inspector ma (donnie yen) is a no nonsense, if slightly over-zealous, hong kong cop, whose record of arrests, is matched only by the number of injuries that he inflicts on suspects. wilson (louis koo), his partner, has been working undercover with three vietnamese brothers, who are extremely vicious. however, when it looks like ma and wilson are about to get their men, they turn things up and start to wipe out all witnesses...

yeah, so it's not exactly a ground breaking narrative, but it is very well executed. the first half of the film is a nice mixture of bad boys, being bad, with a nice tense atmosphere being created, as you wonder if louis koo is going to be exposed as an undercover cop. the second half of the film is filled with anger, revenge and some quality action.

yen and koo fit in with the slick production values but, as usual, louis is more than just a pretty boy going through the motions, donnie seems to add an edge to his posing and performance, whilst impressing with his physical performance. now, i liked 's.p.l.', but 'flash point' is just better and feels more like an old school slice of hong kong. the narrative and action gel together nicely, support from the likes of kent cheng and fan bing bing add a touch of class, and the fight sequences mesh brutality and flair with great success.

good stuff...