2000 AD (2000)

the audience applauded

Thanks for the memories!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The great thing about Hong Kong action thrillers is that you don't need a full frontal lobotomy before you can enjoy them. Movies like The Fast and The Furious, Stealth and A Man Apart are so shockingly devoid of any real action in the upstairs department that you wonder if someone really took the term 'no-brainer' too far and removed the juicy brains of the entire production staff.On the other side of the fence, and indeed the world, most Hong Kong made thrillers are clever and witty, relying on a believable and steadily developed plot just as much as fast-paced set pieces. 2000AD is a fantastic illustration of this approach. Gordon Chan's tight believable movie trundles along at a fast but not breakneck pace, giving you time to get your head round the clever but not convoluted plot.Centring on a corrupt American-Cantonese CIA op attempting to hold the world to ransom with a program capable of destroying any computer mainframe, 2000AD is complex but believable. It smartly avoids using any technology our current world can't produce, and as a result avoids tying itself up in nonsensical knots or producing any real plot holes.While it depends largely on character and story as opposed to braindead gunplay, 2000AD is also full of consummate examples of how to stage a fantastic action set piece. The action sequences are as good as you would expect from the Chan production team, full of great stunts and awesome spectacle. As an added bonus, the movie's slow-burning nature means that when it does let rip, boy do you feel it.With both of these elements, 2000AD comes in highly recommended. However it does have a few niggling flaws. For a start, the version I watched had somewhat awkward subtitles that missed odd segments of dialogue, but honestly this didn't detract much from the movie. Still, the film is a little unbalanced between high energy action and a somewhat darker element. The dialogue in the movie is knowingly funny and wittily written, as with many Hong Kong films, and although this is fun to have in the movie, some people might find it at odds with the film's often brutal action sequences.Still, if you enjoy Hong Kong cinema, you should seek this out, it won't disappoint, and if you feel like a change from the norm in your action movies you should definitely try this movie.

2000 AD is a big HK 2000 Lunar New Year (February) movie release, made to capture as large an audience as possible with its story of a struggling video game designer (Aaron Kwok) who gets drawn into an Asian shadow world of spies, counter-intelligence and killers. An opening sequence involving the bad guy's way of delaying the arrival of some officials employs great visual effects, supplied in part by the technicians who worked on Independence Day and Gen-X Cops. Gordon Chan, the director of this action movie, does a good job choreographing the shoot-outs, fights and car chases. The story borrows some plot elements from The Net, but unlike Sandra Bullock, Aaron Kwok is the chaser, after the guys who murdered his brother in a bloody sniper attack. It is not Shakespeare, but 2000 AD moves fast, has colorful Singapore location shooting (no caning sequence here) and introduces great looking Singapore actress Phyllis Quek as key player in the action. Except for some ultra-violent sequences during the shootouts, 2000 AD is a fine, action packed movie.

It's been so excited after viewing this movie. The story is good and the gun fighting scene is excellent. It's probably the best after the bank robbery scene in "Heat". The action is so realistic and make you can't breath. The characters are also real. Like most of us, we spent most money on buying video game, hi-fi, etc. We like to play game but when the real horrible thing come true, we may not be able to handle it.This movie will definitely become my all-time favorite action movie,

For a movie hyped for its SFX and action scenes, this one felt more like a TV movie. There are, to be sure, some nice fight sequences (in a carpark; along the Singapore river; on a Hong Kong street) and Aaron Kwok is likable enough, but everything else just limps along, from its hokey laptop-that-can-destroy-civilisation-as-we-know-it plot device to its bland photography to its lame climax. I recommend another Hong Kong blockbuster from this year, TOKYO RAIDERS instead, which has more charm & suspense in its opening sequence than 2000AD has in its entire (heavily padded) duration.