Invisible Target [Blu-ray] [US Import]

What's is it about?
Three diverse police officers must put their differences and agendas aside in order to bring down the ruthless thieves that are causing chaos across Hong Kong.

Four young actors with potential, Jaycee Chan, Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue, and Wu Jing in the film, and the director of "New Police Story" Benny Chan behind the cam, did this movie deliver to the audience?

One miss
1) Story
Probably the only weakness holding this movie back is the pacing, lack of originality of the story. Certain characters could be more developed to make them more memorable and interesting.

Three hits!
1) Action
Brutal, off the Hollywood safety boundaries level that made "New Police Story" edge of your seat. The high velocity set pieces displayed here ensures this alongside "Flashpoint" action blockbuster of 2007. Wu Jing steals most of the scenes here.
2) Impact
All four actors made their individual mark reasonably well. Not necessarily a gold medal performance but did enough to justify watching their work and to springboard their careers.
3) Bonus features
Heaps of extra content on the Dragon Dynasty version.

If you can overlook the misses and just want to enjoy the an action movie causing mayhem in Hong Kong, seeing Invisible Target can't go wrong.

You may also want to check out
Benny Chan (Big Bullet, Who am I? New Police Story)
Jaycee Chan (The Sun also rises, 2 Young, PK.COM.CN)
Shawn Yue (Infernal Affairs 2, Dragon Tiger Gate, Just one look)
Nicholas Tse (New Police Story, Dragon tiger gate, The Beast Stalker)
Wu Jing (Kill Zone, Fatal move, Fatal Contact)

Glossy Hong Kong cop thriller Invisible Target is a big budget ode to director Benny Chan's love of throwing his actors off buildings, in front of buses, through plate glass - a LOT of plate glass - and setting them on fire before kicking them in the head. And in Chan's films it's nearly always the actors who are suffering for his art rather than stunt men with only the biggest of explosions requiring CGi and stunt performers. That gives his action films an old-school feel that's quite welcome as Hong Kong action movies become increasingly reliant on CGi even for some of the basics, and if this isn't one of his better efforts, it's not for want of trying. Thankfully it's also not one of his worst either, but at times you can't help feeling that the film could have benefited from being a bit shorter and perhaps not throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the action scenes that are never more than ten minutes or so apart.

It's a fairly standard revenge plot: Nicholas Tse's the maverick cop who wants revenge on the gang of mercenaries whose armoured car robbery left his fiancé dead, Jaycee Chan (Jackie's son) is the rookie cop who wants revenge on the same gang for killing his undercover cop brother, Shawn Yue wants revenge for being made to swallow some bullets and Wu Jing is the very bad guy who wants revenge on the cop who masterminded the robbery, killed three of his friends and got away with the loot. Naturally their worlds collide and the forces of law and disorder put aside their different agendas, bond over big fight scenes, find the odd parallel with the villains they're trying to take down before destroying a very expensive looking police station with lots and lots of plate glass to throw each other through in a half hour battle royal. You admire the effort and pain that went into it and a lot of it is very enjoyable (there's also a lovely wry cameo from Lisa Lu as Chan's grandmother), but it's just a little too raggy and too long to make the kind of impact it clearly wants to. Still above average for the genre, though.

Sadly the Blu-ray release is slightly problematic. Although for the most part decent enough, there's an occasional tendency to overdo the contrast slightly to give a kind of morning mist effect that clearly doesn't reflect the original prints, and edge enhancement is noticeable in a few places. The deleted scenes come with compulsory audio commentary, which means you can't tell what's being said in some of them.

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