Dragon Squad (2005)

DRAGON SQUAD is a no-brainer for me: a Hong Kong action film in which Interpol agents battle criminal gangs, with warfare on the streets. Martial arts battles with machetes, sniper stand-offs, daring heists, and a revenge-fuelled storyline are all par for the course for this genre, so this should be an easy film to like. Unfortunately there's one big problem which drags it down to a barely enjoyable level: Daniel Lee's direction.This is the worst directed Hong Kong action film I've seen in many, many years. DRAGON SQUAD is over-edited to within an inch of its life. The editing is super fast throughout, with constant shaky-cam work and headache-inducing montages. It makes the film look dated and amateurish and the 1990s-looking captions don't help either. I mean, why on earth did Lee think it would be a good idea to keep showing black-and-white stills of the characters during the suspense scenes? It's ridiculous! Had the direction been restrained, oh I don't know by actually allowing the actors time to act and the combatants to show off their skills, then this would have been a lot better. As it stands, Lee is the cinematic equivalent of a bratty kid at a birthday party, jumping up and down and shouting "Look at me! Look at me!".I've seen other works by the same director (THREE KINGDOMS: RESURRECTION OF THE DRAGON, 14 BLADES) and they were nothing like this so I can only hope he learnt his lesson by his mistakes here. Otherwise, DRAGON SQUAD is fun film; plenty of action and one hell of cast to really get your teeth into. Among others this movie features Maggie Q as a sniper, Sammo Hung as an elder cop with an Alsation, Michael Biehn as the villain, Simon Yam as the chief cop, Li Bingbing as a love interest, Andy On as a bad guy, and Shawn Yue as one of the heroic cops. A shame about the charisma-free (and oddly-named) Vaness Wu (yeah, he's a guy) as the Emo-style hero, but then you can't have everything. I just wish the director hadn't messed up so bad on this one.

I seem to give a lot of 5 recently, i am not sure if its because my standards are higher or i stumble across many ordinary movies. Lets just say that my opinion of Dragon Heat is a roller coaster. In some part i was getting into the story, in other parts i was bored, i could say the same for the action as some gun fights where nice, but some others where ridiculous(snipers can't hit anything for example). The fist fights where not that numerous, but when there was one, they where pretty fine...But the problems reside in 2 things, the plot and the bad cinematography. The director tried to give the movie a special touch or i dunno, using all kinds of blurry filters and effects, and it end up just being a mess. Also the movie kinda use the old formula of presenting every character with a 5 secs clip and name on screen, because there is a lot of them, yet those clips are used and re-used in the movie, which is way too much.The plot itself is confusing a bit, hard to follow, not the worst i ever saw but its hard to get into it and understand who do what in it. At some point you just give up and tell yourself, well good cops must kill bad guys, end of the story...As for the lead roles, i would say Sammo Hung has decent screen time, he appear first like a side character but at the end your kinda thinking he is more or less one of the lead. As for Maggie Q, she only play a bad guy with not much personality. She is the Sniper who can't hit anything... lol. No fight scene either. Don't let the cover fool you.

HK cinema, which has been very successfully keeping on and intensifying the good old traditions of entertainment with human heart, once ignited by Mr Charles Chaplin and Mr Buster Keaton, strikes again. Jokes are put aside this time though.The movie is a must-have for anybody who respects proper action. During my childhood I watched "Lethal Weapon" and thought that it was the best of the best. But now as I watch this HK production, all the memories of "Lethal Weapon" go blank. "Dragon Squad" is tough and stylish. The camera is very jerky sometimes and one should get accustomed to this. But when you get accustomed, you get a real modern action treat.When I bought the movie on DVD I had no info about it. I just noticed some strange title "Dragon Squad" on the shelf. I even could not trace the year of production on the box. Then I saw Mr Sammo Hung among the actors. It was "the final straw". Now I cannot believe my eyes - the rating for this movie on IMDb is ridiculous. If I tend to doze off during "Godfather", I have no such problem during "Dragon Squad". All through the movie the incredible action keeps me up even when I re-watch it and even when I'm dead tired. The original soundtrack plus the English subs is a perfect combination for this film. I am also more than just satisfied with the overall DVD quality: the sound, the picture, the animated menu, the synopsis, the impressive crew photo where every single actor is "showing his character off" - everything is slick.I've always been looking to enjoying a real HK serious modern action (not a comedy HK one, which are abundant with you-know-who starring), and now I have it. It is very unlike the Hollywood productions. It has very bitter oriental flavour (masks, knives, kung fu, very menacing attitude of the bad boys and girls, impressive looks, complicated set of heroes/villains, and I should also mention smoking and jogging at the same time - Mr Sammo Hung is as cool as a Chinese cucumber) and, damn, it has most disturbing violent scenes (artistically shot and reserved at the same time). I despise "Oldboy" kind of violence, when the torture scenes are prolonged, disgusting, and shown in detail. Here it is different - it's more like "BR" violence: quick, quirky, and unexpected (like a gully that all of a sudden pins some character to the wall). Remember the scene with the "mohawked" Chinese, when he was hanging on some hooks and Ku was coming up to him with his trademark knife? The camera just sails away saving the movie from turning into a blood-fest for maniacs. Brilliant. It's not a teen movie, definitely absolutely. It's a movie for those who are 20 and older. And I don't think that even 1% of females can sit through this insane action-packed experience. Well, in my humble opinion, of course. I cannot recall any action movie, which overdoes this one in "action density". The story of each squad member is shown in a few seconds and some episode is shown revealing his or her abilities. If you wink a couple of times, you miss the point. Everything goes cut, cut, and cut with colour scheme changing, titles appearing, etc., like in a newsreel.Last, but not least, this film makes a viewer (me to be sure) feel for the good characters. Their young age intensifies this feeling. The "Dragon Squad" look so young and slim and the sergeant Kong looks so old and depressed, but they work miracles and confront most ruthless villains in the streets of Hong Kong.I've been thinking that the time of perfect action passed long time ago and this action film has challenged my point of view. One scene at the cemetery alone is a treat but there are lots of others not worse than this. A pleasant surprise.The IMDb rating for this action makes me laugh.10 out of 10, HK keeps me wondering, how much more action treats those Chinese guys have. Almost forgot: the movie is free from sex scenes, stupid nakedness, and boring sentiments (modern action/crime flicks suck because of this and this movie rules without it). Thank you for attention.

Film: Dragon Squad Year: 2005 Genre(s): Action/Drama Director: Daniel Lee Language(s): Cantonese, Madarin, English Running Time: 111 Mins Format: DVD(Hong Kong Release) Cast: Venness Wu, Shawn Yue, Xia Yu, Eva Haung, Lawrence Chou, Sammo Hung, Micheal Biehn, Simon Yam, Huh Joon Ho, Maggie QSynopsis: Five interpol agents are drafted into Hong Kong to keep watch over a witness in an important trial, while being transported the convoy is ambushed by a gang of masked gun man.The agents, come together to solve who attacked them and, while being mentored by an almost retired officer, decide to take out the gang before more people are killed.Review:So this film has been receiving a lot of negative press, both from fans living in Hong Kong and those who live in other countries, having seen the flick, i's easy to understand why, the pacing is chaotic and the camera work as extremely frantic during it's many action sequences, add in some awkward attempts at character development and some repetitive flashbacks and you'd have a stinker on your hands right?Well, I hate to break it to you guys but no, despite some of the films superficial flaws, it does not fail in being one of the finest films to come out of Hong Kong in 2005 and while it didn't get the box office reception it deserved, this reviewer felt refreshed to find some creativity among the watered down Rom-coms the local film industry have seem to be putting out this past year. So let's start with the plot.It's your typical by the numbers tried and tested plot, there's the bad guys and there's the good guys, they fight, bad guys win, good guys get mentored by wise senior, fight again, good guys win.So really the plot is an excuse for director Daniel Lee is experiment with some very Micheal Mann-esquire camera work, about that, the camera work for the most part does the job right, it creates excitement and tension which kept this reviewer glued o the screen throughout, as it suited the style of the action scene s very well.Now the action, well, the good news is, there's plenty of it, lots of gun play with the odd martial arts sequence thrown in for good measure, the fighting mostly being done by Huh Joon Ho and Sammo Hung who confront each other twice, the second encounter being the most bloody and brutal. The shootouts are very well put together.For a movie which could be considered a mainstream film in Hong Kong, it isn't afraid to be extremely violent when it wants to be, there's plenty of blood on offer here, so if the acting doesn't grab, the blood soaked action will.The acting ranges from sleepy to extremely good. Micheal Biehn, who's a familiar face to Hollywood movie fans as Kyle Reese in James Cameron's seminal classic The Termintor, stars as the lead villain, for a man who's been working in the film industry for so long, I thought he would have brought some much needed acting to the movie but really he seems to be almost sleep walking in his role but one may interpret Biehn's characterisation as a person who's so cold, he shows very little emotion.The actors who played the five interpol agents where all very good, although, really, I would have liked it if they had a little more personality, they all came off as a little bland in place. Eva Huang is extremely easy on the eyes, definitely a face to look out for in future movies. former pop star Vanness Wu gives a credible performance, while Shawn Yue gives his usual calibre of acting but this reviewer felt the best acting had to go to the one and only Sammo Hung, who plays a character reluctant to get involved but realises if he wants to leave the past behind him, he must confront his demons, it's also worth mentioning he has the best fight in the entire movie against Huh Joon Hoo, who plays a chillingly sociopathic villain.So, overall I really liked it, I think it's nowhere near as bad as everyone seems to be making it out to be and deserves at least one viewing by anyone who's a fan of Hong Kong cinema or Micheal Bay.