Once a Thief
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Movie Reviews of Once a Thief
Movie Review: A lighthearted fun caper movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is not what I expected at all. Rather than the usual Chow Yun Fat/John Woo Kill everything and then some movie, I was pleasantly surprised to watch this fun and seet movie. The premise is very 70s caper movie, a heist, a plan, a bad guy and the players. However, Woo takes us on a long journey with some unsuspecting turns and twists that I did not expect. The effort was fun and effective. Though some of the humor towards the end has a prediliction for cheesy humor, it's easy to get past and enjoy a very fun and entertaining romp. Recomended.Movie Review: Another John Woo movie worth owning
Summary: 5 Stars
Not as 'heavy' and full of action as many of Woo's other early films such as The Killer, Hardboiled, A Better Tommorrow etc. A bit of a change of pace for Woo and well done. Three street kids pull off a big heist.
Woo remade this film for TV with disastoruous results so make sure you are buying the one starring Chow Yun Fat.
Movie Review: It's pretty good
Summary: 4 Stars
It is not woo's best work I will say that but it is not bad. It is more comedy than the ulta violent action gun-ho stuff that we are all use to see. But the fact that he took a different aproach for this film was in alot of ways refreshing. The humor at times can be a tad bit corny at times and the action is very restrained. Out of respect for the man that has given us the greatest action movies of our time I will say get this movie. Not everyone will like this movie but some will just don't get your hopes high.Movie Review: One explosive romantic comedy.
Summary: 4 Stars
This isn't your run of the mill action comedy. The fact that John Wo's name is on it tells you there's lots of violence, but it makes the show more exciting to see all the gunfighting. I thought it was great. This is probably my favorite Chow Yun-Fat movie. Amazing, as always. He kind of reminds me of an Asian Cary Grant in this show. I'd tell you more, but this is the kind of movie that's ruined if you know too much. See it for yourself. Grab some popcorn and sit back and enjoy the wild ride.Movie Review: Questionable release of Woo's weakest Hong Kong film.
Summary: 3 Stars
After the emotional wreck of a masterpiece that was Bullet in the Head, director John Woo rightfully felt the need to loosen up. Hence this fluffy, downright silly, often enjoyable caper movie that merges the casts of The Killer (Chow Yun-fat, Kenneth Tsang, Chu Kong) and A Better Tomorrow (Leslie Cheung) while carving out a broad comedic tone that harkens back to Woo's older, lowbrow slapsticks (Plain Jane to the Rescue, From Riches to Rags).Chow Yun-fat has a field day in this film, hamming it up as "Cupcake/Joey" (depending on your translation), a master burglar who becomes wheelchair-bound in a job gone wrong. Some of the gags are quite forced, but when Chow is given a chance for physical comedy in the wheelchair, he's a lot of fun. Leslie Cheung anchors the film as the acrobatic Jim, who is both Chow's best friend and his closest competitor for the affection of "Red Bean/Cherie", their sister-in-crime. Kenneth Tsang's character is pretty ridiculous, though the veteran actor does his best, but the surprise delight is seeing Chu Kong, so deadly serious in The Killer, loosen up to play a kindly but none too bright cop who takes the three young people in as proteges. Woo's action choreography is dazzling as ever, and far less violent than his usual works (though still pretty high in body count compared with American action-comedies), and the best set pieces of this film (the card-throwing punk, the centerpiece second heist featuring a lot of explosives) are high entertainment.
This DVD edition has been out for some time and it took me this long to check it out -- the packaging just doesn't inspire confidence. The contents herein partially affirm this suspicion. The transfer is clean, and it's great that they included the Cantonese dialogue track as an audio option. But there's something wrong with the sound mix; the music is far too loud, often drowning out the Cantonese dialogue, and I know from an old VHS copy of this film I own that the original sound mix didn't have this problem. There are also nearly no bonus materials, just trailers. It's probably harder to find bonus materials for Hong Kong films, and perhaps it's unfair to compare this to the multitude of features on the Criterion releases of The Killer and Hard-Boiled, but nonetheless, the special materials are out there in the vaults. Later UK releases of Hard-Boiled and The Killer do have added materials for us to peruse. So it's a matter of hunting it down and including it.
An adequate DVD for a problematic but mostly enjoyable film.
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