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City on Fire

City on Fire

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Still better than Reservoir Dogs
Review: "City on Fire" far and away is much better than Tarantino's movie "Reservoir Dogs". City on Fire is not like any of Chow Yun-Fat's other movies in that it contains less gun play and less violence. But one thing that is intact is the great story. This is one of the best undercover cop stories there are and no American film company could do it better, they could only copy it like Tarantino. As said before, Yun-Fat is an undercover cop who must bust thieves who are going to pull a big job. One of the thieves is Danny Lee from the Chow Yun-Fat movie "The Killer." If you want to see a smart action film then you must get this one because it actually makes sense.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Still better than Reservoir Dogs
Review: "City on Fire" far and away is much better than Tarantino's movie "Reservoir Dogs". City on Fire is not like any of Chow Yun-Fat's other movies in that it contains less gun play and less violence. But one thing that is intact is the great story. This is one of the best undercover cop stories there are and no American film company could do it better, they could only copy it like Tarantino. As said before, Yun-Fat is an undercover cop who must bust thieves who are going to pull a big job. One of the thieves is Danny Lee from the Chow Yun-Fat movie "The Killer." If you want to see a smart action film then you must get this one because it actually makes sense.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nothing Out of The Ordinary
Review: As far as Chow Yun Fat vehicles this movie was an average and forgetable fare. In fact I was 1/4 of the way through the movie before I realized that I had already seen it a year ago. The basic premise is Chow Yun Fat is a deep undercover agent who is trying to get out. Not exactly the most original premise. If you want to see true angst of an undercover cop watch Hard Boiled and Tony Leung's performance is fantastic. Its not that Chow Yun Fat did a poor job, it's just the material he had to work with was sub par. Yes I know the movie was the REAL Reservoir Dogs so it might seem blasphemous disagreeing with most of the reviewers.

As you would expect Chow's character ends up almost more sympathetic to his criminal partner than his job. Although the story does a good job of making you feel his ambivalnce to the police, you never get a strong feeling on why he should feel so close to Danny Lee's character. It is only near the end that there is any true connection between the two. And I felt somewhat betrayed that Chow Yun Fat would still be so loyal to his partner after watching him blow away two cops.

It is only toward the ending of the movie that you truly feel the pull between the two characters and the ending almost makes up for the rest of the movie. The fight scenes are forgettable and as everyone pointed out the subtitles are ridiculous. I'm sure if I understood Cantonese the movie would have flowed better. If a friend has it or you can rent it go ahead but the journey until the payoff at the end leaves me still feeling it is overrated and not worth buying at full price.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: CITY ON FIRE Review
Review: Best known as the film that inspired Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", Ringo Lam's Hong Kong cop thriller starring Chow as an undercover that goes in deep with the mob is an excellent tale of trust and honor amongst theives. Those who loved his work with John Woo in films like "A Better Tommorrow" and "The Killer" will find much to like about Mr. Fat in this cops & robbers action flick.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: CITY ON FIRE Review
Review: Best known as the film that inspired Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", Ringo Lam's Hong Kong cop thriller starring Chow as an undercover that goes in deep with the mob is an excellent tale of trust and honor amongst theives. Those who loved his work with John Woo in films like "A Better Tommorrow" and "The Killer" will find much to like about Mr. Fat in this cops & robbers action flick.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: City on Fire
Review: Boring. Weak plot. Little action. Low budget. Save your money.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: city on fire....
Review: city on fire........this movie inspired Tarantino's Resvoir Dogs...but honestly i don't see how that happened. this movie was not as good as the killer or hard-boiled.

Movie starts at a stree market of Honh Kong, an undercover cop is killed by some Triad when they discovred that he's a cop.
Inspector Lau,(plays Chow YunFat's Uncle) wants Ko Chow(Chow Yun Fat) to finish the job.

Chow Yun Fat was not as slick or genius in this movie copare to his other movies. there a scene where he;s buck naked.

Action was horrible,there are only 2 actual shoot outs,
one scene i say is genius is the scene where gangs point guns at each other not knowin who to trust....that scene was awesome....but the movie...ehhh... not so great.

i recommend watchin better tomorrow, god of gamblers, the killer.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What a shame.
Review: I first saw this gangsters and gunplay epic a few years back late one night on television. From that moment I decided to purchase the film on DVD. When I eventually got a player, years later, it was with giddy excitment that I popped this title into the tray. Unfortunately, this DVD showcases perfectly what can happen when little care is taken in the mastering of a film. Now, i'm DEFINITELY NOT one of these people who whines when the picture quality isn't perfect and other such things, but when I saw this DVD I had to write this review to instruct people NOT to buy this version of the film. So, I will now list the problems this DVD has: 1. The Subtitles, they are TERRIBLE, they were obviously done by a person who did not have even a 20% grip of the english language. Literally, they don't make any sense in places. Secondly, they disappear far too quickly. I'm not a slow reader but you'll be struggling to keep up. 2. The soundtrack is terrible. I could be wrong on this point as I had not seen the film in years, but I got the feeling that the Cantonese soundtrack had been dubbed over with a Chinese one, including new sound effects which are disasterous. The bottom line is that an amazing film has been ruined by these two faults. If it weren't for the fact that the film is so good, I would have given it 1 star. This review may be hard to stomach for the fans of this film but please heed my words, I am a fan of this film too. If there is another version available, please e-mail me.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Buy the other version -- the Tai Seng release
Review: I would like to give this version 5 stars, i love the movie, but this is the Dimension release which only offers an English language dub. If that's OK by you, then this is the cheaper version, but if you are a purist like me, you'll want the Cantonese/Mandarin version with English subtitles.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Be careful when purchasing!
Review: If you order the Dimension/Disney version (which has a big blue Chow Yun-Fat face on the cover and a picture of a city on fire. Get it? city - on - fire. Yes, Disney does think you are that simpleminded) you get the version with English dubbing only. If you get the Tai Seng version (with the faces of three actors and Chinese writing on the cover) you get the vastly superior original version with subtitles. They cost the same but the Tai Seng version is so much better. Do yourself a favor and get that one.

I give the Disney/Dimension version 1 star and the Tai Seng version 5 stars.


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