Richie Ren, Kelly Chen, Nick Cheung
Directed by Johnnie To

After reading all the good reviews about this film, I thought I was in for another high quality cop movie from Hong Kong. It started out OK enough. Some criminals getting the jump on some plain clothes cops who were trying to get the jump on the aforementioned criminals which then turns into a car/foot chase that ends in a bunch of ammo being shot left and right and the criminals getting away, the latter part of which is captured on tape by a lucky news crew who happened to be at the right place at the right time. After which the film seems to fall flat on its face in a pile of poop. The premise, and thus title, of this film centers around the conflict between the news media and the police department. This topic is one I do think needs exploring in light of recent events in the past five or so years, and the direction journalism seems to have taken, only telling the public what journalism wants to tell them. There really is no such thing as objectivity, but that's a whole different discussion.

Back to the film, what probably would have been a very thought provoking film is killed by a superficial and thin storyline, bad acting and almost laughable action. Johnnie To must have run out of gas aftger his blockbuster Fulltime Killer, because this films looks like an amateur effort instead of something from a director with his reputation.