videorama-759-859391
The Corrupter rides high on style and action, some of it's action sequences are awesomely and coolly shot. Parts of that car chase were breathtakingly thrilling, I felt I was there. It's a huge surprise, considering the film is directed by James Foley who makes films I LIKE, he's best still being in my opinion, the very underrated, At Close Range. A second inning onto the American market, Chow Yun Fat, lives this film up. I agree, he is the coolest Asian actor, who can act. Speaking of actors, their all terrific. Wahlberg's solid as the young rookie, undercover cop, partnered with the shady head of the Asian task force, Fat, who thinks he can play on both sides of the law and still come out clean and cool, like his parading self. Ric Young who's the godfather of Chinatown, controlling the whole corrupt show, while buying a few cops, is so slick and slimy, in his role, he's lovable, a big paunchy China doll. Most impressive though as rising hood, climbing up the ladder, very quick before his time, is Byron Mann, as Bobby Vu, while too, I also liked Brian Cox, always solid, as Wahlberg's, bum of a gambling, ex cop, and weathered father, who always implores his son to get him out of his indebted messes. Too, The Corrupter has an darn interesting story, if sometimes confusing, and this I think could be it's fault, where to un confuse it, you might have to wrack your brain a bit. But it has more meat to it, than Chow's last simple storied, show and cool action piece, The short, sharp, and sweet actioner, The Replacement Killers. Also I liked Paul Ben Victor as the Head FBI chief, butting heads with Fat, a mutual and silent hate exchanged. Fat shows great emotion, especially in parts where he finds out, he's bitten off more than he can chew. Too, you will notice some faults in some action parts of The Corrupter, but Foley, has crafted a very slick action pic, the early scene with Fat shooting up a light store, had me underestimating the action side of it, when I saw it at the cinema in 99. From here, it was confirmed I was in for one hell of a ride. The movies cool from the word go, and I mean from the word "Go" the cool, deviously, and shady fitting music score by Carter Burwell as the opening credits fade in and out of The larger font movie Title was an impressive start, where an explosion in the first scene, is a great invitation, which you'll get here among a little bit of T and A, too that doesn't go astray, where Fat always looks after his partner. The action finale on that big ship, even though played out a bit, is climactic, involving and again, cool, if shockingly affecting, not just for one thing. Foley too, plays around with some beautifully overhead shots of the big Apple. Here's a film he should be proud of, despite a lot of negativity from a few real movie critics, towards it. I almost love this as much as ACR. One of the coolest films you'll ever see.
Boba_Fett1138
It was surprising how brutal and straight-forward this movie actually was. It also at the same time made the movie a hard one to believe. I mean the Yun-Fat Chow character shoots criminals through the head at point blank for Christ sake and they give him medals for that! That's tough, even for a New York cop. It seems that they at all time try to aim for the head or heart, instead of just taking the criminal out by shooting in the leg or shoulder. And also innocent bystanders keep getting killed in the movie as if it means nothing. No way that this movie could had also still been made after 9/11.It's the sort of story that makes things unnecessarily hard on itself, by putting in too many twist and turns, characters and individual plot lines. After a while I simply just stopped carrying what the movie was all about. It was that uninteresting.Yun-Fat Chow and Mark Wahlberg really don't work well together. Normally this is good for a cop duo type of movie but however really not in this case, since it simply just not work out. Brian Cox also shows up in the movie. I love this guy but once you start thinking about it; is his role really necessary for the movie?The movie itself is fairly well made. With a different script the movie would had definitely been a better one. The directing is good and fast and feels right for this type of movie and some of the camera-work is also great, though it also becomes obviously in the movie that it didn't really had the highest budget thinkable.The action itself is fair. It's nothing too spectacular or memorable really. It features mostly the formulaic elements such as shoot-outs and one 'big' chase. It's forgettable, just like the rest of the movie.Not a completely terrible movie but a very forgettable one.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
BroadswordCallinDannyBoy
Nick Chen is a tough as nails New York cop who works on both sides of the law. When a new rookie cop is assigned to his unit he sees how the local crime boss tries to corrupt him and Chen reconsiders his ethics. All the while a few twists and turns show who is really playing who.This is by no means a very original movie, especially for Chow Yun-Fat. His first American film, 'The Replacement Killers,' also was kind of a re-run, but what is there to say? He's good at this type of stuff.Just like 'The Replacement Killers' this film was also a flop at the box office and it is probably through its gritty and uncompromising tone. Yeah, there's action and intense shootouts, but it is not like 'Die Hard' or anything. Innocent people die, the ending isn't happy, but what matters is that the film isn't cheesy - it pulls no sucker punches or cheap thrills. It sticks to the characters while keeping the action secondary, but no less intense. The plot too is also pretty interesting and is a little more intricate than 'The Replacement Killers' or Chow Yun-Fat's cult hits from Hong Kong like 'Hard Boiled.' It is not quite a masterpiece of genre, but remains a solid crime thriller nonetheless. 8/10Rated R: strong violence, and profanity
