Rebellious police cadets Jack (played by Nicholas Tse from ‘Time and Tide’, ‘The Mirror’ and ‘My Schoolmate, The Barbarian’), Match (played by Stephen Fung from ‘Enter the Pheonix’, ‘The Avenging Fist’ and ‘Cheap Killers’), and Alien (played by Sam Lee from ‘A Man called Hero’, ‘Skyline Cruisers’ and ‘A War named Desire’), who are about to kicked out of the cadet training school for their lack of discipline and respect towards their superiors, but are recruited by a depressed policeman (played by Eric Tsang from ‘Hitman’ and ‘Infernal Affairs I and II’) to go undercover as common thugs into the criminal underworld. Aiding them is Y2K (played by Grace Yip), an inside hacker into the goings-on of the gangsters concerned who wants to avenge her brother’s death. The group of misfits try to infiltrate young gang boss Daniel (played by Daniel Wu from), who is connected to a Japanese arms dealer Akatora (played by Toru Nakamura from ‘Tokyo Raiders’ and ‘2009 Lost Memories’). Meanwhile, Daniel’s new girlfriend Haze (played by Jaymee Ong from) still carries a torch for her old flame, Match. Moses Chan Ho (from ‘The Blade’, ‘Knock Off’ and ‘Black Mask’) is policeman Eric Tsang’s colleague in the police force and is always giving him a hard time and at odds with him. Francis Ng (from ‘The Mission’, ‘Shiver’ and ‘The White Dragon’) acts as a close underworld ally of Daniel’s older brother and is constantly out to seek the killer of his friend.

The film was very high-budget with lots of explosions and stunts thrown in to keep things moving along. Although, the storyline was quite original and complex, it did not carry any sub-plots and a few too many twists occurred (more than necessary) throughout the movie. Moreover, the acting by two groups of people must be considered in this movie; the inexperienced youths (consisting of Stephen Fung, Nicholas Tse, Sam Lee, Jamie Ong, Daniel Wu and Grace Yip) and the maverick/veteran actors (composed of Toru Nakamaru, Francis Ng, Eric Tsang, Terence Yin and Moses Chan Ho). The earlier group are irritating and make up most of the film in contrast to the later in that respect. This big explosion action-comedy has little to offer besides some attractive fluff floating around the screen most of the time along with a few childish pranks. At times, Daniel Wu’s inexperience is clear as big-time gangster and looks too small-time to be taken seriously most of the time. Also, the apparent ignorance and embedded beliefs of most of the experienced actors brings about their downfall at the end. Also, the mood of the movie is never too serious, always trying to be youthfully energetic and cool and looks silly, when it tries to be, during the deaths of the actors mentioned earlier. As a result, most of the solid characters in this movie are not given the credit or opportunity they deserve for “co-starring” (yes! Not starring) in this filth.

Perhaps the selection of Nicholas Tse as the hard-nuts fighter and Stephen Fung as the gigolo/women-magnet could have been swapped between them since realistically Stephen Fung has actual martial arts ability as well as experience of being involved in fight scenes and some action choreography work. Nevertheless, Sam Lee fully deserved the role of a side actor hanging around with the group for comedic value as done through all of his earlier and future acting performances. Also the inclusion of actors such as English-speaking newcomer Jamie Ong and solely Japanese and English-speaking Toru Nakamura made this film seem too shallow and their inclusion merely gave the movie a cool atmosphere. This movie therefore tried to capitalise on the tri-lingual movies market yet again (alongside the likes of ‘Tokyo Raiders’, ‘Hitman’ and ‘Fist of Legend’). Moreover, the experienced actors such as pitiful Eric Tsang acting like a depressed policeman and a psychotic Francis Ng gave their characters more dimensions but inevitably were killed-off to make space for the youngsters in the movie to lead the way. Also, Daniel Wu acted like a spoilt brat most of the time and never really convinced anyone of his acting as an acceptable nemesis and again he was disposed-off with when his use was fulfilled. Finally, Ken Lo and Jackie make a single cameo each in the movie but it is only a waste too see such experience being undermined by such crappy and flawed acting youth. If there is Hollywood trash like ‘Bad Boys II’, then there can certainly be Hong Kong trash and ‘Gen-X-Cops’ is a prime candidate for this title. Director Benny Chan should have known better than to use one of Jackie Chan’s awful ideas as an excuse for a movie which did not do anyone a credit. Basically, it must have been a flop!!!

Overall, Gen-X-Cops is not at all irritating most of the time and is fairly enjoyable to watch with its share of flaws but jumps from one idea to the next too quickly (needs to be paced out) and has a wealth of developing talent starring in it. The names of most characters are ultra-hip and ridiculous at the same time, the acting is worse and the explosions/stunts are always trying to rescue their groovy party-mood performance to provide extra eye candy for the one-off action fan. Only watch this if you are a major fan of the young starring actors!

Overall Rating: 6.8/10