Shaw Brothers star and Hong Kong cinema hard-man, Wang Lung Wei directed this triad action-thriller, with fight choreography by the infamous Jackie Chan Stunt Team, and additional stunt work by the great Bruce Law!
A bit of a rarity to Hong Kong fans, this Jackie Chan produced action film finally got more of a wide-scale release thanks to Joy Sales and Fortune Stars, Legendary Collection (of who's catalogue I highly recommend looking at)...
While not offering anything overly fresh or new in terms of story and plot, The Angry Ranger is still a pretty entertaining movie with the handsome Ben Lam as its leading man; a face you would more recognise as a bad guy in films like Police Story 2, High Risk, and Legend Of The Wolf to name but a few. I've always like Lam on-screen. He has the looks and definitely the moves to impress and is a pretty damn good actor on top of that.
Director Wang is no stranger to violent, triad action movies both as an actor and director, with films such as Escape From The Brothel, Bloody Brotherhood, and the classic Hong Kong Godfather starring Leung Kar Yan.
While there may be some teen-triad-drama sprinkled throughout the storyline, there is more than enough hard action and tense moments to keep you gripped (not to mention a disturbing one when the bad guys smash up a fish shop). The action reminded me of that seen in Police Story 2 and finale of Heart Of The Dragon - a bit harder, with full impact and tight choreography, and although the fights may seem short for the first half of the film, they pick right up in the second especially the lengthy, explosive and violent finale which highlights some amazing choreography and stunt work!
It definitely would have been interesting to have seen producer Jackie Chan in Lam's place, giving him such a straight-laced role and dark film that would have predated Crime Story by a couple of years, as his 'first' real, serious movie...
Overall: Hardly groundbreaking, but a lot of fun with hard, gritty fight action and the brilliant Ben Lam in top form!
