Option Zero


Director: Dante Lam
Year: 1997
Rating: 7.0
One of the many clones of this type of movie that is coming out of HK these days about a specialized group of police - most young & attractive, all as adept at computers as with an uzi. Still all in all I enjoyed it as it also focused on their private lives and showed the stress the job puts on their relationships.

Leading the group is Anthony Wong who must have thought that this was a remake of Stallone’s Cop Land as he had put on quite a few inches of pudge since the last thing I had seen him in. It was a while before I was even sure that was him behind the rolls. When he was having sex with his girlfriend I wanted to call 911 and report a landslide in progress.

The story focuses primarily on Cheung Chi Lam as one of the cops and his girlfriend Carman Lee. There were some well filmed actions scenes done in a quick edit, jangly fashion that can sometimes annoy but here added to the tenseness and made the police actions feel very chaotic which in real life must be how they really seem. I still can’t buy CCL as a cop - he just is too lacking in toughness.