into the criminal world, so I would like to see what happens in the third movie in this franchise, if I can get my hands on it. Anyway, I did enjoy this film because of the detailed storyline and Chow Yun-Fat's character but it did drag in parts. Watchable! Round-Up: Whilst making this movie, John Woo and producer Tsui Hark had constant disagreements about the focus of this film which led to them both editing the final cut. Tsui wanted the film to be based around Lung's character, who has the mental breakdown but Woo decided to focus on Ho. After making this film, John Woo decided not to make the 3rd instalment, which was finally made by Tsui Hark and was not in the same league as the previous movies in this franchise. John Woo went on to make the Killer with Chow Yun-Fat, which got rave reviews and became popular hit around the globe. That just shows you how unique John Woo's vision is.I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/crime/drama's starring Chow Yun-Fat, Lung Ti, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek and Shan Kwan. 4/10

George Clarke The incredible Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung return in this epic sequel to the classic trend setter that took the world by storm!ABT2 takes the action scenes up a notch (or ten) and delivers the biggest body count of its time along with some of the greatest scenes of gun play from the works of John Woo, Ching Sui Tung and Tsui Hark.Featuring a host of well known faces from HK's golden age, A Better Tomorrow 2 is simply an action epic and beats its predecessor for action in what it lacks in drama!With a host of on-set trouble and production nightmares, the film still manages to come off near perfect and shames any US action flick that was kicking about around the same time.See it!

mrrockey A Better Tomorrow II is another unnecessary sequel. It's up there with sequels such as The Hangover Part II and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York in the sense that it doesn't develop the characters any further and seems to only exist just because the original made a lot of money. But is it really that bad? Let's find out!The story here just isn't very good. There isn't enough focus on Ho and Kit and there's no emotional weight here. Instead, we focus more on a new character named Lung Sing who is a money counterfeiter and the mentor of Ho and... he's just not a very interesting character. He never deals with any dilemmas that we can relate to like Ho did so we just don't care for him. And Ho and Kit don't go through any arcs in this movie, they never learn anything or go through any personal problems so why should we care? The thing that made the original A Better Tomorrow great was that it was a real human drama at its core but still had great action in it. This film got rid of all the human drama in the first film and replaced with nothing but over-the-top action sequences and while they are a lot of fun, they can't carry the whole film.The way they brought back Chow-yun Fat was ridiculous! It turns out that he had a twin brother the whole time and somehow, Ho never knew about it even though it's clear in the first film that they've been friends for quite some time. Personally, if I was the writer, I would've just gone with Mark surviving all those gunshots somehow and just recovered from a coma but that's just me.Also, while I like Chow-yun Fat#2 overall, there's some scenes in here that just make him look like a d!ck. He tries to get Lung to eat when he became catatonic but instead of it looking sweet and compassionate, it looks kinda mean and cruel. He does it with so much force and anger, it's hard to see it as an act of friendship.I also didn't quite understand why did Kit have to die in this movie. In this film, he doesn't do anything wrong or make any mistakes so why does he have to die? I honestly don't understand what was Woo and Hark's intentions behind this decision. It comes off as a cheap attempt to get some emotions out of its audience and it just doesn't work as a result.So while I don't like the story in this film, I still think this film is very entertaining. As mentioned earlier in this review, the action is a lot of fun. They had a much bigger budget this time around and you can tell because the action is much more elaborate and explosive this time around. The gore is amplified, there's more jumping and sliding across the floor, more explosions, more adversity to the weapons(even using a katana at one point), and more slow-motion.The film is also well-paced with never a moment of boredom and like the original, the acting and composing is excellent. But while none of the actors do a bad job, none of them get to show off their acting abilities like they did in the first film because nobody goes through any arcs in this movie.There's also a really funny scene where Chow-yun Fat#2 deals with some a$$hole American who starts a temper tantrum over fried rice and it's just hilarious! Chow's sarcastic mannerisms here are comedy-gold!Overall, it's not a very good movie but it's entertaining in its own right and if you are a John Woo fan, you'll definitely be pleased with the action in this movie. I'm gonna give it a 5/10.

mcotto8 Rarely are sequels as good or better than the first, however, this film holds up very well. Chow Yun-Fat is certainly the true king of action films. His roles are what action fans love (the hero doesn't always come out smelling like roses, or alive at the end) and make his characters more believable.The shootout at the film's climax is the stuff of legend. The choreography is well done and the gun sounds are loud and more authentic. I am very impressed with this film.Now, as far as plot goes........fairly simple: Murdered ex-gangster's twin brother who nobody knew existed comes looking for revenge on the men responsible for his brother's death. Simple yet entertaining.