Customs Frontline

Well, I was excited to see Nicholas Tse, Jacky Cheung and Karena Ka-Yan Lam in one movie together. And they didn't disappoint! All in great shape like they deny the aging. The story is OK, nothing to rave about. The action is great. Shootings, fist fights, many explosions. By the way, Nicholas Tse is an action director in this movie. And I think he did a good job. I don't know why we don't see any decent movies with Nicholas Tse recently. He still can shine as an action movie star. In this movie he is cool but very vulnerable and sad. It's like he was sad about his own career. But OK, I got it, it's just a character in this movie. My problem with this movie is that it's too serious and too much drama is going on. In the end I finally felt something, so the film had impact on me. But I was expecting something a bit more positive. That's why it's 7 of 10 for me. If you don't have the same expectations as me and ready for an action packed drama with your favorite actors, then I can recommend this movie for you. Otherwise, skip it. It's not a masterpiece by any means.

Giving this an 8/10 rating Yes, action packed Chinese film is great fun, some really superb action and the story is good and topical too. Hong Kong customs must stop at serious and deadly arms dealer from getting on top when arms flood in via boat, thus leading them a very merry chase across the world. The film highlights the real cost of war, innocents, greed, and also covers mental health issues too. Nicholas Tse, Brahim Chab and Jacky Cheung are well known faces and do the job, just fine. The writer, Erica Li gives us well written suffering between, family life, ambition, suffering and death, which there is quite a bit of. And thanks to Herman Yau, the direction is good, and the action is way up there. Seems like one of his better films, looking at the ratings of others he has done. It's out in IMAX if you can find it, probably not, but it would look good. I gave it the high rating as it was better than I expected and is a fun time at the big screen.