Z Storm

Its the same as those started from 90s in HK that produces more low quality movie to earn more in quantity of movie made. These producers and directors only want to make fast money and did not care of quality. Too bad that few good actors wasted their time and effort. The worst, they wasted consumers money and time watching these craps, thinking the having good actors resulted movie are good but the truth is reverse. A lot of the story are so nonsensically illogical. They also created too much coincidences that never will happen in life. Overall, bad story, bad director and a lousy movie compared to China and HK movie.

Yes the movie is quite predictable and you may find yourself wondering why certain elements are not being exploited earlier in the movie. Having said that there are quite a few fun performances here. And when I say fun I mean good ones. If you are familiar with Hong Kong cinema, you may even recognize some of the actors. It's an action thriller and based on that (rating or looking at the stunts), this is a success. This is not Shakespeare or high drama (although it does contain some amount of that too of course), but something that can be a rollercoaster ride. A good versus evil theme, even if some of the bad ones are disguised as "good people". This is not Infernal Affairs, but not every movie can be that. That doesn't take anything away from the entertainment this can provide

My sequence in seeing this anti corruption series is proved to be correct. This first one is the most entertaining. The fast moving pace of the story makes the movie exciting. Acting of leads are above standard. I have virtually no complaint on the movie, except that Chan, as a suspected bribed senior police officer, could be so powerful. My feeling on commentary of the series is intensely underrated. Especially this first one is actually very entertaining. But I just cannot figure out why the rate of IMDB and professional critics is so low. To me, I recommend especially to the Mainland watchers to boost their sense of anti corruption.

Simplistic but enthusiastic rendering of HK anti-corruption police work. Nothing too deep, violent or graphic. The Untouchables it is not. But credible acting from an experienced set of actors make the movie easy to watch. Michael Wong's Cantonese with a Western accent had me in stitches.

Smart and well-designed, but almost boring, espionage and politics (read corruption) are not to my liking, but we have a fine example of institutional and governmental corruption, we'll move on to the second, much less enthusiastic...

Z STORM is an oddly lacklustre cop thriller starring the one and only Louis Koo, who sometimes feels like an extra in his own movie. This one's a story of financial corruption and mismanagement, in some ways a throwback to the 1980s with the presence of the ever-slick (and seemingly ageless) Michael Wong as the villain of the hour. Sadly, as a thriller it doesn't really work at all, given that it almost entirely lacks thrills. There's barely any action, apart from a couple of minor bits at the end, and instead the whole production is bogged down in small talk and melodrama between extraneous female and interchangeable male characters. In many ways this feels like a mainland China movie rather than one from Hong Kong, so I wonder how much influence there was there. It's one of the rare cases in which the sequel, S STORM, is (slightly, at least) better than the original.

Z Storm is about agents from the anti-corruption agency ICAC investigating a major conspiracy in Hong Kong involving high-ranked individuals. The investigation leader is William Luk, one of those tough but good guys. I stopped watching this movie abruptly. The main reason is because I got bored of it. But it is not your general boring, "can't stand this stuff" type of thing; it's boring in a unique way. The best explanation I can think of is this movie feels like a Mexican soap opera. You jump from one segment to the next as short rushed events. Although canon, you feel like someone is telling you a story while late to take the train. By halftime, I was too bored by the plot to try to continue. The plot itself is interesting enough for something good to arise. But the feeling of nothingness in the main events destroys the entertainment. There was a time were I would painfully do my best to get to the end of any movie no matter what. Today, after a while, if I'm not hooked into the movie, I create a sincere review and move on. A 2 because my culture might have biased my experience.

It's not bad, but it's just so...boring...I can deal with there being almost no action (obviously I'd prefer some proper action as well) if other elements are good enough, but there is a severe lack of any actual thrill in the movie as well, so it fails as a thriller too. The story and the directing is mediocre all around too. It's not awful or anyhing, and the actors do a good job, but god, this movie is so tediously average...The action at the very end is the only exciting part, and that too is average at best.

This film tells the story of several anti corruption agents who are hot in the tails of a corrupt policeman. They soon discover that the corruption scandal involves a very wide and powerful network, but they tirelessly try to fight against the odds. "Z Storm" has a stellar cast, but a semi intriguing story. I'm sure the filmmakers tried hard to make a thrilling film, but the end result is not as thrilling as hoped. Some scenes look like an over acted soap opera, such as the private investigator and the cancer survivor. These scenes are perhaps there to entertain viewers, but I don't find them entertaining, but distracting and subtracting the film from suspense and thrill. The film looks more like a propaganda film for ICAC, than a thrilling drama been two different law enforcement agencies.