Review: A movie directed by John Woo, starring a young Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, how this could be wrong? Well there are a lot of flaws to this movie but it also has some very nice stuff too. We can say that these flaws like the editing, the story and some bad acting were probably because of the fact that the crew and filmmakers were inexperienced at this time. I think this was the 4th John Woo movie, but even if it was only his beginning, it gives you a small taste of what the later works of John Woo will look like. The premise of the story is only revenge and that's all, unlike his later films which include romantic elements, this one mostly features male characters who want to have their revenge on the bad guy. Well nothing is wrong with that but don't wait for a few surprising twits, memorable dialogues or emotional moments in the story because there's almost none of it. The story was really straight forward, but since it was one of the first John Woo films, I won't complain that much.

Probably the most annoying character was the main actor, he really had a hard time to look convincing and had a funny underlining homosexual nuance about him. At least his martial skills were not too bad, except that he was always kicking with his left leg. The real start of the movie is without a doubt, Jackie Chan. No question here why he is on the cover of the DVD. Ok it's better for the marketing yes, but Jackie really shines in the movie. He doesn't have that much of background and dialogue, but his final battle armed with a spear was incredible. I also liked the character of Zorro, even with the lame name, he felt like a great and honorable character. We don't see that much of his martial skills but what was shown was very good. As for the two main bad guys, it was very fun to watch Sammo play the evil army general; I really think that Sammo should have been the main bad guy instead James Tien (Bruce Lee movies). Tien was good, too, but I found Sammo more imposing and meaner than Tien. Also if you can, try to spot Yuen Biao who does two small cameos during the movie.

There are some kung fu fights scenes in the movie, but the main problem with these fights is the bad editing and noticeable static movement. The editing is atrociously apparent on the first fight scene of the movie but again I would guess that the cause of it is again the missing experience from the choreographer and filmmaker so I wont' blame them too much. As the movie progresses, the fights get better and better. The best performance again comes from Jackie Chan fighting two guys, each one armed with special weapons and Jackie using a spear. There was also no wire fu in the movie; well if there was some it, it was very minor. So the fight will probably please those who like realistic fighting. But again because of the bad editing, some of the fights leave you wondering what the hell had just happened.

Another thing that I found annoying was the music, the main theme was not too bad but it was over used during the course of the movie. They really wanted to give an epic look to the movie and tried too much on the music, using it in every key and action scene. At first you don't mind but after a few times it was getting on my nerves and became a distraction from the movie, they should have used a little more diversity on that side.