Kill Zone

Donnie Yen plays a guido who can literally punch you stupid. I'm pretty sure that every single damn line in this was clunky exposition or stating out loud what a character was thinking or going to do, which starts out hilarious and ends up disappointing and embarassing. The kinetic action was surprisingly enjoyable, and as such it's a crying shame there's only so little of it. What remains is 'The Shield as written by a 12 year old' levels of stupidity and melodrama.

Donnie Yen is charismatic in his role and Sammo Hung looks like a fat Chinese Santa Claus. The emotional interaction between the characters tends to be rather contrite. You don't watch a movie like this for talking but for the action. Kill Zone is great in that sense because it's so over the top. The choreography is fairly eclectic incorporating multiple fighting styles such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, kali/silat, kung fu, and kickboxing. This would have been so much better with a writer though.

Ends on a high note. Seriously, that ending is great, and Sammo Hung is the greatest. The movie itself isn't that hot when Donnie Yen isn't fighting someone, though.

A great movie with awesome fight scenes. The story while not being up to Infernal Affairs quality is still very good. But really it's the action, and not just the Martial Arts mind you, that gets your heart pumping. The final irony at the end of the movie is a bitter sweet pill that fits perfectly.

Style over substance, totally contrived, but I was entertained the entire time. And that ending.

Some great action and cinematography. Plot's a wee bit thin but it does at least try to get across a positive moral message, I'd say it succeeds. And damn, what an ending.

A couple fantastic action scenes but they are too few and far between and the story just isn't that interesting.

The movie's powerhouse static-shot ending almost makes up for the labyrinth, weighty rest of the movie. This is clearly a guy's film, and the film's emotional center - variations on the problem of modern fatherhood - would have been an excellent place to start a major Chinese boxing drama. Unfortunately, the editing and dialogue make the story just shy of laughably trite. Deserves props for the fight sequences, of course.

this fighting scenes are amazing!

gritty hk cop flick which would be just slightly better than average except for wilson yip being an amazing director both in the quiet moments and the brutal action scenes. the yip/yen combo cannot be beaten when it comes to making cinematic fights look seriously damaging. yam is especially convincing in his dramatic role, and the entire squad of cops is actually written really well.

Entertainingly bad/dumb. Sometimes funnily so. Could've used a little more action.

A triumphant return to the spotlight by Sammo Hung, who is just as fast as ever.

the fights are good but sillier than ip man; the ratio of story:fights is disappointing considering how bad the story is

Great fight scenes with a decent plot with some interesting thoughts about the ends justifying the means and such

The violence is satisfyingly bloody and a nice yang to the yin of fractured father/son relationships that run throughout the film.

A rather entertaining piece of Hong Kong-noir, with Donnie Yen adding his usual coolness (although I prefer his more arrogant fighting style as Yip Man).. A few interesting choices on behalf of the director, a bad-ass ultra fast henchman with a Tanto (Jacky Wu!) plus a few of the classic noir-elements make this one fairly watchable in spite of its weaknesses and thin plot

I fucking love Jacky Wu.

- 11/26/11

bad dads and donnie yen vs wu jing in a battle of ridiculous outfits. i love donnie's belt/buckle situation, but gotta give the edge to wu jing and that hair it's just too much

Some truly amazing fight choreography which threw Donnie Yen into a completely different style then he's normally used to. Some personal favourites seemed to leak through, but nonetheless good fight scenes. Special effects however were not that special but were masked well enough to let you believe it for the first 3 seconds.

Poor acting with a weakass storyline. Sure the action scenes were nice, but the rest of what they called a movie was utter crap.

Movies like this remind me why Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen are the legends they are. While all the fights/chases are great, nothing compares to that famously improvised duel between Yen and Wu Jing. I like the theme of "right" and "wrong" being a matter of perspective when it comes to law vs criminals, but it wasn't done as well as other movies have, and I'm not sure why the ending is a dismal as it is, but overall it's a worthy martial arts film for any fan.

Agreeing with most others that the story had potential to be a lot better with a good writer, and Hong Kong still has a ways to go in this aspect. Pretty standard fare for Hong Kong police action stories, but it's backed by Donnie Yen and the movie keeps true to its darker tone.