Marky Mark Wahlberg got top billing but this is really Chown Yun Fat's movie and he does a nice job carrying it. Fat is an old-time Chinatown cop who long ago compromised himself for favors from the local crime boss, and Wahlberg is the new cop assigned to his area. Fat's eccentricities enhance a fairly standard character-type (the essentially good cop who sold out his integrity -- most notably last seen in "LA Confidential") and makes you want to see him pull out of this mess.
Wahlberg got a lot of raves for his performance in "Boogie Nights" but he falls pretty flat here. His character if fairly bland and even after more of his background is revealed to show that he's not necessarily the naive patsy he first comes off as, he's never very compelling.
There's a few ultra-violent shoot-outs that seem a concession to Chow Yun Fat's work with John Woo but they don't always fit very well in the story. These Hollywood movies always show America as some urban warzone where people are gunned down by the dozen off the street, I wonder what tourists must think! The movie has a fairly predictable end but it's an above-average cop drama, if only for Chow Yun Fat's performance--this is certainly better than his first American movie, "The Replacement Killers".
2 out of 2 found this helpful