Well, our last review was for Killing Skill, a "homage" to Desperado, and now we have T.H.E. Professionals, which besides having a very silly title, is a ripoff of Michael Mann's heist epic Heat. Thankfully, the results here are a little better than with the turd-fest that was Killing Skill. Don't get me wrong -- this is still a pretty generic movie, but at least it won't bore you to tears.

Since I'm sure most of you out there know the plot from Heat, I won't go into details here, since T.H.E. Professionals follows Mann's movie exactly, right down to specific lines. Now, I bet some of you out there are thinking that a Hong Kong remake of one of the best US heist movies ever might actually be a great thing. And in a way, you'd be right.

Director Wilson Tong (who also handled the action director duties) certainly puts some effective pyrotechnics on display here, especially during the climatic bank robbery. Sure, we're not talking Hard Boiled levels of gunplay here, but what Tong gives the audience in the action department is certainly exciting enough.

But it's really what Tong does not give the viewer that makes T.H.E. Professionals ultimately just another Hong Kong crime movie. This "remake" (or however you want to view it) runs at about half of the time of the original, and most of the cuts come at the cost of characterization.

Tong seems to forget that what made Heat stand out from other heist pictures is that Michael Mann created sympathy for the characters, no matter how flawed they might have been.

And when you're depending on actors to create deep and believeable characters in a short period of time, they'd better be up to the task. Norman Chu does a good enough job, but he's no Robert DeNiro -- and to even put Louis Koo in the same universe acting-wise as Al Pacino is an exercise in insanity.

As for the other main actors, Elvis Tsui (in Tom Sizemore's role) and Simon Lui (fufilling Val Kilmer's duties) do as much as they can with what little they have to work with, but ultimately their characters feel hollow because they just seem to be following crime movie cliches.

Despite its' problems, T.H.E. Professionals is probably still worth a viewing for the Hong Kong action junkies out there. Aside from the curiosity factor of seeing a Chinese take on a US movie, the action scenes are done well enough to keep your attention.

It might not be the best movie out there, but if you're not too picky, T.H.E. Professionals makes for a decent ninety minutes of brainless viewing material.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]