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scant one year after the tremendous success of its
original, A Better Tomorrow, theaters around the world were treated to A
Better Tomorrow II. Although I think a better title might have been, It's
Still a Better Tomorrow (tongue firmly in cheek, of course).
The movie is incredibly rough around the edges and many
scenes don't work, the acting is as unpredictable as the first, going from
downright excellent to atrocious. But none of that matters, since John Woo is
once again back at the helm, and the movie brings back the original's real star,
Chow Yun Fat, who had a supporting role in the original.
Fat is still in a
supporting role here, but there's no doubt who is the real star, especially
since the movie's highlights are ones with Fat in the middle of it. Ignore the
terrible subtitles and the choppy editing, and the fact that this movie was
obviously rushed into production to capitalize on the phenomenal success of its
original, and you have a good action yarn to waste away a good part of your day.
The story is really inconsequential to a movie like this,
but for those of you who likes to know what a movie is about, here it is:
Reformed gangster Ho's brother, Kit, is now a full-fledge detective, and the
youngster gets into a lot of trouble, is shot during an investigation, and calls
his brother with his dying breath. Ho recruits Ken, the twin brother of Mark
(both characters are played by Chow Yun Fat), to join in the fight. Revenge is
the name of the game.
As you'll remember, Mark was killed at the end of the
original, so in order to bring Fat back, Mark is discovered to miraculously have
a twin brother living in New York. After a brief and amusing scene where Ken
(how improbable a name is that? I still blame Mark/Ken's name on bad subtitles,
and believes those are not their actual movie names) fends off some Italian
gangsters at his restaurant, Ken returns to Hong Kong to help Ho get revenge for
Kit's murder.
The rest of the movie involves the standard John Woo
trademarks. The slow-motion action scenes; the two-fisted gun shootouts; and the
final, bloody battle that has the heroes facing off against overwhelming odds
and managing to come through. Regardless of guns, grenades, or scores of enemy,
the heroes, armed with everything from guns to their own grenades to samurai
swords, does tremendous damage, and Woo captures all the mayhem in splendid
glory.
In fact, the only thing that kept this movie from being a
truly outstanding John Woo movie is the choppy feel of the movie. As usual, Hong
Kong filmstock is atrocious, and the film looks like a 16mm movie instead of a
true cinematic feature. Regardless of cinematic quality, the movie is a blast to
watch, and the ending alone makes up for all the flawed technical aspects.
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