No bullshit guys, this film is all business. It is extremely rare to find a movie that
resists the usual tropes like a love interest, a long lost family connection, a
tortured past, etc. This one does away
with most of that shit and focuses like a laser beam on the driving plot of
cops trying to take down a major drug ring.
Just because this is some lean meat with virtually no fat doesn’t
mean it’s realistic exactly. For instance
Captain Zhang, who’s in charge of the sting operation, snorts two lines of coke
in order to gain the trust of some dude and so that he’ll set up a meeting with
his supplier. That scene is intense
because you can see the Captain is struggling real hard to fight off the
effects of the coke and remain in character.
I’m pretty sure cops don’t do this in real life but holy shit does it
make for some great cinema.
Another really cool aspect is that there are no breaks over
the couple of days that this takes place.
It starts with a drug manufacturer crashing his car into a store front
and it never stops after that. Captain
Zhang takes up the case after just completing an undercover bust. Like as soon as he shits out the drugs that
were stashed in his rectum from the previous operation he then goes into the
next room to start on the big case that the movie’s about. The Captain and his crew work all day and
through the multiple nights to infiltrate the ring and attempt to bring it
down.
And you’re with them every step of the way on this thing. They set up meetings, tail suspects, stakeout
locations, etc. And it all ends with a massive
fucking shootout in front of an elementary school. You never leave the cops’ sides or get
derailed by some really movie-ish crap.
It’s all about taking these bad guys down and nothing else.
Everything about this picture is impressive. The discipline it takes to craft something
like this is incredible. It’s also ballsy. If you take away the usual clichés that are
employed to have the audience connect with characters and situations you run
the risk that people won’t get invested in the film. But I found myself caring about everything
just as much as I normally would have. It
still worked.
So few movies are like this (that aren’t documentaries). In fact I’m really struggling to think of
some examples that are similar. David
Fincher’s Zodiac was kinda like this
where he presented the infamous case without a ton of interpretation. He pretty much just states the facts. Ok, Fincher points to who he thinks the killer
was but I think he still leaves enough room for some doubt. The only other good example I can think of is
The X-Files. After I reviewed that series’ first feature I
continued to watch it and dug that most of the episodes are no-nonsense. They concentrate on the X file at hand and spend
the entire show solving it without getting sidetracked.
This is a rare and badass creature. Admittedly as I was watching I wasn’t a
hundred percent sold on it but the ridiculous ending pushed me over the top. And the more I thought about it in the days
afterward the more I liked it. If you
start this one I think you’ll find it’s hard to stop because one thing keeps
leading to the next until it’s all over.
There’s a drug war out there. You wanna see what it’s like to take place in
that war? Check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment