The Adventurers (2017)

That was an excellent one.

Such a frustrating disappointment

Great Film overall

The acting in this movie is really good.

Jean Reno plays French cop Pierre, who is determined to put away recently released thief Zhang Dan (Andy Lau) once and for all. Zhang is determined to complete one final job before retiring: steal the pieces of jewellery that make up the incredibly valuable 'Gaia'.A silly plot, weak action scenes, wooden performances from Lau and Reno, and clunky dialogue all go to make this one a frustrating experience, but for me, the worst aspect of the whole film is the unbelievable equipment used by Zhang and his accomplices in their crimes-cutting edge technology that would make James Bond and Ethan Hunt cry with jealousy. With everything from ridiculously advanced computers, to a special dress that can record fingerprints, to an artificially intelligent robot spider equipped with a laser and a machine gun, the film is impossible to take seriously. Any money made from the criminals' daring escapades would be instantly swallowed up by the cost of the custom built tools required for the job.Also starring the lovely Shu Qi and seasoned actor Eric Tsang, neither of whom can save this mess.

For a bunch of Chinese thieves going abroad to France did a heist? Are you serious? How the Chinese movie makers would have dreamed up with such stupid and pretentious scenarios? Again, I can not but have to point out that the Chinese people nowadays are just so obsessed to everything NOT Chinese but WESTERN COUNTRIES in the WESTERN WORLD. Since when the Chinese started to drink red wine or white wine as their daily common drinks instead of oolong or green tea? Since when your wedding ceremonies got to be held in a foreign country or on a popular foreign island and, well, your bride-to-be or wife-to-be would consider you a loser or don't-love-her-enough if you don't marry her in a western church in an E.U. country? Why your bride's wedding gown must be in white, why her garland in her hands must be red, yellow or pink roses, the music got to be that specific segment from a western opera? Why the Chinese honeymooners got to go abroad so the newly wedded couple would not feel ashamed to enjoy if their new marriages starting in their own country?This pretentious film fell into the similar pretentiousness with no- limit budget, they moved their background localities scenes to France. Don't you guys know that a bunch of Chinese who would stand out like sore thumbs in Europe even they were just tourists albeit a bunch of Chinese YO-YOs committing a heist, a serious crime? Since the budget was unlimited, so they signed up a bunch of the French actors playing detective or whoever they might have to be, making them chase after those Chinese who without any logistic difficulties, equipped with high tech devices, exotic cars and motorcycles....whatever they could throw into the scenes.Based upon what I have mentioned above at the outset, Chinese thieves, like most of the Chinese who are getting married, are not interested in stealing from any Chinese city; they are not interested to rob a bank in China, or try to do a heist on their Chinese national museum, instead, they move abroad, to play cat-and-mouse game with the French cops. Yeah, right. The stupidity simply couldn't stop right here. When the rich Chinese women started buying COACH purses, it soon became a national MUST-HAVE to most of the other Chinese women, maid servant, waitresses, street peddlers, teachers, cleaning women....every woman in China wanted to own a COACH purse or bag, and sooner than later, no rich Chinese woman would dare to shoulder a COACH bag around, they moved up to HERMES; then the COACH brand was totally ruined in China, even the women in lower class don't want it no more. I have to warn the Chinese movie makers not to ridicule yourselves putting a bunch of the Chinese actors/characters to do anything in foreign countries, legal or illegal, romantic or whatever, just don't do it with a foreign background, because it'd just look false, phony and pretentious. "Let Caesar has what belongs to him and let the Romans have theirs", so better stay in China and likewise, do the crimes in China. The E.U. countries already got their own immigrants and refugees problems, they don't want a bunch of Chinese criminals to further mess up their infrastructure or their livelihood.What happens in China, stay in China; better spending your easily earned Renminbi in China, making your movies in China; there's absolutely nothing wrong to be a Chinese or drinking tea instead of red wine. Homeless Americans all speaking American English, your kids don't have to register into the international schools in China to learn English.

Overall story is a bit mediocre for my taste, I've seen the concept of the high class super thief before, which is fine, but Andy Lau brings nothing new to the formula. Well, except for being Andy Lau who I'm just staring to discover and really like. He's starred in better Asian cinema, however, Like another film he released this year, Shock wave which was impressive. The formula has been done. Andy Lau plays an amazing thief, who wants to retire but first he goes after the holy grail of his career while a French police officer hunts him down like he's his Moby Dick.Although if you are really into heist movies  no doubt this will get you going, but Despite how much I'm liking Andy Lau these days (The whole reason I went to see the movie), his performance or anyone else in the movie did not spark any interest for me.

This is a remake of the 1991 classic Once a Thief, a John Woo gig featuring absolute A- Listers such as megastar Chow Yun-Fat, heartthrob Leslie Cheung and HK's own 'Marilyn Monroe' Cherie Chung. Due to skyrocketing talent fees the Chinese film industry experienced in recent years, it's now increasingly more difficult for a would-be blockbuster to assemble a large cast of A or B-Listers, so the cast of The Adventurers, starring Andy Lau, Hsu Chi (with her newly-wed husband Stephen Fung at the helm), Jean Reno among others, is already one of the most high profile releases of the summer in China, but even this cast pales in comparison with that of the original, which is a shame. Imagine if Pitt, Damon, Roberts were all replaced with notable but much less bankable stars in Ocean's Eleven. Like Clooney in Ocean's Eleven, Andy Lau's character also begins the film as a parolee after serving several years in prison. This is where the comparison stops, however, as Ocean's is without a doubt a much superior film.The Adventurers maintains the original's 2 male 1 female 'gang of three' setup, complimented by Zhang Jingchu, who plays Andy Lau's ex-girlfriend, and Jean Reno, whose French cop chases after Andy Lau across Europe. Most of the film's humor is provided by actor Sha Yi, who perfectly portrays the superficiality of his 'tu hao' aka 'Nouvelle Riche' character who easily falls prey to Hsu Chi's stunning beauty. However, much of his lighlights were linguistic, and being a native Chinese myself, I doubt if these would cross over to the English speaking audience. Other than Sha Yi, one could make the point that the film lacks in terms of 'entertainment'. There are only a few funny moments I can recall, and most of the (limited) banter between members of the gang fell flat at my viewing.The film benefits from fluid camera-work, so at least it's a fairly good looking film, but it's mostly held back by a plot that is way too predictable. There are several twists in the final act, none of them surprising. The action set pieces are solid but uninventive, as one questions whether it's wise to stick so closely to the original film's formula of car chases and gun fights, especially since the action/heist genre has advanced so much in the past two decades. Also, by focusing primarily on the action, the film somewhat sacrifices character development opportunities. Ocean's Eleven explains practically everything to its audiences, such as the group's funding, line of thinking, risks, etc. In The Adventurers, as I watched the group travel from one place to another and REACT to situations, I wondered how everything 'behind the scenes' worked, because these were never explained. In other words, there aren't many details for the keen eyed spectator to pick out. In this sense, this film's much closer to Ocean's Twelve in being a somewhat messy story that just kind of 'happens' without much external logic supporting it.Overall, this is an OK adventure/heist film with beautiful visuals and a predictable, formulaic script that's not likely to make you awe in wonder. 6/10