Genre: Action

By no means unexciting, the choreography still lacks a stylish edge and tends to appear archaic at times. This is compensated by director Chai Ying Min’s brave concentration on the various relationships of the story.

Using the conventions of the 30’s Hollywood swashbucklers mixed with his insane stunts and sublime fight action, Chan produced one of his best ever films.

It was impossible to match the original classic, but Chan pulled out all of the stops to make sure he gave it his best.

Stanley Tong continues to show his skill in the action genre with more kinetic direction.

The makers conjure an intense and propulsive energy that keeps the flick moving and engaging, mounting the action with innovative verve to deliver powerful action scenes.

‘Protégé De La Rose Noire’ is an extremely exaggerated and silly comedy that really failed to tickle any part of my funny bone.

It’s undeniably rough around the edges, but in its favour it has a solid cast and some good interaction between the characters – certainly worth an evenings viewing.

If you’re not expecting a deep examination into Asia’s politics then ‘Purple Storm’ is an absorbing and emotionally charged action-thriller that does more than just pass the time.

Scenes are chopped at strange junctures, the plot jumps all over the place and the simple act of allowing actors to have proper reaction shots to the drama unfolding is mostly absent.

This would-be Blockbuster is all kinds of insane silliness and tone varying madness but is actually a whole lot of over-the-top action fun.

A definite improvement over part 1, and other similar fare such as ‘China O’Brien’ – it makes for an adequate 90 minutes viewing – but ultimately reminds us why we love HK fighting so much more.

A bit of ‘Heat’ mixed with Chan’s own ‘Invisible Target’, ‘Raging Fire’ hits hard in both the action and drama, the much-missed director delivering one of his finest.