The Red Wolf

Red Wolf is a mid-90s actioner from director Yuen Woo Ping that steals the basic plot from Steven Seagal's Under Siege, adds various elements from Die Hard and throws in lot of bone-crunching martial arts and gun-play. Woo Ping, no slouch in the action choreography department, ensures that when the fists and feet fly, fight fans get exactly what they want.

Unfortunately, it takes a good half an hour of rather tedious plot development before things really take off and this dreary beginning spoils what might have been a very memorable movie; however, when the action finally begins, it doesn't let up until the closing credits roll.

Kenny Ho plays Alan, chief of security on a high class leisure cruiser that is taken over by terrorists. The bad guys are after some uranium that is on board and they will do whatever is necessary to get it. When Alan rumbles their plot, he fights back, aided by a beautiful cruise employee played by Christy Chung.

Of course, the wafer thin plot is nothing more than an excuse for loads of martial arts mayhem, and once the action kicks off, the blood and bullets fly thick and fast. The villains are a suitably vicious bunch of miscreants; innocent hostages are shot on a whim and the baddies take sadistic pleasure in the killing. The cabaret singer/terrorist, played by Elaine Lui, is particularly good, grinning maniacally as she kicks and blasts her way through the hapless passengers and crew.

There are some nice inventive fights using the various rooms of the ship, my favourite being the one that takes place in the sauna area — Alan spills soapy water on the floor and straps rubber mats to his feet; as his foe slips and slides uncontrollably, Alan is able to stay upright and unleash a flurry of unstoppable punches and kicks.

Woo Ping spoils things slightly towards the end with a ridiculous finale involving a small girl with a bomb strapped to her, and he is unable to resist throwing in some OTT wire-work which spoils the realism of the final fight.

Red Wolf isn't a classic martial arts film by any stretch of the imagination, but proves to be passable entertainment despite its flaws.

The red wolf is basically a remake of ''die hard'' ,starring Bruce Willis, but this time the action is set in a cruise ship and not in a building. There is a good amount of action but the action is separated in little sequences(1 or maybe 2 minutes each) and the climactic fight does not even last 5 minutes. But the action is good (what else do you expect from Yuen woo-ping?) and Christy chung is looking better than ever(she even has a catfight in this one!). This is a fairly entertaining movie to rent but don't buy this one, buy Yuen woo-ping's masterpiece ''Iron monkey'' instead. This movie deserves 7,4/10

"Red Wolf" gets off to a rather shaky start, but once the action kicks in, it is nonstop. The fight scenes are among the best I've ever seen; they are on the level of the rooftop climax of Jackie Chan's "Who Am I?", except they're not limited to one sequence, but they occur every 5 minutes or so. There is also a lot of shooting, and A LOT of shattered glass. But it's not a mindless movie; the characters often have to use their smarts to escape from sticky situations. Kenny Ho is a great fighter, full of intensity and conviction, and he appears to be doing all of his own stunts. Elaine Lui (who plays the BAD girl, NOT the hero's sidekick as others have said) is absolutely dazzling, a goddess of evil. Judging this movie on its own terms, I give it ***1/2 out of 4 stars. Sure, it's an "Under Siege" rip-off, but that's no reason to miss it.

Some bandits hijack a boat to steal some $#!+. Red Wolf is a HK action movie that rips off Die Hard/Under Siege but what separates this film from those aforementioned films is the fact that Red Wolf is very very dark as rather than the hero trying to save everyone he can, he pretty much let's everyone die. Well, a majority of them die, I think. Well, whatever. Red Wolf is filled with human misery and suffering, and that's all that matters. Despite being a rip off, I was very pleased with the action which was bloody and well choreographed. The story works for what it is, the acting is silly and above all Christy's butt is nice.

Nope, this didn't cut it by a long shot. For some reason, we accept a lot of flaws in Hong Kong-movies that we otherwise wouldn't, but there's just so much in this movie that we actually laughed at it quite a few times. The story is boring, the jokes are lame and the action is sometimes clever but mostly just falls flat on illogical actions or bad props. The 5.1 surround sound was anything but surround - the only things I heard in the rear speakers were some weird sound effects (check the drumming sequence for example). So what was good? The video on the Hong Kong Legends UK DVD were fantastic, and the extras section just leave most DVDs way behind. But, deconstructing the cover slogan: "Tense" (ordinarily people shooting people can be intensive but when that's all they do, you tend to not react much after a short while) "and dynamic" (as in "all actors expand their one-dimensional characters by having their one facial expression throughout the movie") "with elements of black humour," (yes, slapstick is VERY dark) "Red Wolf is an unstoppable martial arts showcase" (except for the 80% of the movie where people talk or shoot guns) "in the best tradition of action-master, Yuen Woo-Ping." Well, I'll make sure to never watch one of his movies again.