Despite being billed as one of the best Hong Kong movie in 2011, Overheard 2 fails to live up to expectations and falls short of its lofty ambition. In fact, Overheard 2 ticks all the right boxes to be a great film – strong cast (Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo and Daniel Wu), thoroughly written script, quality production values (Derek Yee) and directing talents of Alan Mak and Felix Chong. Unfortunately the film fails to engage with the audience and for whatever reason it just never take the audience along for the ride. Perhaps, it is due to the overtly written script, the at times uneven direction or even subpar performances from what you expect from the likes of Lau, Koo and Wu. It is all the more disappointing when you can tell how hard the production team are trying and the amount of details they go into. It is probably harsh to say this, but sometimes, you can try very hard to achieve something and it still somehow does not work out. This is exactly the feeling that I got from this film. All in all, Overheard 2 tries extremely hard to succeed, but sometimes, engaging the audience, bringing them along the ride, can just be so much more. 100% for effort, but only 50% entertainment – probably the most over-hyped film of the year
Neo rates it 6/10.
