This is a just for guys actioner that I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. Just a solid Hong Kong adrenaline actioner with little in the way of character development or deep story, and would probably have done well on release if it had not been so long delayed by the whole Edison Chen sex scandal. And Richie Ren is pretty damn good here, picking up where he left off in Exiled, and playing a real bad ass. Huang Xiaoming is good too, though obviously will be the villain as soon as you learn he left the Sniper Team, but the story is not why you are here anyway (lets hope, as you can tell what is going to happen from the start), and this film is filled with bloody sniping action. The worst part is the Edison who is set up as a major character, but seems to have been cut back to only a bit part, there to drive the other two leads, more of a McGuffin than a character. And other plot points get introduced, then just disappear, and I would actually rather have seen the full cut instead of this cut down version, though it does leave it very action packed. Actually the worst part of the film is the fact that there is way too much action with guys with their shirts off, showing how bad ass they are, but that can be overlooked, because the action is pretty damn good. And the blu-ray looks great! Hong Kong seems to have bypassed the terrible stage they had with early DVD’s with their blu-ray discs. Well worth checking out.

A young beat cop named OJ (Edison Chen) and his partner hear a call about some seriously armed robbers, and they see the car parked on the side of the road, and go to investigate a building off in the jungle. Luckily for them a Sniper team led by Hartmen (Richie Ren) is doing reconnaissance there, and Hartmen orders them in to save the cops. The partner is shot and taken hostage, and OK and Hartmen end up going against the villains, OJ takes Hartmen’s shooting advice and shoots the perp right in the head, and Hartmen realizes he has a potential new member of his elite police sniper team, and he recruits him. The team has some issues. Hartmen’s ex-wife (Michelle Ye) is suicidal, and their daughter finds her. And an ex team member named Lincoln (Huang Xiaoming) who has been in prison, has been released, and has gotten a sniper rifle, and seems to be threatening Hartmen’s family. We also see OJ going to try and give some money to his estranged father (Stephen Tung Wai) with his girlfriend, but this plot just goes away after that.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Lincoln ends up tipping off Hartmen to his help of a Triad boss named Tao (Jack Kao) who with his men (Liu Kai Chi is quite underused here) escapes while being transported to see a doctor. Lincoln also meets up with OJ at a bar, and tips him how he is such a good sniper, by holding his breathe to fire multiple shots, which Hartmen hates, saying it makes the hand shaky, and he makes OK stop doing it. Lincoln meanwhile is doing all this for his girlfriend Crystal (Mango Wong) who he loves very much it seems.

Lincoln ends up joining Tao, to help him plan a big bank robbery that he can deal with the cops on.

Eventually we see that Lincoln was the top sniper on the team, and at a bank robbery being done by Tao, he and Hartmen were ready to shoot Tao, when the came in that the family of the banker was going to pay the ransom and to pull back. Lincoln claimed he saw Tao pull the grenade pin, and shot to stop him from killing everyone, but Hartmen claimed to have not seen it, and Lincoln was sent to prison for 5 years. During this time Lincoln yelled at Crystal and she went home and accidently fell to her death, so he has been seeing someone only in his head, having gone completely mad. Lincoln even captures Hartmen’s number 2, his only friend on the team, and loses it, killing him.

Finally at the big robbery, Lincoln ends up betraying and killing Tao, he only wanted to lead in the Sniper team. The team moves in, and gets mowed down one by one by Lincoln, who is the best shot.

Even Hartmen is hit, and only the skills of OJ are able to go up against Lincoln and take him out. And we see Hartmen smile as he dies, having helped take Lincoln out, because as we see, he did in fact see Tao’s finger on the grenade, and he betrayed Lincoln to be the best Sniper, leaving OJ to be the top sniper, but he will not compete like Lincoln and Hartmen did.

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Decent enough, though I personally would have rather seen the complete film instead of having it cut down because of the whole Edison Chen sex scandal. And you would think it would be OK by now, but I guess not.