Fuqua has done an admirable job staging the action scenes, but the script is little more than a thin framework to justify those scenes.
60
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Despite the practical nature of the costars' bond, I spent most of the lukewarm actioner wondering when the hell they were going to start kissing.
60
EmpireAngie Errigo
EmpireAngie Errigo
It's just like a spectacularly excessive and melodramatically daft Cantonese crime opus, but in English, with a thumpingly trendy soundtrack.
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This melodramatic action opera is a lurid love letter to the guns and poses aesthetic of Hong Kong action cinema.
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
SlateDavid Edelstein
Hong Kong action fans hoping for spontaneous combustion from the American debut of superstar Chow Yun-Fat might want to turn their weapons on the producers.
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Between cycles of gunfights and glowering, Yun-Fat displays some of the dignity and suave good looks that account for his star status (without much chance to show his wit).
To put it as kindly as possible, Fuqua is a well-intended tyro who wrongly assumes that his obvious love for action movies qualifies him to make them himself.
Chow has a future in a America if given better material with which to work; here, he's wasted in a movie that's forgotten 20 minutes after the credits roll.