Time and Tide (2000)

As Good As It Gets

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Tsui Hark is one of my alltime favorite directors and he handles this story with such style and effectiveness it rates right up there with The Killer as one my favorite action movies. The action sequences have to be seen to be believed with some of the most origional concepts I have ever seen employed recently.I have never seen Nicholas Tse before in a movie, but he's a great actor and handles the top role quite well. It was great to see Anthony Wong have a supporting role. His role as Johnny Wong in Hard Boiled ranks him as one of the best villians in HK cinema. It's interesting to note how some action concepts have come full circle. Hark used wirework with great effect and it influenced the Wachowski's when they did the Matrix. Hark borrows a page from the Wachowski's and uses bullet-time in this movie (special effects weren't that bad eitheir!)Great dubbing too, the voice acting was top notch. Now the flaws...their seems to be a story working here but darned if I could follow it. It seems that this story was edited so heavily that it left some glaring plot holes in order to speed up the narrative. Only the most concentrated of viewers will be able to pick this up the first time. Some parts were in Spanish w/o subtitles! In one sequence we don't know what is being said and seems to be Jack's reason for going it alone. More attention needed to be given to the subtitles for non-native speakers.All in all, great film with some minor things getting in the way. 8/10

The first time I saw this was on Cable TV at 2 AM. I stayed up because I had never heard of the movie before, and the summary said that Nic Tse (one of my favorite young HK actors) was the lead role. Plus, it's directed by Tsui Hark - who has done excellent work with The Legend Of Zu and other such movies. So, I felt inclined to watch. I had almost fallen asleep, but as soon as the opening credits kicked in, I was wide awake.The following are some statements that ran through my head while watching..."Hey, the main character isn't invincible!" "Alleyway full of grenades?! This won't be pretty." "Wow, shopping mall action! Escalators are more fun than I thought!" "Oh my GOD... Are they having a gunfight on the side of a building?" "Refrigerators: Sensible AND Safe!" "I need to go to a Cantonpop show!"There were plenty more, you can trust me on that. Needless to say, I went out the next day and bought the DVD. I have watched Time and Tide over 10 times now, and it still hasn't gotten dull. I guess this movie just ended up being that entertaining. It gets my highest recommendation - so go out and see it. Go on, do yourself a favor and see what HK cinema is really capable of!"Time And Tide" Caught My Attention, And Never Let Go. It Still HAS My Attention, I Think.

Recently watched this film while channel surfing for something to watch. Quite glad I chose this film. Lots of action and some extremely fancy stunts. The plot is enough to keep the film flowing but really I just got hooked on watching the fight scenes, which held my interest enough to keep watching

I think some of the confusing aspects of this movie are better explained in the subtitled versions- this is a trilingual movie! (Cantonese, English, and Spanish) When I saw the dubbed version, there were no subtitles for the Spanish lines- and many subtleties were lost on me. So I saw it again in Cantonese- and I loved it even more. So my advice for English speaking viewers (with DVD players!) is to first see it in Cantonese with subtitles, then see it in English and fully immerse yourself in the mindboggling visual elements and action. Easily one of my top five action movies- along with the Professional, Hard Boiled, Die Hard, and the Killer. Welcome back, Tsui Hark!!!