Action Member: Wong Wai-Fai

Even though I was eager to like the film and the trailer helped make this seem a possibility, this is a major disappointment – even for the most forgiving fans of the Samuel Hui/Karl Maka classic.

‘Cold War’ is consistently entertaining and its massive success at the Hong Kong box-office shows that it clearly struck a chord with local audiences.

‘Echoes Of The Rainbow’ is full of the balancing act between cliché and skilled drama, complete with solid performances throughout.

While the narrative and tone get a little muddled and the pace dips here and there, ‘Fire of Conscience’ is still a good tough-as-nails cop thriller with some brutal action.

‘Heat Team’ will undoubtedly baffle more than it will appease; the fractured style and severe lack of focus on what the film actually wants to achieve is difficult to forgive.

‘I Love Hong Kong’ doesn’t steer too far away from the usual New Year hi-jinks – it is an entertaining 2011 release, but will probably not be remembered come 2012.

‘Motorway’ is a stripped down action thriller that dispenses with such luxuries as sub-plots to concentrate fully on the battle between cops and robbers.

There may not be much here that we haven’t seen before, but it’s certainly been a while since we’ve seen most of it done so well.

Alan Mak’s uninvolving film lacks a real narrative hook and an empathetic romance, but most of all it lacks the needed sentiment that covers a multitude of cinematic sins.

Lam certainly throws a lot in and the tone does vary but thanks to the confident staging and the unrelenting momentum it all works for the most part.

‘Undercover Hidden Dragon’ is better than the past few Ronald Cheng films, but not as consistently entertaining as ‘Super Model’, perhaps the benchmark for his comedy.