AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

diggler_inc This movie is beautifully shot with some of the greatest fight scenes of any film in recent years. Anytime there is a fight, even the brief ones, the film shines. However, the rest of the film is awful despite the excellent photography. This movie is plagued by bad acting and bad story. This movie is extremely stupid. Every non-action scene is terrible.That being said it is still worth watching for the fight scenes. The fights go at a fast pace and are pretty believable. They are somewhat similar to Flashpoint and SPL.This is an absurdly silly movie that expects the audience to be morons but the fights are well-done.

zdac I've watched a lot of HK action films... some are pretty amazing, many are guilty pleasures, and sadly a few are just plain awful. This one falls into the latter category. Fatal Contact is terrible, and not in that "so bad it's good" enjoyable sort of way. The writing is awkward, the acting is hollow, and the direction is stiff and joyless. Every scene is miserable. It's like someone made a backyard-grade production with half a normal film's budget. I don't speak Chinese, so I read the subtitles... which means I can be pretty generous with regards to the performances, especially in a martial arts film. When I can tell how flat and mechanical the acting is, even across the language barrier, you know it's pretty bad. The dialog is recited as if read from scribbled cue cards. Actors stare at nothing in particular, making nervous faces like they've just ad-libbed a bad line.. they even sometimes look at the camera. This may seem like a petty complaint for a silly action movie, but it really makes it impossible to enter into the film and feel any excitement.The script is similarly weak...dull, fragmented, predictable, preachy, and at times painfully misogynistic. Even for manic HK genre film, the tone is inconsistent. It seems to hit a sour note at almost every turn. I might have praised this film for showing illegal underground boxing matches in realistically mundane environments like old train stations, fluorescent-lit rented hotel conference chambers, boat marinas, etc, but somehow the lack of interesting locations or presentation often robs the scenes of any drama they would normally have. Instead, it just feels cheap and unimaginative.So what about the action? Jacky Wu has always been a competent martial performer, if not particularly engaging on a personal level, and the action sequences should be the highlight of this film. Unfortunately, the impact is consistently killed by bad editing and unexciting villains. The choreography is pretty dull and unexciting. Every confrontation is a disappointment. Granted, Wu does pull off a couple of sweet moves. Unfortunately I mean that LITERALLY... I think I counted them and there are about two. Wu is a proved talent, but this film is strong evidence that having good screen fighters is not enough to carry even a fun action cheapie if every other aspect of the movie fails.Notably Ronald Cheng DOES sort of portray an interesting character... I was hoping for him to become more significant in the story, but don't be fooled. NOTHING happens with this character. That goes Lam Suet and Ken Lo too, sadly. The familiar HK supporting faces in this film are no indication of its quality. I was under the impression that a Dragon Dynasty release would at least be worth a look. Don't waste your time... or if you must, skip to the fight scenes just to relieve your curiosity. Nothing else here is even remotely worthwhile.

chrichtonsworld This is a martial arts movie with a story that for the most part isn't compelling. Only the ending is a bit crude and brutal and come to think of it completely ridiculous. I think the director wanted to add some drama to make this movie more interesting. What the director seems to have forgotten that he doesn't need the drama, because he has Jacky Wu / Wu Jing (known from Tai Chi Boxer). When he does his thing, you are in for a treat. The man has some skill and he shows it whenever he can. The martial arts in this movie is great and that alone is the reason to watch this movie. The pace however is a bit slow. This due to the story. If they really wanted to make a interesting story they should have used "The Captain" more, since he was a great character. Instead we are confronted with some abstract fatalistic love story that does not make any sense. Who is to blame for that? Dennis Law , ladies and gentlemen. If you want more proof of his incompetence then go watch Fatal Move which was meant as a sequel to S.P.L. with Donnie Yen. Director Dennis Law is an example of a film maker who really shouldn't be in the business since he lacks vision and creativity. He basically copies and pastes stories and themes and combines them without adding something fresh or original and then thinks he is finished. Most of the time he is lucky that he is surrounded by competent people who more than once improve the film considerably. But it does beg the question why talented people like Sammo Hung, Simon Yam and Wu Jing would be involved with his productions at all.In any case try to ignore the story and focus on the action. It's hard hitting and exhilarating.

ace52387 The real reason anyone will see fatal contact is for the action. With that in mind, you may have to forgive a little bit of the jumpy and clichéd story telling.The action sequences are frequent, and well choreographed. It's an interesting combination of brutal and flashy. Wu Jing will throw several jumping multi-kicks, but because the general rhythm of the fights are captured well, it doesn't look too far fetched. The choreographers throw in some pretty believable elements in the competition fights. You may see the fighters just hop around a it to psych each other out, and you'll notice, the more brutal the fights get, the less visible these sportsman like elements become. It's pretty interesting. There's no wirework and very little, if any, video speed up that is flamboyant in some HK movies.Wu Jing really struts his stuff in this movie. I would say in general, he's very similar to jet li. He has this strange brutalness that jet li embodies in his roles with a modern setting. He looks wild, but clean at the same time. Wu Jing is younger, more vibrant, and he even has more flare than Jet Li. An actor like Donnie Yen has a different kind of appeal, but because Jet Li is getting old, and probably no longer doing action movies anymore, Wu Jing would make a superb replacement.The story has almost no introduction, no time to familiarize a little with the characters, and the actual revelations about the characters are sporratic and placed in seemingly random places. It has a terrible and nonsensical love story, which luckily, isn't the focus. The whole setup is pretty nonsensical as well. Some guys walk into an opera performance, and somehow recognize skill in a performer. They ask him to fight underground for them, and they offer a lot of money. Of course, a lowly wushu performer is poor, and he eventually decides he neeeds the money. The setup is all a little fantastical to me, especially with the realistic setting. I feel it would be more at home in an aime than a live action movie with a modern day setting. It helped a lot to almost imagine Fatal Contact taking place in some alternate universe where the underground fighting scene is big money, and the scouters are like pimps. A world where performers are poor, but incredibly talented fighters. It's almost romantic if you think of it that way. So the setting is bearable and kinda interesting if you give it some of your imagination, but the story is still hampered by tons of cheesy dialogue and that oh so corny romance.It's all about the action though, and that totally does not fail to disappoint. My favorite action movie in recent times is Sha Po Lang. The stories in both are at least a little cliché, but SPL had the cleaner, less sporratic story telling. It also had cinematography of a higher quality than Fatal Contact. Still though, Wu Jing and his action co-stars drive a really tough bargain. His moves are cleaner, flashier, and he's more vibrant than Donnie Yen. I almost can't decide of Fatal Contact trumps SPL or not.