KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Guy FIRESTORM starts with some outstanding visual poetry and ends with some clunkingly awful action scenes. The plot sees a rule-abiding cop who is tempted into breaking those rules in order to take down an ultra- violent gang of HK armed robbers wreaking havoc across the city. In truth Andy Lau is so upstanding as to be positively dull. A subplot featuring an ex-con trying and failing to go straight is far more compelling. There are the usual chases and fights but CGI has worked its malign influence, with the film's biggest stunt - involving the hero and a baddie tumbling off a roof - so CGI-addled as to remove any sense of wonder. The climactic gunfight also suffers as the heroes do so much damage that the very structure of the city ruptures (!) and new waves of SWAT turn up to replace the hundreds killed as if in some sort of video-game.

blackmamba99971 In recent years I have watched many of such high profile robbery movies like this. But for the life of me this has to be one of the most intense ultra violent movies I have ever witnessed. A cop who personally has a grudge against a mob known for knocking off bank trucks begins to question his own integrity.With every turn, his case becomes even more complex as he searches for a known criminal Cao Nam (Jun Hu). Convinced the man is the mastermind behind every heist Inspector Lui (Andy Lau)then tries to deceive his department by concealing evidence that would put Cao away for life. But because of the city's endless resources of using cameras on every block, he is recorded shifting evidence at a crime scene.Pitted against a wall now Lui recruits an ex-offender Bong (Ka Tung Lam) to become a mole within the harsh environment of Cao's gang. Everything then goes horribly wrong when the police are called in to catch the real genius behind the curtain. That being Paco (Ray Lui) who was released on parole just before Bong.Now with the city in turmoil over a few officer deaths, the last scene of catching Paco turns into one of the most intensifying shoot outs in movie history. Using over twenty thousand bullets, and explosives down town Hong Kong becomes a virtual war zone as police, and Paco's gang exchange firefight every second. Cars, buses, even city blocks are no match.I have to say this was an excellent vision of a heist film. Every element was used. Emotions, deception, rage, anarchy, and closure. Alan Yuen in my view wrote a fantastic script which involved the human nature to its most basic, and minute levels. To see the characters go over board to keep themselves alive aside from the obvious.The music was top notch, the directing was beyond par, and Yuen gave us a glimpse of how so much of china's moral has lessened in the last twenty years. Money is the object now, no more family traditions, nor old or past mistakes taken into account to rectify the future of its citizens. It is a gritty, violent, and audacious piece of filming. Alan Yuen will be the next generations director. Highly recommended to those who love heist films. Not for those under age 17.

bcheng93 the prior reviewer wrote " a noteworthy lead role performance from andy lau ", or something of the sort. ...uhhhh, i'm sorry but, nottt! there was actually a very noteworthy performance but it didn't come from andy, i think he tried( he also produced ) but just wasn't up for a above average performance. unfortunately, he was just average and that was one of two things that kill a potentially great action genre movie. my other gripe with the movie is that even though every action scene was performed in top-notch form, a couple of them were just way way over the top to the point that it make me snicker. on top of that there were another couple of action scenes that were very very hard to believe. the tracer bullets i think were more for the viewers of the movie....now, for the good. lam ka tung in a break-out leading man role finally. if lam wasn't in this movie, it would've been a disaster. he was a joy to watch and hes been a little better in other movies but never in the leading role.even though i mentioned before that some of the action was too unbelievable, there were two that were very very memorable. there were a lot of action scenes and every one was well done, as campy as some of them were.there was a very pretty leading lady who didn't get much screen time, a couple of big time actors in the leading villain roles ( ray lui and hu jun ), plus a whole slew of solid character actors. the cinematography was decent and if andy lau had turned in a grittier performance it still would've been a great action movie, even with some campy action scenes.even with all its faults " firestorm ", is still a good action movie and there was some tension and gripping scenes in the movie. still too bad though..., it could've been a special one.

poonhokong It seems an ambitious project highly reminiscent of the movie Heat (1995) at first glance, but it fails pretty flat.First, the plot in a whole is alright, but some minor details make no sense. (These happens at the beginning of the movie so, well if you count it as spoilers, here you go SPOILER ALERT) Like, why didn't Hu Jun just kill Andy Law at the heist after Andy was hit by a car, especially he killed the hostage anyway. Have you ever seen a crane worked? It moves pretty slow, and using that to catch a car is like picking up a toothpick in a claw crane. And since when can a civilian enter a police war room just to return a policeman his identification card?Second, the character development is rather cliché. Andy Law basically accomplished nothing at the first half of the movie except shouting at people, showing how an incompetent cop he is. Lam Ka Tung's character is more interesting, but still there is nothing new here. I was almost pulling my hair when I hear the "I want to be a good guy" thing right out from infernal affairs. The bad guys are so one dimensional that they just rob bank escort cars and shoot a lot.And we come to the effects. Oh boy was that bad. The CGI looks fake as hell. Every collision breaks the law of conversation of momentum, like a high-speed car projectile got stopped by an immovable fence. Every bullet like it's the laser beam from Star Wars. The gunshot wounds look as fake as Death Proof. The shot Andy Lau was bombed into the air was so laughably stupid that I thought it was Looney Toons.All in all, I must admit it's fairly entertaining, but didn't achieve half of the ambition it wanted to achieve. If you like simple police- thief action movie, you can give it a watch.