The Viral Factor (2012)

This is a action movie with a good enough budget for a Hong Kong action flick. But the primary focus of this movie is the action. When it comes down to it, it's basically one of those trademark Hong Kong cop movie with one brother who is a cop and the other who is on the other side of the law but because of the situation they are in. They end up teaming up although they have different reasons for fighting, even if the villains they are against is the same. The two brothers are played by Jay Chou and Nicholas Tse. Nicholas Tse who tries way too hard to show off his acting chops in this and goes over the top to the point I couldn't take it seriously. The thing is the main slow down of this movie is when it tries to throw a bunch of cliché Hong Kong action flick elements into the story. Which I just couldn't take seriously at all. Sometimes this works but not this time around. This flick started out kinda promising but it just started to go all over the place without it being immersive or all that entertaining. This flick basically tries uber hard to be super cool with characters trying super cool and that includes the villains as well. The thing is this movie has a lot of action in it, even if some of the action sequences and character decisions don't make much sense. It's a action movie that has no memorable action scenes and vapid for the most part. Despite all the shootouts and explosions I was bored with this one.4/10

A team of military special forces are escorting a scientist and his family in the Middle East when they are ambushed by terrorists, intent on taking the scientist's work on a genetically engineered super-strain of smallpox and using it for their own private financial gain. One of the operatives receives a bullet in the head, but declines to stay in hospital to recuperate, instead heading off to Malaysia to look for his estranged father and the brother he never knew he had. As luck would have it, this course of action brings him back in contact and indeed conflict with the terrorists.Hong Kong does not typically do hi-tech action thrillers very well, and terrorists seeking super-viruses is certainly a red flag when it comes to a Hong Kong movie. The smarter Hong Kong's scriptwriters try to make their characters sound, the dumber they usually come across, and this is no exception. Additionally, credibility-stretching coincidences are rarely a hallmark of a well-written script. One incredible coincidence which becomes the centre-piece of the story, exploring how the effects of random probability or the hand of fate can transform a person's life, can make for an interesting story and film. When your hi-tech action thriller introduces at least 3 unbelievable coincidences in an attempt to make your story about super-viruses seem more coherent, you should probably realise you've taken the wrong track.In short, the script for The Viral Factor is a mess... ridiculously, eyeball rollingly so, really. The annoying thing is that it's all quite unnecessary... at its heart there is a story of two estranged brothers that have found themselves on opposite sides of the law, but who have to cooperate to protect their family and see if they can find forgiveness and redemption. The implausible coincidences don't really add anything to that scenario, and the whole terrorists with super-viruses aspect is basically not needed, too. They're plot devices that speak of a weak writer, one who feels that the simple motivations of family, love, guilt and redemption just aren't enough to engage the viewer... when in fact they're the only parts of the script that do.Somehow, the glaring flaws in the story do not derail The Viral Factor nearly as much as you feel they ought to. The writing is awful, but pretty much everything else about the film is good. Dante Lam's direction is strong, the performances from Jay Chou and Nic Tse are good, visuals and production values are excellent and the action scenes are top calibre. Some individual scenes are well written and executed, and there is generally a lot to like about the film. Generally, the further the whole 'Viral Factor' aspect is pushed into the background, the more engaging and enjoyable the film is - and for much of the running time it is indeed relegated to the background.If Lam had had the confidence to just excise all the hi-tech espionage type fluff and focus on the emotional core of the story, he could have made a great film here... though admittedly he'd have robbed himself of some excuses for staging some quite remarkable action scenes (though I'm sure he'd have found a way). As it is, I guess he can take some credit for managing to produce a pretty solid film despite the self-imposed handicap of a ridiculous script.

High-octane action takes center stage in Dante Lam's THE VIRAL FACTOR, which also marks his most expensive movie yet (at a whopping HK$200 million budget). Even though the plot takes a backseat this time (a forte that Dante Lam excels greatly 2010's award-winning THE STOOL PIGEON), THE VIRAL FACTOR is a solidly entertaining blockbuster that promises a lot of firepower equivalent with the one often found in Hollywood action trappings.Dante Lam, Candy Leung and Jack Ng's screenplay is a standard-issue plot spliced together with a heavily-melodramatic subplot. Those who are expecting the same psychological depth found in 2008's THE BEAST STALKER, 2010's FIRE OF CONSCIENCE and again, THE STOOL PIGEON, will be disappointed by lackluster storytelling approach here.However, the movie still works best when comes to a few emotionally-charging scenes while the actors rise above the occasion with some top-notch performances.But what really makes the movie compulsively watchable is its well-crafted action sequences. Designed by Dante Lam himself and perfectly choreographed by Chin Kar-Lok, the action is fast and furious.Full review at http://caseymoviemania.blogspot.com/2012/01/viral-factor-2012.html

Sorry, but I cannot agree with all the rave reviews offered on this site. Here we have a Chinese Jason-Bourne-like character, who is on the trail of, and also abetting and saving a terrorist; a plot that involves possible use of biological weapons, corrupt agents, deadly gunfire and his mama. In short, it's something of a mess, but lots of gun-play, fistfights, and explosions will keep some folks happy. I was inclined to leave this film early, but I find movies with Jay Zhou (or Chou as it's spelled here) amusing. Mr. Zhou has all the thespian skills of a turnip. He has his sullen face, his angry face, his sad face....in his last several films he does little talking. His shtick is to stare into the distance one way or another, and he plays this to a tee here. He can't act! Will someone please tell his paymaster! In this film a small portion of the dialog is in English, but I doubt anyone will understand Mr. Zhou's thick accent. Good thing there's subtitles! Suffice it to say, in this story the world will be doomed unless Jay Zhou succeeds. In many scenes, the cops don't just seem helpless to stop the terrorists, they are helpless. The bad guys are near super-human, incredibly resourceful, and it's child's play for them to either gun down or escape from an army of machine-gun toting police. Several scenes definitely strain credulity; the action is not realistic, but clearly is comic-book fare. An odd addition to the plot was the attempt to introduce sentimentality regarding one of the terrorists. This is a man who kills people, does kill many on screen, and somehow the director wants to show us his "human" side, (in this case with the introduction of a daughter that is little more than a prop in the movie), to induce pity or sympathy for him. Sorry, this guy is a killer (killers don't make good fathers, so the daughter is better off if he's not around), and he should die! John Woo did better at this sort of thing, because his Killer killed other criminals, but in this movie innocent people die. The director has connections and money, and Jay Zhou, but he has much to learn!