Rating: 3.0

What may sound like an unpleasant crime thriller because of the concept and title is actually another of the comedy films that Chow Yun-Fat made earlier in his career.

Although this movie was enjoyable from start to finish, it still lacked something to make it an above average thriller, while the few surprises in store make it unlikely to be viewed more than once.

Anthology horror gets the Thai treatment in this nifty, four story feature from some of Thailand’s top filmmakers.

While Derek Chiu’s latest film is an acceptable blockbuster, the wit and style of the director’s earlier works is sadly fading away from him.

With a welcome big screen appearance by Anita Yuen and an all-star rendition of Sam Hui’s beloved ’Private Eyes’ theme, this celebration of Hong Kong is an unpretentious distraction.

As a standalone film ‘A Better Tomorrow 3’ is a fairly watchable effort thanks to an intriguing premise, but as a prequel to ‘A Better Tomorrow’ it just doesn’t quite cut it.

Perhaps if the story were more involving or it contained better action, it might have been more appealing. As it stands though, it’s really only going to serve as a quick fix for hardcore Andy Lau fans.

‘A Loner’ is therefore a solid, thoughtful meditation on a traditionally Western problem that is now creeping into the affluent East, but should have been more than its good intentions.

Andrew Lau has a very obvious formula for making comic book adaptations and it’s one that is ultimately not very satisfying.

‘A Massacre Survivor’ features an always watchable Shih Szu as the heroine. Unfortunately, she’s one of the few characters to get much polish.

Despite moments that show a director trying to craft something different from a common storyline, there is no reason why this should be considered unfair; this is mostly well executed yet only mildly diverting fare.

This is a lustrous production that flatters to deceive, aiming for the intellect, but eventually preferring to show empty spectacle and supposed depth.