Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

morrison-dylan-fan Despite greatly enjoying his performance in Yimou Zhang's 2002 film Hero, (one of my most memorable cinema visits) I for some reason have never got round to seeing Jet Li's Hong Kong action flicks. In a local DVD shop,I saw two Li DVDs at a good price,which led to me contacting the hitman.View on the film:Doing his own dubbing for the first time in his last Hong Kong flick,Jet Li gives a very good performance as Fu (!),with Li holding the impression that Fu is always one step ahead. Whilst not making them a buddy duo, Li and Eric Tsang's lively performance as Ngok Lo catches the empathy they both share,and makes their partnership one that flows with ease. Offered up high-quality stunt work from Li and the team, director Wei Tung & cinematographer Arthur Wong chop it away for poor artistic ambition.Sticking a big poster of Three Colours: Blue on the screen a number of times, Tung and Wong give the long scenes of Fu and Ngok making attack plans a crisp,glowing appearance which undermines the grit that could be on show in the tale. Closely working with editor Ka-Fai Cheung, Tung presents the action scenes horribly, via the constant use of speeding up footage and jump-cuts that don't let the viewer to follow the battles or give the fights breathing space (you don't need 80 jump-cuts to show Li throwing a simple punch.) Kicking off with an enticing assassination, the writers kick the action and danger aside to instead focus on the timid buddy team-up,which makes this a failed hit.

Comeuppance Reviews A down-on-his-luck and financially strapped ex-soldier named Fu (Li) - is reluctantly is drawn into becoming a hit-man after moving from the country to try and make it in the big city of Hong Kong. Before a mega-rich Japanese businessman is mercilessly assassinated, he smartly planned ahead and offered a hundred million dollars to whoever captures his killer. A whole panoply of money-grabbers come out of the woodwork to try and claim the loot by catching the wily killer, including the murdered tycoon's son Eiji (Sato). While Fu and a charismatic underworld type named Norman (at least in the U.S. version his name is Norman) (Tsang) are trying to work their way through the precarious situation they find themselves in, with the help of Kiki (Leung), a cop named Chan (Yam) is trying to prevent any more bloodshed. Who will find - or become - the "King of the Killers"? Find out today...We've always been big Jet Li fans, and Contract Killer is a solid showcase for his talents. It was fun watching him go from a thrifty ragamuffin to a dapper killer, but while still continuing to be a good guy at heart, of course. He even helps a group of children win stuffed animals at a carnival, including one lucky kid who gets a Big Bird and a Cookie Monster. Pretty sweet. Much of the transformation of Fu's character was done using a classic shopping montage, which we always love to see.Director Wei Tung, who is primarily known for being an actor and stuntman, turns in a well-shot, professional-looking product, and the U.S. DVD is in widescreen, which reinforces that. Unfortunately, it's English-dubbed only, with no option for the original spoken language. Another frustrating thing about the DVD presentation is that a lot of annoying rap music is shoehorned in all over the place. In many scenes, funky-fresh beats just randomly start playing, and of course it's all over the opening and closing credits. The lyrics even appear if you turn on the closed-captioning. Here's a prime example, and we quote: "contract killer, yo." Our question is: WHY? Is there someone out there who would enjoy the movie exactly as it is, but the fact that there isn't rap on the soundtrack every two minutes cause him to lose faith and interest in the film? Would that really be a dealbreaker for someone? Of course, the main reason to watch Contract Killer is for the Martial Arts fights, and there are some absolute killers on display. It really is a pleasure to watch Jet Li work his magic. We definitely felt these high-quality and extremely well-executed fights should have lasted longer, and there should have been more of them. But what we do get is top-notch stuff. Not to belabor the point, but watching these beautifully choreographed battles with some piped-in hip-hop is like spray painting over fine art. But honestly it's not really reason enough to avoid seeing this movie, especially considering it's available dirt cheap and is widely accessible.While not without its flaws, Contract Killer boasts some impressive fights, and is one of the last pager-era Martial Arts extravaganzas.

spasmo dunson Contract Killer(Sat sau ji wong) has dynamite action scenes but they are too few and far between. Jet Li is teamed up with a guy who, I swear, could pass for John Belushi's long lost Chinese half brother. The dubbing is ludicrous in the version I bought. I found out that there is a better version known as Hit-man that is also six minutes longer. Anyway, the little fat guy even sounds like Belushi and is the comic relief as a con man. Jet Li is a wannabe hit-man and doesn't know the first thing about it although he kicks ass like crazy. A Japanese mobster is killed by the "King of Killers" and his family ponies up a reward of one hundred million dollars. Jet's character, Fu, and "Norman", the fat guy, con their way into the competition and mayhem ensues. The so called comedy is pretty lame but there are a few good jokes. The action, as I said is terrific and intense. The Japanese employ a tall, white guy as a body guard/killer and he is wicked bad. He has a neat gimmick with tiny, high intensity flashlights (lasers?) disguised as rings and in the toes of his shoes which he uses to temporarily blind his opponents so he can beat the bejesus out of them. There is a weird scene where the grandson of the slain Mr.Big eats some of grand pa's ashes. I think it was to gain his strength, or something like that. Anyway, it was bizarre and different, which is a good thing. I don't know who does the English voice overs on these movies but they should list those people on the credits because it is their hard work which you hear on the soundtrack. So, for good martial art ass kickery, this movie delivers. You will need to "fast forward" through the stupid stuff

m0rg16 From the cover of the movie, with Jet Li dressed up in a full Swat-like body armor, swinging in a rope, I didn't really expect much. It seemed pretty cliché if you ask me. But I watched it, and boy, was I surprised. Ok, so it was dubbed. And dubbing is always bad. But the story was quite interesting, and carried out well throughout the movie. In the opening scene a mafia boss is killed by a hitman, along with a bunch of his bodyguards. His family puts a bounty on the hitmans head (100 million dollars, to be exact... That's alot!), and they call upon all the assassins of Hong Kong to find this hitman, and kill him.Jet Li's character, Fu, is a rookie hitman who's low on cash. He's thrown out by his roommates for not paying the bill and is wandering the streets when he hears of the 100 million dollar award for the one who finds the killer of the mafia boss. He also finds a new friend, who finds a few hits for him. However it seems that Fu isn't really that great of a hitman. Sure, he is fast, strong and well trained in the martial arts, but he's to sensitive. They end up getting in trouble, because everyone thinks Fu's friend is the one who killed the mafia boss, and they have to run from some of Eiji's (the badguy in the movie... But is he really bad? What did he do that's so bad? Well, its obvious that he is meant to be the badguy, anyway) assassins. The end is pretty predictable (but the identity of the killer who killed the mafia boss is probably supposed to come as a surprise. It didn't.) but all in all its a good movie. Entertaining, and much, much better than most Hollywood action movies. I give it a 8, interesting characters, plot, fights and pretty much everything. But I suppose it could have been better on some minor points. It just doesn't feel like a 10, heh.