User Reviews

What can I say, I love this TV movie! It combines a wonderful mix of Action and Humour, the acting is top class and it is directed by an action legend JOHN WOO!!! If you like being entertained and trilled then please, for your sake, watch this movie and perhaps the series that followed it if you can, superb stuff!!!!! As the tagline says: The Art Of Action!

This is the best double episode of Once a Thief. Nick Lea is the best of the cast and his performance is very good. The talent of Ivan Sergei and Sandrine Holt is undeniable and the story is very interesting.

I think that all fans of John Woo must see this episode.

This is John Woo made for television--that should tell you everything. Those looking for head-spinning, high-tech shootouts that "The Killer" and "Hard-Boiled" made him famous for will be disappointed. Those looking for any kind of perverse twists of plot, such as those which were plentiful in "Face/Off" will demand their money back.

If there were anyone else sitting in the director's chair, I'd say "Not bad." But it's John Woo, and I expected better.

You have been warned.

To tell you the truth I don't know why I gave this movie 4/10 ... I really don't, I shouldn't have rated this so high ... but I think I gave this TV movie more credit than it deserved (imo), just because I didn't want to rate a John Woo movie too bad! And although sometimes this movie has some good scenes, it is always apparent that it's made to start a TV show/series ...

It's a shame, because this is a remake of a quite good (not excellent, but still good) HK action movie, that Woo made himself. You can check that out under "movie connections" on the (currently) left bar side of this site.

The actors are not up to much and it's only the few good action scenes and some pieces of the original story/movie that do convince ... Not recommendable!

John Woo directs a TV drama about a couple of thieves (Ivan Sergei and Sandrine Holt) who escape to Canada after dishonoring their former boss in Hong Kong, however Sergei is caught by the cops and comes to Canada after his time only to find Holt and Lea in a relationship their soap opera antics must wait while assassin Michael Wong looks to do in our trio out of revenge for their disloyalty. Before Woo stunk up the multiplexes with Mission Impossible 2, Windtalkers and Paycheck. This and Blackjack were regarded as Woo's worst movies. Blackjack believe it or not has it's merits, it was plot heavy but it featured some good action and decent thesping in making for at least a tolerable movie. Once A Thief however is a sub-par take on Woo's own original and although I haven't seen it yet, one doubts it is as bad as this stinker. The main problem with this movie is just how much it feels like Melrose Place with two guns. It becomes so soap operish in it's moronic threads involving the three leads that I for one was hoping somebody would put a bullet in all three of them. Also it takes talent to be an action star, Chow Yun Fat, Jean-Claude Van Damme,John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Dolph Lundgren and even Christan Slater are far more credible than our teen leads which never convince us that they would do anything but crap their pants when the guns went off. Sergei in particular is a charisma-less lunkhead who seems to have wandered in from a stoner commercial. This is a very dull movie and the action sequences would be good had they not been botched beyond belief, Woo films no suspense and somehow the movie just keeps going for a ridiculous amount of time. This is for only die hard John Woo fans and only they will be disappointed by the awfulness here.

* out of 4-(Bad)

I haven't seen that many of Mr. Woo's movies, but I've heard enough to know that this movie is a new low for him.

The fact that this is a TV movie already hints at the disappointment to come, and the 90-minute ride can be easily split into three pieces: 33% of the movie is bad acting, mediocre dialog telling a barely mediocre story, 33% of the movie is mediocre shooting scenes which lack John Woo's trademark bravado, panache and any spirit at all, 33% of the movie is slow-motion shots from several angles of the action scenes

So basically, with this movie you'll watch all the battles twice and follow a barely mediocre story with bad actors. What was Mr. Woo thinking?

What can I say?, I love this film, I love it! this is John Woo at his best. It combines a top notch cast of Actors including Nicholas Lea (X-Files), Ivan Sergei (Opposite of Sex), Sandrine Holt (Outer Limits) and Micheal Wong (A Better Tommorow) and such a brilliant original story-line! Buy this now, if you love action or comedy or not. BUY IT NOW!!!

One word - *AVOID* This is horrible beyond what words can describe. This is like an episode of Melrose Place meets the A-team. I rarely find a movie so unbearable that I fail to finish it. This is one of those movies. To all the hardcore Woo fans who will undoubtedly want to pick this up out of sheer curiosity...don't. Watch the original chinese version which Woo did with Chung and Fat. Much better than this tripe.

I was very disappointed with this, considering that I love John Woo, but the story and dialogue are so full of holes, contradictory and hypocritical that I just turned it off...

In every single other John Woo film I've seen, characters have been well fleshed out and reasonably likable (both bad and good characters too) and whilst I had no problem with most of the main cast (Sandrine Holt being particularly pleasing) the main character played by Ivan Sergei was so stupid and ridiculous that I found myself calling him "git-face" every time he was on screen. His motives, lines and general dialogue were so stupid, contradictory, lying, and self-serving it was unbelievable that a women such as Holt's character would ever find him attractive, and I'm afraid I just didn't like the actor on first view, like I just took and instant dislike to him, thats just the way it is sometimes but I expect John Woo to cast just the right people for his works.

This feels like Woo was just going through the motions and that it might be just a contractual obligation of some kind...not even the action scenes are that good and also few and far between. It feels more like Woo was an 'executive producer' than at the helm on this one.

As with all Woo's films, you can see his ease and experience as a director. Everything has harmony and flows along very nicely. The actors were well picked and did a good job at playing their roles. A ton of action, great humor, and a bit of love and mystery, all mixed together to make the best made-for-TV movie that I've seen so far. I'd say 7/10, which is more than most TV movies get.

Once a Thief was a pretty good show and I was sorry to see it go off the air. It was a really good show for a Canadian show and had a excellent lineup of actors.

True, the plots were just rip-offs of many other TV shows but I think that is just part of the show itself. The slogan of the show was "The art of violence, the art of romance, the art of action" which fits it perfectly.

The show is a humorous show with a few serious overtones to make it interesting. And ANY good show does a few ripoffs of other shows, but I agree that OAT did it a bit too much.

I rented this movie because I thought Woo and Lea were cool, and I was wondering what the results would be when they paired up. Well the results were horrible: The plot was uninteresting and completely unbelievable, the dialogue was absolutely horrible, and the actors werent good enough to save it. Despite my admiration for the two mentioned above, I can't pull myself to even saying that this movie was acceptable; it was just plain bad. If you get it, then you'll regret having spent that $2 on renting it.

alright.... i'd have to say this isn't the worst in the john woo catalog.... i found myself laughing and getting that rush you only get in one of his movies.... i thought the characters were enjoyable and after reading the john heard book, 'ten thousand bullets: the cinematic journey of john woo', i had new respect for the man....no, the legend.... i would only recommend this movie, however, if you're a true woo-phile.... it has all the earmarks of a good woo flick, just like balckjack and even hard boiled.... you just need to understand the man loves to make movies.... he doesn't care if they're TV movies or theatrical releases or straight to video....he just loves his art.... i have one problem with this flick and one large focus of praise.... now, not seeing the original....(john woo says it's not something he was ever happy with....) i'm not sure if my thoughts are whole, but here goes.... the bad thing....not enough of the double gun action.... the good thing....was a scene where the two good guys, the one bad guy and the girl are all in a mexican standoff and the girl, (who all three guys are in love with....) steps in the middle and they all carefully lay their guns down just long enough to get her to safety and then all heck breaks loose.... that was a cinematic masterpiece....! over all i'd give it a good rating....not to shabby for TV....