Review of The Corruptor (1999) by Adam L — 09 Mar 2013

Director James Foley's second film "At Close Range" (1986) was a gritty true crime drama with white knuckle performances by stars Sean Penn and Christopher Walken and a memorable score. His fifth, "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1992) written for the screen by David Mamet adapted from the playwright's 1984 Pulitzer is a dialogue-driven exercise in desperation with a memorable cameo by Alec Baldwin.

"The Corruptor," Foley's first and hopefully last action film is loud, gratuitous, poorly acted but most damning bereft of entertainment sets Hong Kong's biggest action star and arguably most accomplished actor Chow Yun-fat adrift in this rudderless piece of Chinatown gang war hokum.

To the credit of his language coach (controversial comedian Margaret Cho) Chow's use of English has improved ever so slightly since his bumpy transition to Hollywood in 1998, but the dialogue in "The Corruptor" is so cheap you'll hardly notice.

You don't change Chinatown, it changes you.

Co-star Mark Wahlberg, who Foley previously directed in the actor's first headlining role (1996's big screen Liftetime-like teeny bopper thriller "Fear"), goes back-to-back with wretched performances in Hollywood films featuring Hong Kong talent (1998's gutless "The Big Hit" produced by once frequent Chow collaborator John Woo and directed by Kirk Wong).

Actor Kim Chan portrays crime lord Benny Wong aka "Uncle Benny" in the wake of Chan's recent role opposite Jet Li in "Lethal Weapon 4" (1998) portraying a -- you guessed it -- crime lord named Benny "Uncle Benny" Chan.

Thankfully, to date "The Corrupter" is writer Robert Pucci's only film credit.