Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Leofwine_draca THE BLACK SHEEP AFFAIR is a good example of an efficient, modern-day martial arts flick, with plenty of action and mindless violence to appease fans of this particular genre. However, it has to be said right at the outset that this film's plot is kind of silly. It involves a made-up country where, even in the subtitled version, people speak in silly over-the-top American accents. The plot is also rather threadbare, basically a running battle between two people, one good and one evil, but with a revolutionary background. They even use stock footage from the Beijing uprising in this film! Nevertheless, it delivers on the action front, and that's all that really matters.Chiu Man Chuk is the youthful hero in this film. He may be recognisable as the pale villain in Jet Li's THE LEGEND, where he was pretty good; he was also in the rubbishy and dull FIST POWER with Anthony Wong. Chuk is a tough, resourceful and energetic actor with plenty of martial arts moves under his belt, and it's a pleasure watching him fight. His opponent, Andrew Lin, is also very decent, and the scenes in which the pair duke it out are top-notch and ultra-entertaining. Shu Qi (from Jackie Chan's dire GORGEOUS) also stars, and has one great scene when she goes mad with a knife.In the main, though, this is an action-orientated film and there's much to enjoy. You've gotta love the sequences in which the balaclava-wearing henchmen jump out from behind chimneys to stage assassination attempts, and the subsequent scenes in which Chuk kills all of them. One OTT scene sees a van being attacked by loads of guys with rocket launchers, which is absolutely hilarious, as is the battle on the bridge that takes place afterwards. If only the movie S.W.A.T. – which seems to borrow heavily from this film – could have been as much fun! The martial arts battles use wirework to enhance them, really pushing the boundaries of believability. The good news is that they're great, with the focus on smashing up the scenery, something I always love to see. The battle in the subway station was so good, they copied it in THE MATRIX, but all the other fights are stupendous as well. The climatic showdown is very well achieved, and I simply love the bit when Chuk uses the machine gun on the helicopter – over-the-top isn't the word here. Yes, it's cheesy, but yes, it's also absurdly entertaining. Just ignore the slow and romantic middle bit and enjoy the beginning and outlandish ending of this hugely enjoyable film.

sarastro7 Another Meltdown was probably titled so as to capitalize on Jet Li's High Risk (1995), whose US video title was Meltdown. It has, however, nothing at all to do with Meltdown, other than being a Hong Kong produced martial arts action movie.Another Meltdown is nothing to write home about; in fact it is almost painful to sit through. It consists almost exclusively of clichés, is entirely predictable and is unintentionally funny from beginning to end. In a way, it is a typical action movie rental for a young male audience, harking back to the poorly made action movies so prevalent in the '80s.Man Cheuk Chiu, the guy in the lead, is actually not bad. He looks good, and he does have some pretty cool kung fu ability. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to show it much, and most of the action is rendered meaningless by the idiotic story (which takes place in a fictional former Soviet republic, "Lavernia"). Man Cheuk Chiu was very good in The Blade (though the movie itself was less good), and as the villain in Fong Sai Yuk. He needs some better roles, because he's a very cool type, who can perform some convincingly great kung fu.The movie as a whole is pretty much a waste of life, however, and I am generous when I give it a 3 out of 10 for the fight scenes and the acting skills of the leading man. And for being unintentionally comical. You want some good laughs with some friends who're already into bad action movies, this just might be the movie for you.

Skrud This movie was excellent. It is a prime example of what Hong Kong has to offer in the realm of action movies. Few movies, even of the HK variety, manage to merge gunplay and hand-to-hand combat as well as The Blacksheep Affair, and I was completely blown away.The gunplay is reminiscent of John Woo, cleverly choreographed with plenty of random objects that somehow find their way onto the set... And it fits together so well!The action also escalates brilliantly... from gunplay, to fighting, to swords, to helicopters... you get the picture ;)

Bogey Man Allun Lam's The Blacksheep Affair (1998, Hong Kong) is a fast paced action pack set in some fictional East European country Lavernia. Man Cheuk Chiu's character Yim Dong, a policeman, is sent there as a punishment for his disobedience towards his authorities during the film's opening plane hijacking. In Lavernia, there's an evil Japanese Mishima (Hoi Lin) captured and his group has done some very severe damage to the people and he thinks he's on mission from God to "cure the world" by killing and so on. Qi Shu plays Dong's old love Chan Pun who also happens to be in Lavernia. What follows is action and brutality as the evil Japanese kill and kill innocent people and the good Chinese cop must fight them to death.The film is very annoying in its attitudes towards foreigners, Japanese mostly. They are depicted as evil and rotten killers that cannot be good or change. The screenplay is filled with lines like "those evil Japanese this and that.." and I really can't appreciate a film that has so incorrect attitudes and undertones for no any apparent reason or real importance. And that's not everything that's wrong with this film.Qi Shu's character, a young and attractive female, is depicted as total moron who can't do anything in a hot situation but scream hysterically and act as if she had no idea what's she screaming for and could she perhaps do something to it. This film suggests that females can't really do much and they are just useless pieces of flesh in a dangerous situation. All that seem to be good and capable for something noteworthy are of course the Chinese men and their police.The music is very bad in my opinion and even though it tries to make the goings on more dramatic, it fails and sounds almost naive. None of the characters become too interesting or close to the real person so their destinies don't touch and make me feel anything either. There's only one thing this film manages to do somewhat good and that is the action.The action choreography by the great Ching Siu Tung is not as near as kinetic and inventive as in his masterpieces (Chinese Ghost Story trilogy, various John Woo films plus many others) but his talent make the action scenes easy to watch and thus the whole film much easier to watch. The violence is surprisingly brutal and almost exploitive so there's plenty of evil acts committed by evil, uncharismatic and unreal characters in this film. Not too nice an experience for a lover of ambitious and unique Eastern cinema.The Blacksheep Affair is very close to the most boring and needless HK category and is worth watching only for the occasional action scenes and some inventive usage of camera. For most of the time, the twisted and moving camera angles and drives don't mean anything special, they're just there to make the film look more "stylish", but at least occasionally they manage to depict something, too. A good example is at least the scene in which Qi Shu's character escapes from the raging masses. Otherwise there's nothing special or memorable in this film, and thus it is among the least convincing pieces of the more recent Hong Kong cinema.3/10 and barely so.