Takes a VERY long time to warm up (the first 40 minutes could be nicely compressed into a short montage), but good to great when it does.

Continuing from the plot descrip >
Until this point, there has only been a couple of action sequences (one mild, one pretty good), and the non-action stuff is far from riveting I would go so far as to question why director Woo included so much of this early part. But it's from this two-years- later point that the pace (and the interest) really hots up. Woo gets in much of what he's best known for - outstandingly choreographed shoot-em-ups. The quality of the film just keeps getting better the longer it goes on for, right up to the climactic battle, which is very long, utterly riveting, and extremely funny to boot. Unlike another reviewer, I found the twist at the end surprising and a delightful way to end.