Killers from Beijing (2000)
Reviewed by: danton on 2002-04-21
Low-budget B-movie that doesn't aim very high, but manages to present a fairly predictable story in an effective manner. It's the story of four ex soldiers from the mainland, led by Patrick Tam, who get recruited by a HK triad to come to HK and kill a rival triad boss. The characters are pretty much cliches - we have the porn-obsessed guy, the fat guy who wants nothing but food, the fast car fan, and Patrick himself as the melancholic brooding leader who wants a better life for himself and his girlfriend. They come to HK, they carry our the assassination, and then things start going horribly wrong. There's a lot of shooting, lots of bleeding and pretty much everyone dies in melodramatic fashion. Still, it's all presented at a brisk pace, the actors do a good job with the limited material they're given, the action scenes are presented energetically, with lots of handheld cameras and a POV that stays in medias res, so the end result is a fairly entertaining 90 minutes as long as you keep your expectations low. Marginal recommendation.