rockito_estalon

Homice: Life on The Streets had a variety of narratives for the various episodes the presented after Season 2. I wish the show was way more focused in the aftermath of the crimes and how it affects the detectives, the victims and also the guilty. I think it's at the top of the game when it does that, and in turn suffers when it tries to be action-packed or tries to present a mystery-type of story.

This time around, a kid is accidentally shot in front of his parents by a group of teens running with guns on a mall. The solving part goes smoothly in a "Point A to Point B" basis: Bayliss and Pembletton pick a one of the teens who in turn points them to the actual culprit and they can call it a day.

What gets us at the edge of our seat is not the crime itself but the consequences. The injured kid is sadly confirmed to be brain dead, the parents refuse to aknowledge this is a homicide investigation despite their son being technically dead and our "main" duo have to deal with the greaving situations that presents itself on the crime investigation.

After a decent enough start of the season that struggles with not having Detectives Bolander and Felton as active members anymore, A Doll's Eyes helps it get it's stride once again.

Pretty unique take on deforestation and polution. Unfortunaly the message and the movie itself are a little too heavy-handed, and it has like 15 minutes that do not add much to the plot. The songs are beautiful but really cheesy.

After the dissapointing Police Story 2, Jackie steps off the director chair and let's Stanley Tong do the job. This entry in the series tones down the acrobatic fights trademarked by Chan, focusing more in vehicle chases, shoot-outs and regular (but well coreographed of course) hand to hand fights, and instead of Ka Kui running around Hong Kong, he travels from country to country while infiltrating a gang of drug dealers. Funnily enough this feels more of a natural sequel to the original than the jarring Police Story 2. The addition of Michelle Yeoh's Capt Yang brings a lot of freshness and contrast to Chan's Ka Kui wacky and hot-blooded persona, and steals the show for the most part. The only downside is that most of the secondary characters from the previous movies are either ditched or have just small roles. Still, you can go wrong with this one.

Police Story 2 is so tone deaf at times that it's almost unbelieavable considering it's made by the same team that made the awesome first movie. It retains the goofy attitude and the same superb stunt-work but the whole plot is contrived, violent and sad at times. It's like "gloomy slaptstick". The sadism of the new villains and the comedic actions of Ka Kui clash into each other like to tidal waves. Also the weird cameos of the bad guys from the previous movies doesn't help at all. If it wasn't for Jackie this would be a complete dissapointment, but fortunaly he makes it bereable enough to almost enjoy it through those rough scenes.