without john woo's awesome action scenes, the series is nothing

Nothing special at all

It's a far more cogent, well-written narrative than the first two films, but doesn't have that same thrilling action. The main problem is that the central love story doesn't make sense; why does Chow fall for Cheung, anyways? There is no chemistry between them either, thanks to Pop Princess Anita Mui's inability to act. It's a fun film, but the entertainment is nowhere close to its predecessors, and the story is "movie decent", nothing more.

This 3rd part of A Better Tomorrow is pretty good from a stand alone view.