R E V I E W :    Gen-X Cops 

Reviewed 3/12/01 | Background | Movie Review | DVD Review | Recommendation

Background 

Columbia/TriStar / 1999 / 113 minutes
Directed by Benny Chan Muk Sing
Written by Benny Chan Muk Sing, Chit Ka Kei, Koan Hui, Lee Yee Wa

After directing the well-received action film Big Bullet, Benny Chan next took on the challenge of working with Jackie Chan on Who Am I? That film received mixed reviews after its release in 1998, but the two got along well enough that Jackie Chan shared in presenting Benny Chan's next film, Gen-X Cops.

The film was was released theatrically in Hong Kong in June 1999. It was a financial success; a sequel (Gen-Y Cops) has recently been released.

Movie: plot, performances, production, rating

Plot: Daniel kills his gangster brother Dinosaur in order to take over his territory. An undercover policeman is also killed during the gun battle. Like the cowardly criminal that he is, though, Daniel doesn't tell anyone. That includes his Japanese boss, Akatora. In his struggle for power, Daniel decides to kill rival gangster Lok. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Police Force, led by Inspector Tang, is trying to find out who stole dangerous bomb-making material. Inspector Chang, althought a bit mentally disturbed, wants to avenge the death of his friend, the dead undercover cop, and feels sure that Daniel is involved. Inspector Tang mocks Chang and wants him off the case. To appease Chang, their supervisor assigns him to investigate Daniel. Chang recruits three freshly-discharged Police Academy rejects (Jack, Match, and Alien), as well as the daughter of the dead undercover cop, Y2K. Chang and his recruits charge off into battle amidst gun battles, explosions, fights, fireballs, and more explosions.

Performances: The "Gen-X Cops" look young and tough in that junior-movie star way, but are barely distinguishable by character trait or acting ability. Running down the list, we have Jack the fighter (Nicholas Tse Ting Fung), Match the flirt (Stephen Fung Tak-Lun), Alien the kooky funny guy (Sam Lee Chan Sam), and Y2K the girl (Grace Yip Pui Man). Eric Tsang Chi-Wai shrieks a bit too much as Inspector Chang, but at least brings some much-needed energy to his role. Francis Ng Chun-Yu is way too cool as the gangster Lok, and may be the best thing in the movie. Toru Nakayama looks the part of gangster boss Akatora, but forcing him to spout dead-pan philosophical banalities in English (obviously not his native tongue) was not a good idea. Moses Chan Ho is arrogant and nasty as Inspector Tang, but it would have helped if the audience had some idea why he is so intolerant of Chang. Jaymee Ong lends eye candy appeal for the male audience, but it's hard to see why else she is in the movie. Jackie Chan has a three-line cameo near the very end.

Production: Twice I tried to watch the movie, and each time I grew increasingly bored. Eventually I got through it, but the lack of interest generated by the characters puts a serious drag on the proceedings. The script is overly complicated and the film runs at least 10-15 minutes too long. The film desperately wants to be seen as "hip" and "with it" but colored hairstyles and plentiful obscenities do not make a film "of the moment." (By the way, in the credits the imagination-poor English dialogue is credited to Bey Logan.) The many action sequences are filmed competently and in many ways are very well done with a considerable amount of imagination to the staging and stunt work. The highly-touted special effects (by Americans) are nothing special, featuring explosions and miniature work that pales when compared to Independence Day (as an example). One skydiving sequence is very good (jumping off skyscrapers; set in Hong Kong but filmed in Singapore).

Rating: Category IIB (Hong Kong), R (United States). Considerable amount of profanity and several scenes of brief but explicit gunshot violence along with a minimal amount of blood spray.

DVD: look, sound, subtitles, and features

Look: The disk is letterboxed at 2.35 to 1. Black levels are fine, colors are rendered brightly if a bit hazily, and fleshtones look natural for the most part.

Sound: I listened to the Dolby Digital 2.0 Cantonese audio track and it sounded excellent (much of the dialogue is spoken in English). The film has many explosions and the soundtrack gives these the proper "oomph," while the surrounds are used effectively. The other audio tracks provided are DD 5.1 Cantonese and English as well as DD 2.0 English.

Subtitles: The English removable subtitles are yellow and appear in the lower portion of the screen. They are easy to read. Rather than a translation of the Cantonese and Japanese, however, the subtitles appear to be a transliteration of the English dubbed audio track. (For a comparison, check the "Making Of" feature which has different subtitles for certain scenes and refers to Akatora as "Tiger.") The other subtitles provided are French.

Features: The "scene selection" menu features 28 chapters. The "special features" include a promotional 33-minute "making of" entitled "No Pain, No Gain," at the end of which one of the film's trailers is shown. Another trailer is also included, along with an English-language trailer for the Region 1 home video release of Who Am I? The misnamed "Talent Files" have just one file, for executive producer Jackie Chan. About 51 minutes of "deleted scenes" are also provided.

Buy, rent, or pass?

Rent. Low priority. Despite my reservations about the film, the action sequences merit a rental for fans of Benny Chan. If you don't care for the recent crop of Hollywood-style Hong Kong action movies, this film will not make you a convert.

Note that a Universe version (with an audio commentary track and other somewhat different features) is also available. Visit Asian DVD Guide for more details.

 

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