SPL: Kill Zone (2006)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Kill Zone is yet another Hong Kong crime thriller with a little bit of moral ambiguity thrown in to convince the critics that it's deeper than it really is. It's certainly not an original film and it does feel a little bit like an Infernal Affairs wannabe. But is it still a good movie? Let's take a look, shall we?Firstly, the story. The story is that of a cop who tries to frame a mob boss for murder for murdering his witnesses in the past. But as expected, things eventually start going wrong and the cop ends up trying to both escape the law and the mob. This story is actually pretty good albeit a little cliché. To be honest, I am kinda sick of seeing the typical " bad cop " in Hong Kong crime thrillers. We all know he's gonna end up dead by the end of the movie and we all know things aren't going to go well for him so we just kinda end up sitting there waiting for sh!t to go down for him. But other than that, I quite like this story. I like how fast-paced it moves. It opens immediately with the murder of the witnesses via car crash and from then on it never slows down. Yip(director) goes through a lot of information using visuals instead of dialogue which I always like. He also keeps the film at a brisk 93 minute runtime without feeling rushed which is pretty commendable. So pacing is definitely one of the film's strong points!The story here does raise an interesting question, is it ever okay to break the law for the good of mankind? The cops in this movie murder, threaten, and provide fake evidence all just to frame the mob boss, Wong Po. Most of them end up getting murdered and the last survivor dies of a tumor in the end anyways. Wong Po in this movie is depicted as an extremely powerful crime boss here who's murdered probably dozens of people but should they be allowed to use dirty tactics just to send this man to prison? The movie never answers for us, it lets us decide on our own. So there is an interesting question to think after seeing this movie.Surprisingly, there isn't that much action in this movie. There's a few fight scenes in this movie and they are actually quite brutal and spectacular but this movie is a lot more plot-driven than action-driven. I really don't mind this because of how well-paced and intense this movie gets. When there are fights though, they are brutal, fast-paced, and intense. And you'll never be able to take your eyes off the screen.The performances are quite good. Simon Yam is actually really good here as a tough, ruthless cop. He seems like a good man blinded by rage. Donnie Yen is just playing Donnie Yen but he's always good at playing Donnie Yen so no complaints here. The one actor who I think steals the show is Sammo Hung. In the 80's and 90's, Sammo Hung was always the funny guy. He had a cute, chubby look to him so he was constantly typecast as a cute, lovable guy but here, he's not clowning around! In this movie, he is a complete bad@ss! Everyone else is good too.The cinematography has a very wide, clean look to it which makes the brutal violence look even more brutal. It's a very good looking film!Overall, it's a little cliché but it's still a fun, intense ride with a few interesting questions to discuss after seeing it so I'll give it a 7/10.

I decided to check this flick out after someone suggested it was better than "The Raid" and "Kung Fu Hustle" (Two very different films, but both of which I loved).I was extremely disappointed. The plot is paper thin and the script is very weak. The "good" guys are idiots and mess up on every single turn. Non of them is likable. Not even Donnie Yen's character, which comes off as very conceited and bratty. The action and script are not believable at all. They include: The commander miraculously released from the bad guy's cage without explanation. The protagonist finally finishes the bad guy, but doesn't check if he's dead or handcuffs him, instead he goes searching for a product placement.A 75 kg man picking up and catapulting a 130 kg man over his head without using momentum. A cop fighting a man with a mini Katana without trying to disarm him. A cop coming to kill a man, but using the element of surprise to waste all his bullets on anyone who is not the target, even though he has a clear shot. The bad guy is videotaped playing golf with a cop's head, then his accomplice shoots the cop in the head, but this is insufficient evidence, apparently, to charge him with anything.A cop shooting at a hostage taker while the hostage is still alive, but not firing a single shot once he is executed. then doesn't call it in to warn other cops, so they get executed as well. A cop going to a dangerous neighborhood alone and unarmed. A woman saying she can't get pregnant, but next time she appears on screen, she has a month old baby. A man is beaten with sticks while running, but this doesn't hinder him at all. Then he gets beat up with sticks for several minutes but continues to stand (maybe I missed the part where they said he was an android?).A cop has a few months to live, he is devoting his remaining time to taking out the bad guy, he's willing to destroy his reputation by faking evidence, but does not simply kill the bad guy when the bad guy confronts him on the street while his gun is drawn. Bam, would have ended the movie there, but no, had to make it complicated and get everyone killed. Great! no wander you're the commanding officer in this flick.Oh, and finally, the good guys lose. That was worth sticking it out for...The only redeeming points are Donnie Yen's and Jackie Wu's martial arts skills, as well as Sammo's surprising agility (although I think camera work and editing helped him out a little), but those are rarely seen. Without these, the movie is a 3. As it is I give this a 5.

Hong Kong lives under the shadow rule of crime lord Wong Po (the ageless Sammo Hung Kam-Bo). This reign was thought to have ended with evidence enough to put him in jail, but the key witness is killed together with his wife. The detective leading the case Chan Kwok Chung (Simon Yam) adopts the orphaned child of the victims and promises a no-holds-barred revenge. Time however is short, as Chung is diagnosed with brain cancer. This forces his hand to take an approach which is borderline lawless.With less than two days left before he has to retire Chung and his team of elite police decide to take matters into their own hands and stop at nothing to get their man (supplanting evidence, killing weak links to fabricated charges and terrorising witnesses). This however does not fit well with the replacement inspector Ma Kwun (Donnie Yen), who confronts the team about their methods...A dastardly movie trying to sway in the direction of "Infernal Affairs" with a martial arts twist to it, it does manage to imprint a touch of class to the story with some almost art-house scenes and underline it with one terrific fight scene in a back alley (Donnie Yen vs Jacky Wu is quite intense and the length of sequences that go on without cuts / montages is impressive).Nonetheless the movie fails badly in the basics. Elements of back-story are constantly fed into the story in an attempt to flesh out characters, their motivations and add some dramatic punch. However these are poorly dealt with adding false notes throughout and seem forcibly attached severely limiting the dramatic flow of the movie. Below par melodramatic dialogues don't help proceedings as do severe plot flaws.The most damning is the attempt to manipulate video data in order to frame Wong Po for murder, when any sane policeman would have just used the available material to press charges for attempted murder and complicity to murder (both actions evidently filmed on tape without necessity to manipulate the video). Additionally since when is a videotape with someone hitting a man with a golf club followed by a shot of his associate shooting a bullet into the guys brain not enough to put someone in jail? These aren't the only such situations, which scream lazy scriptwriting.The movie does end with a sucker-punch (albeit preceded by a laughable not-checking-if-the-guy-you-beat-up-is-actually-dead scene) that deservedly gets a lot of praise, but all in all is too little, too late to actually repair the faulty unbelievable story.

As I was watching SPL I started to wonder if it might justify a "great" rating, then the last 10 minutes convinced me once and for all that it undoubtedly deserved that title.And as far as SPL goes, it stands for Saat Po Long, but I had no idea what that means, so I IMDb'd it. Apparently the literal translation is "Kill the Broken Wolf", but in the US it was subtitled Kill Zone.So that clears that up then! (By the way, I think each version of the title sucks, none of them sum up a cool movie.) SPL is a cops vs robbers tale with some ambiguity thrown in, as the bad guys aren't all bad, and the good guys aren't necessarily that good.But in black and white terms Sammo Hung plays the bad guy Wong Po, and he is the leader of a gang who rules the inner city come nightfall. He is tough, loyal and capable of great brutality. (Sammo is also still a fat guy, if anything he is expanding as he ages.) The "white hats" are led by Inspector Chan, who leads a special unit focused solely on bringing down Wong Po and his crew.Inspector Chan has two reasons for wanting Wong Po gone, firstly Wong Po organised a hit that resulted in both the witness and his wife dead, orphaning their daughter who Chan adopted. Secondly, after a post incident routine medical Chan is told that he has an inoperable brain tumour and only has a short time left.Given the medical state Chan is told that he is to be replaced, with this reduced time frame and his personal vendetta in mind the crew decides to have one last clean up. This involves a lot of "off the record" activities, many entailing a higher than usual degree of violence and intimidation as the team go all out to ensure Chan can retire and see out his days knowing they achieved something.Unfortunately despite constant infractions of the law and hard nosed tactics at the conclusion of the sweep they are no closer to securing a conviction for Wong Po or his loyal minions.The incoming boss Kwun, played by Donnie Yen, is largely kept in the dark at this stage so that the "special methods" aren't questioned.On the first guided tour of the new district Kwun and Chan are involved in a tense standoff that only escalates when Wong Po personally becomes involved. No quarter is given in what is essentially a p*ssing contest designed to let the enemy know exactly who is boss.Later though the police have a breakthrough, when a socially inept young man brings in a tape that inadvertently shows Wong Po being directly involved in a brutal beating and murder.As Wong Po clearly did not pull the trigger in the tape, more "special methods" are utilised and Wong Po is immediately arrested and charged with the crime.Chan and his crew must then work against the clock to clear up all loose ends that might absolve Wong Po of the crime before his 48 hour holding period elapses and he is once again on the streets.To this point the film is largely a goodies Vs baddies story with slightly blurred boundaries, Wong Po of course is freed from prison after a short time and the cops become marked men. Once Donnie Yen's character Kwun becomes fully aware of what he is now in the middle of he must choose sides quickly and take the consequences.The film sets an early tone that tells us this will not have a happy ending, and the good and bad both suffer losses, often in sudden and brutal fashion.The final showdown is preceded by a frankly awesome fanboy fave knife fight between Donnie Yen and a white-clad assassin. If the film had have ended here I would still have been satisfied, as a "level boss" duel it is truly great.Except for the fact that after this the moment of truth must come with Donnie and Sammo squaring off. Although Sammo (like Jackie Chan) is now well into his 50s he still has almost all the moves, and I would almost argue that he is aging a little better than Jackie given he has been lugging around a big gut for 4 decades now.Sammo exhibits real power and quickness that belies his age and yes, girth, and Donnie Yen always comes up with goods when he allowed to. (Damn you Blade 2 for not giving him some scenes!) Once the smoke clears and the realisation comes on both sides that there are no real winners, the credits roll and the audience can take stock of what they have just witnessed.Each year a large number of foreign language films are hyped to buggery by a media desperate to be seen as ahead of the curve, examples from the last decade include The Host (overrated but OK), Pan's Labyrinth (slightly overrated) and City of God (unless I missed the point extremely overrated!). For some reason as SPL didn't have an obvious hook or selling point it didn't come up in many such conversations. That is really a pity, as the main selling point should be that this is a really good film.No wait, a great one.Final Rating – 8.5 / 10. Pay attention in the early going, you'll be rewarded with one of the more kick ass finales in film history, one that almost overshadows a legitimately powerful ending.