Saw SPL at the World Cinema Showcase last night. It's a standard HK crime flick involving ruthless triads, dodgy cops, and a LOT of slicing and dicing. Kind of Infernal Affairs meets Enter the Dragon, and feels about as mismatched, too.
Since it's got Donnie Yen (looking uncannily like Lou Diamond Philips in La Bamba) and Sammo Hung, the fighting is pretty good. Well, it's fucking awesome actually. But meanwhile, the plot has more holes than my dad's underpants, and credibility goes out the window long before the end. So all up, thumbs down.
If you want to see SPL's component genres at their best, you'd be better off seeing Infernal Affairs (cop/triad angst), Iron Monkey (Donnie Yen at his most masterful), and Hard Boiled (hyperoperatic John Woo destruction).
Posted by stuart at April 17, 2006 11:43 AM