Gen-Y Cops (2000)
Reviewed by: MilesC on 2001-02-09
Summary: Surprisingly fun.
My expectations for this were rock-bottom. The first movie was mediocre, and now a giant robot is thrown into the mix?... It sounded disastrous.

Many parts of the movie unfortunately are. Richard Sun and Edison Chan's dialogue and acting, mostly in English, are terrible; their scenes together grate on the nerves. All the female roles are filled with irritating actresses like Christy Chung or amateur acttress-models like Maggie Q. None of them have anything to do but take up space.

Even the "Gen-Y" cops don't fare very well. Edison, as mentioned, is awful, and has no comraderie with the old cast members. Stephen Fung comes off best, delivering his English lines reasonably well and managing to be fairly appealing and jokey without overselling it. Sam Lee, on the other hand, gives what must be his most over-the-top performance ever; his goofy schtick has worked elsewhere, but here he is almost unbearably cartoonish. It's getting harder and harder to believe this guy got his start in an art movie. Settle down, Sam, before it's too late!

There is, however, some good news. There are a lot of welcome cameos, including Anthony Wong, Cheung Tat-Ming, Vincent Kok and Lee Lik-Chi. Paul Rudd and Mark Hicks prove themselves to be good investments; though their dialogue is mostly cliched, it's generally not embarrassing. They deliver their lines as well as can be expected considering they're acting in a Cantonese-speaking vacuum, and are enthusiastic in their action scenes.

The robot is a cheesy idea, but it is executed fairly well. Unlike China Strike Force, which for the most part was a standard cheap action movie with an international cast, you can see where the budget went in Gen-Y Cops. There are a lot of impressive pyrotechnics, and the special effects are generally decent. Thankfully, the effects are for once intermixed with patented Hong Kong choreography and gunplay; the action is a bit more plentiful than Gen-X Cops, and is generally higher quality.

I can't recommend this movie without reservations, or say I'm happy that this is the direction big-budget HK movies are taking. Like its predecessor, though, Gen-Y Cops is a fairly entertaining watch if viewed with low expectations. If nothing else, that at least makes it better than the worthless China Strike Force and the sometimes-creative, always-stupid Skyline Cruisers.