Review of Breaking News (2010) by Howard W — 25 Oct 2007

Breaking News impresses with its usual Johnnie To style and technical proficiency, but the acting and plot is a preposterous mess. Kelly Chen's performance is wooden, Nick Cheung is kind of goofy and high-strung, and only Richie Ren gets by looking cool and not doing too much.

None of these characters are particularly appealing or interesting; each of them seem to have some kind of backstory that is never really fleshed out. The story itself is strangely paced and often serves up huge lapses in logic.

Ostensibly, Breaking News makes some kind of commentary about the power of media, but whatever message it's trying to convey isn't particularly coherent, nor is it presented in subtle or clever ways.

Even the gunplay, a highlight of the film, is often confusing in its staging and editing; there are moments where so much is going on that it's not clear which characters are where, and who's shooting at who.