City on Fire

Rating:
Summary: Charismatic Chow sets this City On Fire!
Review: This is one of Chow Yun Fat's best performances. You really feel for his character as he is torn between his job as a undercover cop and his sympathies with a gang of thieves, and his friendship with one of them, while trying to salvage his relationship with his not too understanding girlfriend.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, Horrible Subtitles!
Review: This movie is great, the acting is good aswell as the action but the subtitles are awful! The move way to fast and the timing is pretty cad to!

Rating:
Summary: poor dubbing ruins movie
Review: This movie is not like a Jackie Chan flick where the plot and acting are secondary to the action pieces and goofy comedy, so it makes 0 sense for them to dub over the voices in order to make the movie more easily accessable to North American audiences. Besides, Chow Yun-Fat's fame over here is fresh in everyones mind from Crouching Tiger, which was shown subtitled in the theatres, so it's not like people are totally against the idea. There's nothing wrong with release Hong Kong films here to cash in on their recent popularity, just treat them with a little respect ala Time and Tide or Once Upon a Time in China. If you are a fan of Hong Kong movies, or foreign movies in general, please do not support cheesy dubbed versions and skip this DVD, buying it only encourages them to do the same to other films.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome, action packed must for fans of HK cinema!
Review: This movie is primarily known in America as the film on which Quentin Tarrantino's RESERVOIR DOGS was based. That alone makes it a must-see, but it also stands on its own as a classic example of Hong Kong action. Honor, loyalty, and savagery come together to create a real powerhouse. Fat plays an undercover cop assigned to infiltrate a gang of jewel theives. He befriends Lee, a member of the gang, while at the same time trying to hold onto a disintegrating relationship with his girlfriend/fiance. Not only does Fat's job as a cop interfere with his home life, but he feels increasingly guilty about betraying Lee. Fate and bureaucratic incompetence combine to make the gang's final heist a bloodbath, in which Fat is forced to participate. In a chase/shoot out scene reminiscent of the end of DePalma's SCARFACE, bullets fly and blood flows in the streets of Hong Kong's diamond district. Fat finally tells Lee of his betrayal, but not in time to save either of them. This is a must-see for fans of Tarrantino, Hong Kong actioners, or great caper-flicks! Sadly, the subtitles are pretty pathetic ("No poiny gun boss" is among my favorites), and I was really disappointed that they didn't re-do them for the DVD (I've shelled out a total of about $80 to get this on VHS, and later on DVD, and I'd like to be reading complete sentences for that kind of money). That having been said, this is a GREAT movie! See it!

Rating:
Summary: Disney needs to learn we aren't illiterate
Review: Waited months for this to be released only to be horribly disappointed (although I guess I should have expected it by now) by the fact that its English Dubbed only. I'll take crummy subtitles over poor dubbing any day. Ah well looks like another one I'll just import.

Rating:
Summary: worth a look
Review: While this movie may not be in the same league as some of the classic Chow Yun Fat thrillers (The Killer, Hard-Boiled, Full Contact, for example), this is still a decent action film. The interplay between the characters is, unfortunately, cliched and sometimes ludicrous (the scene in the cemetery, for example), but the assured direction, complex storyline, and gritty realism more than make up for it; the jewelry heist and the nihilistic, bullet-riddled ending are particularly well-staged. The DVD I have is the (badly) dubbed version, which sounds like it was done by a third-rate comedian locked in a closet. The print of the film, however, is clear and sharp (I had seen this on videotape several years ago, and remember it as being somewhat grainy), though it did seem sometimes as if there was a little jumpiness from shot to shot in some scenes.

Rating:
Summary: worth a look
Review: While this movie may not be in the same league as some of the classic Chow Yun Fat thrillers (The Killer, Hard-Boiled, Full Contact, for example), this is still a decent action film. The interplay between the characters is, unfortunately, cliched and sometimes ludicrous (the scene in the cemetery, for example), but the assured direction, complex storyline, and gritty realism more than make up for it; the jewelry heist and the nihilistic, bullet-riddled ending are particularly well-staged. The DVD I have is the (badly) dubbed version, which sounds like it was done by a third-rate comedian locked in a closet. The print of the film, however, is clear and sharp (I had seen this on videotape several years ago, and remember it as being somewhat grainy), though it did seem sometimes as if there was a little jumpiness from shot to shot in some scenes.