Review of City Under Siege (2010) by Dean M — 16 Apr 2011

Not a bad Hong Kong sci-fi-action flick, but it's a bit complete mess. The lead character is insipid and uninteresting, the storyline is poorly developed, and the emotional subplots are laughable and unconvincing.

Shu Qi and Zhang Jingchu arenâ(TM)t bad in their roles, and some of the kung-fu action is decent. Thereâ(TM)s also Aaron Kwok and his crazy overacting â" and hey, if entertainment has a name, itâ(TM)s Aaron Kwok.

Despite this major setback, Benny Chan (Invisible Target, New Police Story) who has a track record churning out entertaining action flicks over the years is still an adept hand in conducting massive mayhem be it on the highway or high-rise buildings with his frequent collaborator, action choreographer Nicky Li. Obviously when it comes to action sequences, no one do it better other than Chan and Li with the nimble combination of wirefu and explosions. The various fight sequences populated with plenty of CG enhanced daggers turned out to be less memorable and engaging this time though it will still please the action fans seeing Colin Chou sparring with Wu Jing and so on. I see Chou is yet again in a one-dimensional, poorly-written baddie role that he so commonly portrayed in the nineties.