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There was a time not very long ago, when movies from Hong Kong meant one thing : "ACTION" sometimes an overdose of it. But regardless of the naysayers, they were quiet brilliant at it. But then they grew either too frivolous or too serious and sometimes too pretentious for their own good. Dante Lam (one of the better ones out there) in the face of this gradual change has earned himself a name for sticking to his "guns"; literally. & if the experience of his latest offer is anything to go by, the trend may just catch up again. I for one will not be complaining.

The GOOD : This potentially could be the most accomplished HK "action" movie in a contemporary sense of the word and setting. There have been a few masterclasses but most of them are either from the age of the Kings & Queens or of characters with super powers (yawn inducing). "The Viral Factor" does not have any gravity defying stunts nor does it have a single shot which is used to glamorise the protagonist or the antagonist. With all due respect to Donnie Yen, considered the best action man in town and my favourite too, there have been too many caricatured villains in his movies. Nothing like that in TVF. Its bare knuckles, blood splattered walls, rusty nails / water pipes, plenty of body bags, big guns in extended street chase sequences, car crashes, rocket launchers, helicopter chases and the list goes on. You absolutely have to give it to the director for his no holds barred approach from start to finish. He does not pretend its anything else. The leads Jay Chou & Nicholas Tse, have done a fantastic job and quite possibly have produced their best work yet. Chinese lads are not known for histrionics but some demanding & long single shots have brought out the best in them. Nicholas Tse in my book has grown to be in a different league compared to his "Dragon Tiger Gate" days and character.The story although not a pathbreaker has a sense of nobility in it with a platform for a large spectrum of emotions. The almost unseen city skyline that of KL (in a movie before this) is used as a backdrop and that adds on the rare but tingling after taste that the movie leaves. I was very curious to see how it'd turn up and its fair to say I am mighty impressed as I have lived right in the middle of almost all the places the story evolves through. The BAD : The screenplay does not do any huge favours to the story and is the biggest let down of the movie. It stands as the biggest deterrent to what it could have been. Mostly because, the 2nd n 3rd acts which is the glue that holds the end to the start tends to give a convoluted feel. There is nothing wrong in the story, but the sequence of events and there by its impact could have been spot on with some crisp writing. The editing leaves a little to be desired coz if that was snappy, TVF could have been an immortal piece of ACTION cinema. All these also mean that the runtime could do with some some chopping. Another sore point of the proceedings esp. for the non English speaking crowd, is the amount of English used in the script. Some of them were necessary and fits well. But I could not digest the main baddie delivering almost all his lines and most importantly the ones that mattered to the eventual development of the story, in English. And if it counts at all, I don't speak Cantonese or Mandarin nor understand 1 bit. Considering this is predominantly aimed at the Chinese with a more than liberal approach begging the westerners to pay a visit, the subtitles alone would have sufficed.

The FINAL WORD : Its recommended for the action fan. Go and have Yourself a great time at the theater. One of the best ways to kick off a new year.

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The plot is all over the place and you shouldn't worry about it, because it will pull the fun out of your viewing pleasure (if you can call it that). It doesn't make much sense most of the time too, so just try to get on that ride and enjoy it while it lasts. While I do like Asian action cinema in all its variety (be it from Hong Kong, South Korea or Japan), this one does not have the strength other movies do. It is too simple (though it tries to be complicated) and light for its own good most of the time.

The actors are actually good, but I can't shake the feeling that they weren't comfortable with the script either. But the action scenes do not disappoint, which is why I gave it that rating. Still with a bit of emotional power behind it, it could have been even better.

This is another typical action movie from HK that will be loved by those who watch with their right-sided brain but not those with left-sided brain. Better still if watch without working on the brains.Anyway, you have no time for the brain. Scenes are fast, action start right from the beginning till end, mostly well filmed, fast paced but the whole story, main plots and sub-plots right to the action details are full of multi-layered coincidental happenings or actions and events all in the nick time that the audience will find it unconvincing and unbelievable. If only they have paid more attention to the script instead of the action. Revealing the characters or more of the story will spoil the fun, there are also too many loose ends. One important role's mum actually got lost in the middle of the action. Most of the acting are good except for Jay Chou who look lost throughout the movie but it's OK considering his "problem". The location of KL(Kuala Lumpur) made the movie better; instead of usual HK.

A team of military special forces are escorting a scientist and his family in the Middle East when they are ambushed by terrorists, intent on taking the scientist's work on a genetically engineered super-strain of smallpox and using it for their own private financial gain. One of the operatives receives a bullet in the head, but declines to stay in hospital to recuperate, instead heading off to Malaysia to look for his estranged father and the brother he never knew he had. As luck would have it, this course of action brings him back in contact and indeed conflict with the terrorists.

Hong Kong does not typically do hi-tech action thrillers very well, and terrorists seeking super-viruses is certainly a red flag when it comes to a Hong Kong movie. The smarter Hong Kong's scriptwriters try to make their characters sound, the dumber they usually come across, and this is no exception. Additionally, credibility-stretching coincidences are rarely a hallmark of a well-written script. One incredible coincidence which becomes the centre-piece of the story, exploring how the effects of random probability or the hand of fate can transform a person's life, can make for an interesting story and film. When your hi-tech action thriller introduces at least 3 unbelievable coincidences in an attempt to make your story about super-viruses seem more coherent, you should probably realise you've taken the wrong track.

In short, the script for The Viral Factor is a mess... ridiculously, eyeball rollingly so, really. The annoying thing is that it's all quite unnecessary... at its heart there is a story of two estranged brothers that have found themselves on opposite sides of the law, but who have to cooperate to protect their family and see if they can find forgiveness and redemption. The implausible coincidences don't really add anything to that scenario, and the whole terrorists with super-viruses aspect is basically not needed, too. They're plot devices that speak of a weak writer, one who feels that the simple motivations of family, love, guilt and redemption just aren't enough to engage the viewer... when in fact they're the only parts of the script that do.

Somehow, the glaring flaws in the story do not derail The Viral Factor nearly as much as you feel they ought to. The writing is awful, but pretty much everything else about the film is good. Dante Lam's direction is strong, the performances from Jay Chou and Nic Tse are good, visuals and production values are excellent and the action scenes are top calibre. Some individual scenes are well written and executed, and there is generally a lot to like about the film. Generally, the further the whole 'Viral Factor' aspect is pushed into the background, the more engaging and enjoyable the film is - and for much of the running time it is indeed relegated to the background.

If Lam had had the confidence to just excise all the hi-tech espionage type fluff and focus on the emotional core of the story, he could have made a great film here... though admittedly he'd have robbed himself of some excuses for staging some quite remarkable action scenes (though I'm sure he'd have found a way). As it is, I guess he can take some credit for managing to produce a pretty solid film despite the self-imposed handicap of a ridiculous script.

well, 3 stars is for the nice action stunt carried out seamlessly. 7 stars minus is for the lousy casting job and the moronic screenplay that messed up the whole nine yards.

here are the problems:

1) if the small pox bio-virus so important, why use ground transportation instead of air lift? 2) why the scene is originated from Jordain? Jordain is not war-torn country, it's Iraq, stupid. 3) a bullet resided in the brain where is non-operable and the nerve center would be totally messed up within 2 weeks, after the guy stayed in the hospital for 3 months, and the guy was able to walk out the jordanian hospital, went back to china. well, that journey would have wasted how many days? the math was somewhat confusing a lot, dude. 4) if the young son (the one who carried a bullet in his brain) was brought up by his mother, why his mandarin pu-tong-wha with an Taiwanese accent? if the mother's hometown was Beijing, why her accent was without any Beijing tone? 4) so the younger brother was a police, what country's police force he belonged to? 5) then again, same problem happened again. the female bio-chem doctor spoken a common mandarin pu-tong-wha, her mother spoke typical Cantonese. why her daughter could speak the mandarin Chinese pu-tong-wha without any Cantonese dialect accent? no Cantonese could speak mandarin without any localized Cantonese accent. absolutely impossible! 6) so the brother was a dangerous criminal, in Malaysia? so, the father had migrated from Beijing(?) or hongkong(?) or canton (?) to Malaysia? the elder son became a local criminal. and the younger brother would be so accidentally got involved in his caper right after he landed in the twin-tower city? how convenient, dude.

this is a movie typically treated viewers as brainless morons without any reasoning logic. but after all the criticism been said, lets sit back and enjoy the nicely shot exotic locations this movie's lens carried around and also try to appreciate the well managed stunts and special effect of the fighting scenes, the flying bullets, the nicely done explosions, the car jack and so on.

this is an action movie full of heavily flawed scenarios and plot twists, some way too shallow, some way over the top. strongly recommend to watch but you must turn off your i.q. reasoning function first.