2000 A.D. (2000)
Reviewed by: Arshadnm6 on 2005-04-18
Summary: Action packed movie with a lot to offer, techno-style!!!
Peter (played by Aaron Kwok from ‘Barefoot Kid’, ‘Para Para Sakura’ and ‘Throwdown’), a nerdy computer programmer, who gets involved in a computer virus war, revolving around a ‘Rosetta program’ which contains confidential and secretive information on a virus capable of crippling the stock-markets amongst other public services (i.e. the international electricity supply etc.), when his brother Greg (Ray Lui) is exposed as a CIA agent. Peter is clueless about the goings-on during his arrest and is released shortly afterwards only to see his older brother brutally murdered by a group of international terrorist, and Greg’s fiancée Salina (Phyllis Quek) turns up from nowhere and seems to have an ulterior motive. Through giving chase to a terrorist (played by Ken Lo from Armour of God II’ ‘Police Story III’ and ‘My Father is a Hero’), Peter becomes embroiled in a game of wits and double-crosses with the terrorists headed by an undercover CIA agent (Andrew Lin Hoi from ‘Infernal Affairs II’, ‘The Blacksheep Affairs’ and ‘New Police Story’). Aiding Peter is his sidekick computer programmer friend and flatmate (played by Daniel Wu from ‘Princess D’, ‘Gen-X-Cops’ and ‘Purple Storm’) along with his younger sister and Peter’s girlfriend (played by Gigi Choi). In addition, hot on the trails of the terrorists is Singapore agent Eric (James Lye from ‘Miracles’ and ‘Project A part II’) who aids Peter in his quest to avenge his brother and at the same time discover the reasons behind his brutal murder. Meanwhile, a Hong Kong superior policeman Ronald Ng (played by Francis Ng from ‘Gen-X-Cops’, ‘The White Dragon’ and ‘A Man Called Hero’) is always trying to get to the bottom of the matter.

This movie is very high-budget, features a good soundtrack, a true feel of the international-scale which matters seem to relate to and some great action scenes mixed in with suspense, romance and comedy. Although, the movie becomes serious after a while and the jokes become thinner, it contains a good set of characters to keep everyone entertained but never can be taken too dramatically. Although, the twists, sub-plots and storyline are well done for this film, it sometimes seems to loose focus and only well-spaced tragedies seem to offer it direction amid the constant mayhem of shoot-outs and chases. Also, the choice of locations is always inspired. Nevertheless, the movie does contain some less well-known or amateur actors which do not contribute significantly to the storyline (i.e. Gigi Choi, Daniel Wu and James Lye) and their characters seem to only be putting things in perspective for the viewers most of the time. This movie also highlights Gordon Chan’s strength in directing terrorist-related projects and on delivering a cleverly thought-out movie with good entertainment value.

Nevertheless, the movie does have some excellent choice of experienced characters in Francis Ng and Andrew Lin Hoi who have made previous movies in this area and can express their acting very convincingly in situations within which they are placed. However, the Singapore agent Eric does get caught out very easily for tailing Aaron Kwok’s car (some secret agent he is!) where his intentions behind chasing the terrorists are never very clear (due to a brief, fuzzy and comically expressed reasoning from his superior and friction with a previous love-interest back home in Singapore) and Francis Ng dies too soon after which things do seem to go a bit stale after a while. The problem with this movie is that it has too many sidekicks and Aaron Kwok never really convinces the viewer of his ability to take a full-on hero role (as done through his previous movies and mentioned by him personally since he much rather prefers a side-role). The dramatic scenes are also quite hard-hitting when they occur and never look cheesy!

Overall, this movie is very entertaining but seems to lack that little bit extra to make it a real success or do any of the actors a major credit. This is in no way down to the selection of actors or their acting. It may be explained by Aaron Kwok’s transformation from a law-abiding computer nerd (who has never touched a gun before or had a fight involving spilt blood in his life) into a terrorist-hunting maniac. Who knows?

Overall Rating: 7.7/10
Reviewer Score: 8