Kill Zone
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.97 You Save: $14.96 (75%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Kill Zone
Movie Review: KILLZONE
Summary: 5 Stars
ANOTHER CHINESE MOVIE LOTS OF ACTION DOES HAS A STORY LINE BUT U HAVE TO FOLLOW VERY CLOSELY TO SEE IT (JET LI WAS IN THIS MOVIE & I HAD NEVER HEARD OF THE MOVIE THAT HE HAD DONE)Movie Review: EXCELLENT!
Summary: 5 Stars
Loved the action, loved the plot. Donnie Yen and other actors are great. Purchased it and I advise all who like action fighting movies to purchase it. You won't regret it.Movie Review: Kill Zone
Summary: 5 Stars
Movie was in great condition and of course was another great example of excellent martial arts.Movie Review: One of the BEST, Solid Action Films of 2005!
Summary: 4 Stars
The very first film that featured the first Wilson Yip-Donnie Yen collaboration is "SPL: Sha Po Lang" (re-titled Killzone in the U.S.). This film is a welcome return to Hong Kong crime noir and cool martial arts action. It is easily one of the best action films of 2005 and has proven that the Yip and Yen tag team can bring out a quality motion picture, as they have since followed their success in "Dragon Tiger Gate", "Flash Point" and most notably "IP MAN".
Qui SHA is the power star, PO Jun is the ruinous star and Tan LANG is the flirting star.
Hong Kong 1994, Inspector Chan (Simon Yam) is a cop escorting the key witness to the hearing of triad kingpin, Wong Po (Sammo Hung). When an intentional accident kills the key witness, Po is set free, leaving only Chan and the child of the witness to his care. Now, 3 years have passed and Inspector Chan is a cop carrying a grudge against Wong Po, and he is still caring for the child. Chan is now on the road to retirement after being diagnosed with brain tumor, and Inspector Ma (Donnie Yen) is now the newly appointed commander to take over Chan's post in 3 days. Chan's unit (made up of Danny Summer, Ken Chang and Liu Kai-Chi) is furious that they agree to go to extreme lengths to put Wong Po behind bars, those steps include framing Po for murder and even stealing his money. Inspector Ma is caught in a crossfire between Chan and Wong Po as the final reckoning is about to unravel...
"SPL" is a gripping cop drama that blends elements of noir and martial arts action. While martial arts films have been branded with the stereotypical simple plot, director Wilson Yip manages to build the storyline around its characters led by Simon Yam, Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen. The cops in the film have their own share of humanity, their lives feel very real as they are burdened with family and duty. Wilson Yip successfully brings the lives of our cops into exposition and he also never forgets to bring forth a needed humanity to its main antagonist played by Sammo Hung; Wong Po is one ruthless and evil individual, but never for one minute do the viewer forgets that he is also capable of emotion as exhibited with his loving exchanges with his wife and month old baby. The cops, Sum and Wah (Danny Summer and Liu Kai Chi respectively) have failures in their family affairs as their duties as policemen always seemed to take precedence. It was nice for Yip to set up their final meetings/conversation with those they love. Ma is a man who had badly beaten a drug trafficker in the past that the suspect had suffered brain damage, yet we see Ma trying to atone for his mistake as demonstrated by his implied weekly visits to the former drug dealer.
All these serve up to bring emotion into the screenplay and it truly does succeed in the film's build up towards its climax. The screenplay also manages to bring several morality questions as we see Chan's unit stoop to lengths quite questionable to our eyes. "Obsession can bring one closer to ruin when he becomes the one thing he fights against..." may well also be the film's central theme. Yes, "SPL" does manage to pitch in an intricate storyline that involve the morality questions a righteous cop may face. Sure these guys are total coolness, even when they are being corrupt, because they may seem to have an honorable goal to some eyes. In the world of "SPL", everyone has their own challenges and anger to deal with. Even bad guys while ruthless and uncaring on the outside, may have a sense of humanity on the inside.
While the film's emotional sequences help set up the film's climax, to some it may serve to hamper the film's pace by downplaying on the action scenes. But the action (choreographed by Donnie Yen himself) delivers in spades, as we see a very intensity-filled baton versus knife alleyway fight between Donnie Yen and Jing Wu (who plays Wong Po`s chief enforcer) that precedes the one with Hung and Yen achieved `iconic status`. The fight was nicely paced and excellently shot as we see Yip manipulate the camera movements to pans, zoom outs and zoom ins for close ups to exhibit the fight`s emotion. The Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung final fight was also excellently executed, but it was arguably a little outshined by the fight before. Yen utilized the style that defined his character with the use of Boxing, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu accompanied by stiff-legged kicks. While the fight that preceded the Yen-Sammo Hung encounter, is smartly played to its build ups, as the final fight adding the closing remark and climactic end.
"SPL" isn't exactly an action-packed affair, but there is some nice bits of action dispersed throughout, it just leaves a very strong impression that it is a balls-to-walls actioner because of the way it builds up on its final climactic encounter, when the film is actually more of a crime drama than a martial arts film. The action in "SPL" is exquisitely played and the set up is just one effective exclamation point. The viewer could sense that the final encounter would be bad, just how bad it would be just kept me totally gripped by its screenplay--and when I saw its climax, I was literally blown away due to the impact in its narrative. The film may have a bit of a bombastic style as the soundtrack by Chan Kwong-Wing (Infernal Affairs) pitches the film's sequences with all guns blazing.
Wilson Yip manages to engage his audience not by the film's storyline (admittedly, the film's plot isn't original), or by its script and performances, granted the film's story is quite generically simple and it does make its symbolic sub-theme a little irrelevant; but "SPL" has tons of cinematic flamboyance that whatever flaws it does have, they could easily be forgotten--even Donnie Yen's occasional over-acting is forgiven. "SPL" is a lot better than most crime thrillers as it manages to channel come factors of unpredictability, with its climax being one tragic big bang. Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen has delivered one of the most solid action films of 2005.
Highly Recommended! [4 ½ Stars]
Movie Review: Good and Evil?
Summary: 4 Stars
SPL (or Killzone as it is generically labeled in the States) is named for stars in Chinese Astrology that can be seen as either good or evil depending on where they show up in the heavens...and that pretty accurately sums up the message of the film: the greyness of good and evil and where you draw that line.
Sammo Hung is a merciless triad boss by the name of Wong Po. Po would do anything to keep himself out of jail, including killing cops, informants, and their families. Yet, above all this, Po has a real interest in being a father and takes a shine to children. Simon Yam however, is a police detective that has been on the receiving end of Po's ruthlessness and has adopted the daughter of an informant he could not protect. Detective Chan doesn't have much time left to put Po away and his desperation leads to him and his team taking drastic, illegal measures to try and put Po away. Caught up in the middle of all this is Donnie Yen as Detective Kwan, the man who will be taking over Chan's team after he retires. He's trying to cope with his past...but will it last?
SPL (Killzone) is a very good HK cop action drama. It's not exactly a straight martial arts film though it does have plenty of that and it's very good. It is essentially what you'd get if you removed the humor of Police Story and then mixed what you had left with Infernal Affairs and added a dash more implausibility. There is a piece of evidence in this movie that anybody with a working knowledge of the legal system would know that the person it involves would be damned no matter what yet...you'll know it when you see it. I don't want to give too much away. Is it unreal? Possibly (though I don't have any knowledge of the Chinese Legal system). But that level of implausibility is usually par for the course when it comes to over the top cop dramas so it doesn't take away from the film very much.
Everything else is top notch and there are a few things in this movie that are downright shocking. Not the least of which is that Sammo Hung can play such a good villain (though nothing compared to his sadistic assassin underling Jack). It's interesting to think of an action comedian such as Sammo playing such an unfunny and affecting villain. Donnie Yen really deserves more praise and appreciation than he gets. He truly is an unsung action star.
If you enjoy police action mixed with Martial Arts and that ol' Hong Kong fliar then you will enjoy SPL (Killzone).