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A Better Tomorrow II

A Better Tomorrow II

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $17.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Few sequels are better than the originals...
Review: ... and this movie is no exception. For fans of violent action for its own sake only; those who are expecting the drama and terse emotion of the original will be disappointed.

An unfortunate waste of the talents of Chow Yun-Fat and Leslie Cheung, but as usual the action sequences are lovingly crafted by John Woo.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Sequel that Outguns the Orginal
Review: A Better Tommorrow II continues off where part 1 stops. This time, the mayhem finds its way from New York City to Hong Kong as gangsters and cops take on a relentless showdown of honor, loyality and revenge.

This film was rated to be one of the most awesome sequences of John Woo's entire career.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: John Woo at his best
Review: A Better Tomorrow II focuses mainly on Mark Gor's twin brother, Ken Gor, instead of the emotional storyline of the original, the brother-brother relationship (Ti Lung & Leslie Chueng, about 15 year difference in age). Ken Gor works in a New York Chinese restaurant, frequently visited by a racist Italian mob. In one of Chow Yun-Fat's most famous scenes, Ken has had enough of the scumags and stands up to them in an honorable, tough-guy way not even Robert De Niro could match. The whole movie goes in the same tone from there. About honor and loyalty. It has less emotional acting and dialogue than ABT1, but the gunfights are more tense and bloody, and Chow Yun-Fat's performance nearly equals that of his previous, classic character Mark Gor. One particular, long death sequence surpasss in the film surpasses that of Mark Gor's death in the original, in emotion and in intensity. The final gunbattle at the end is the conclusion to the trilogy, (ABT3 is a prequel) and three main characters sit down on couches, with literally thousands of bodies and tons of blood stacked around them. You don't know what will happen next to them, but the story has come to an end completely (other action films never seem to come to a complete end and generate endless sequels). John Woo at his best. You won't see an honorable film like this again, you'll see huge-budget popcorn movies like Mission: Impossible II and absolute cr*p like Replacement Killers which never gets anywhere.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: John Woo at his best
Review: A Better Tomorrow II focuses mainly on Mark Gor's twin brother, Ken Gor, instead of the emotional storyline of the original, the brother-brother relationship (Ti Lung & Leslie Chueng, about 15 year difference in age). Ken Gor works in a New York Chinese restaurant, frequently visited by a racist Italian mob. In one of Chow Yun-Fat's most famous scenes, Ken has had enough of the scumags and stands up to them in an honorable, tough-guy way not even Robert De Niro could match. The whole movie goes in the same tone from there. About honor and loyalty. It has less emotional acting and dialogue than ABT1, but the gunfights are more tense and bloody, and Chow Yun-Fat's performance nearly equals that of his previous, classic character Mark Gor. One particular, long death sequence surpasss in the film surpasses that of Mark Gor's death in the original, in emotion and in intensity. The final gunbattle at the end is the conclusion to the trilogy, (ABT3 is a prequel) and three main characters sit down on couches, with literally thousands of bodies and tons of blood stacked around them. You don't know what will happen next to them, but the story has come to an end completely (other action films never seem to come to a complete end and generate endless sequels). John Woo at his best. You won't see an honorable film like this again, you'll see huge-budget popcorn movies like Mission: Impossible II and absolute cr*p like Replacement Killers which never gets anywhere.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of the best action-endings ever and lots of weird scenes
Review: A decent overall movie, though not even remotely close to the original. It has many stupid plot ideas, but the acting and slick production values lift it up above average. It has many bad parts, but several individual scenes, mostly the ending and rice scenes, plus the de-insanism of Uncle Lung also make it better. Worth seeing, but not worth paying 30 bucks for.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Action packed, yet fails the spirit of the first
Review: All your characters from the first are here, including some new ones. Overall above average action sequal marred by cliches, couple editing problems, and lacks the spirit of the first.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Delivers little action, generic plot, and monotony.
Review: As a favor to friend Dean Shek, who was going towards bankruptcy, John Woo followed up his hit with A BETTER TOMORROW II. Surprisingly, it's almost as good as the original. Everything's great here and it's not too melodramatic as the original was. Chow Yun Fat, although not as cool as in the original, comes back with a temper as his character in ABT1's brother. Recommended for action fans and another must for Woo fans.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost as good as the original
Review: As a favor to friend Dean Shek, who was going towards bankruptcy, John Woo followed up his hit with A BETTER TOMORROW II. Surprisingly, it's almost as good as the original. Everything's great here and it's not too melodramatic as the original was. Chow Yun Fat, although not as cool as in the original, comes back with a temper as his character in ABT1's brother. Recommended for action fans and another must for Woo fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: FORGET Better Tomorrow I - buy this one
Review: Better Tomorrow was one of the most boring John Woo movies I've ever watched. Over and over again Chow Yun Fat whined and the other guy tried to make things right with his whiny brother played by Leslie Cheung. Even the final gunfight lacked the charm of other Woo movies.

This movie, on the other hand, is amazing. The first five minutes give you all you need to know to keep up. And then it's off to America to see the TWIN BROTHER of the Chow Yun Fat character from the first movie (yes, we know it's a soap opera plot device, but who cares?) runnign a restaurant as gangsters with a distinctly Chinese-British-phony Italian accent try to run him out of business. His "You don't like my rice" line is classic as he has them apologize to his rice.

Anyhow anotehr gangster comes to stay with Chow Yun Fat and it turns out that his associates want to kill him (and kill his daughter pretty fast too) and so Chow is in the midst of the gun battle. Shortly thereafter Lesli Cheung gets shot, insists upon calling his wife and in the time he spends talking to her he could have had those bullets removed. I'm just saying.

ANyhow it all comes down to one of the most kinetic, drawn-out, enjoyable battles in history of films as the three take guns, rifles, machetes and basic cooless in order to wipe out the entire Hong Kong gangster structure at once. I just can't say enough about how cool the final gun battle is. I don't even remember the boring parts then (and tehre are ALWAYS boring parts in Hong Kong movies. The Killer suffers from the 5th or 6th viewing becasuse of those damn guilty conscience scenes and musical montages) and I even forgive Woo for the first subpar movie (I almost forgive Chow Yun Fat for being in City on Fire, but I can't take it too far now)

So buy this movie. Or wait until a better DVD comes out as indicated by another reviewer. But definitely go see it if it comes to a theater near you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best chinese action movies ever
Review: Chow-Yun-Fat is a movie idol to me. I've been watching his films since I was in second grade. He is definately the coolest man alive. True, Relacement Killers and The Corruptor were pretty bad, he still looks good in a suit while shooting all the bad guys. This is the ultimate movie for all you action fans out there.


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