Review of A Better Tomorrow (2010) by April Y — 06 Oct 2007

10/10 (Real men know this is much better than 300!).

Wow. Holy fucking shit this movie kicks so much ass that it deserves a place even higher than Chuck Norris in the pantheon of annoying college kid jokes. If Chow Yun-Fat isn't the coolest human being alive, it's only because he wants it that way. This movie was high on my list of things to see and since it was largely inspired by Melville I knew it was right for me. From the very first fight sequence at the home of the younger brother, I knew I was in for something special, a true masterpiece of over-the-top action.

Where to begin...perhaps I will start by addressing the acting, which is very strong from the physical perspective and obviously a mystery from the spoken element. The dialogue is certainly very basic, and in the first half an hour you will really start to wonder if it was written by a high schooler, but it does become moderately more animated once Chow gets to start shooting. And oh how he shoots. The violence in this movie is incredible, from the numerous fight scenes involving facial injuries from glass to the baseball bat beatings and of course, the inevitable shoot-em-ups where bullets fly like so many (missing) doves. The plot follows a moderately complex arch, and while I wouldn't say it is formulaic, it certainly isn't impossible to see where things are going. No matter. Woo has taken a nice new A4 and glossed it up so nice that it has physically transformed into a Gallardo of a film, one where every single time the action starts moving you know you will see something new and unexpected. The choreography of the gunfights is brilliant, and the cinematography shines even when the pace slows down. This movie, while not necessarily perfect from a critical standpoint, is pure, unadulterated awesome.