The Adventurers (2017)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Master thief Zhang Dan (Andy Lau) is released from a French prison after serving a 5-year sentence. Pierre (Jean Reno), the French cop who put Zhang Dan away, keeps an eye on him, confident that he will be back to his thieving ways. Zhang Dan teams up with his loyal sidekick/young hunk Xiao Po (Tony Yang), together with new recruit Red Ye (Shu Qi), to go after some unfinished jewellery business. Pierre persuades Zhang Dan's former fiancee Amber (Zhang Jing Chu) to help him locate Zhang Dan.

***

The problem with The Adventurers is that it had no story reason to exist. It's as if some producer said, Let's make an action movie with Andy Lau and Shu Qi. And the writers just filled up the run time with Mission Impossible cliches and tropes. 

There's no overall organizing principle behind the story, just random bits of action, unconvincing character backstory, fake camaraderie, and characters double-crossing each other for the sake of cheap plot twists. This has been a problem with Hong Kong and mainland China movies, for decades. 

The romance between Zhang Dan and Amber is not convincing (no matter how prettily and pensively Zhang Jing Chu pouts). This is made worse by how Shu Qi, cast in the role of comedic sidekick (together with Tony Yang), totally steals the show away from Zhang Jing Chu. Red Ye's role was custom written to fit Shu Qi's perky personality, making her more the female lead than Zhang Jing Chu, which unbalances the characters' dynamic.     

Poor Director of Photography Shane Hurlbut (Terminator Salvation, Crazy/Beautiful, Act of Valor, Need for Speed), was even pulled down to director Stephen Fung's level - I'm guessing forced by Stephen Fung to move his camera for no reason. A jib move when the characters are just sitting around and talking? Maybe 8 different camera angles when Pierre is talking to Zhang Dan in the police interrogation room - for what? It's a really bad performance for someone of Hurlbut's caliber. I don't think he will be putting The Adventurers in his showreel.

At least Jean Reno emerges with his dignity intact, but barely. 

What else is wrong? Let me count the ways:

• Pierre desperately wants to catch Zhang Dan because, of all things, Zhang Dan saved Pierre's life.
• Pierre unilaterally releases Zhang Dan from police custody, near the end, and suffers no penalty for doing so. Especially when Zhang Dan doesn't come back after tracking down the other bad guys.
• Bomb complication at the end is copied from Magnum Force. 
• French cops speak English to each other. That might be ok if the whole movie was in English, but the Chinese speak Mandarin to each other. 
• Pierre is confident of not killing Zhang Dan, only wounding him, while shooting at a motorcycle-borne Zhang Dan from a speeding car. Nobody is that good. 
• Rich Chinese guy in the Czech Republic, has a force of paramilitary guards with submachine guns. 

Shock Wave (2017)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Hong Kong policeman Cheung (Andy Lau) worked undercover and put away some of the members of a bank robbery gang. Bank robber Hung (Jiang Wu) managed to escape but his brother ended up in jail. A few years later, Hung returns to Hong Kong with a band of mercenaries. He takes control of one of Hong Kong's undersea traffic tunnels, together with hundreds of trapped motorists as hostages, and threatens to blow up the tunnel unless his brother is released and ransom is paid. 

***

Shock Wave is an above-average Hong Kong action thriller. Too many Hong Kong movies have cliched and unbelievable plots, and unnatural forced character development.

Some thought has gone into each of Shock Wave's many action sequences, so it's not just bland by-the-numbers action tropes. There are interesting details. Pacing and editing are especially good, almost Roland Emmerich slick. The scenes don't feel too drawn out or full of filler.  

The first third or so of the movie establishes the characters and their backgrounds, before the long tunnel siege starts. We see Cheung fall in love with Carmen (Song Jia), and defuse an old war bomb. Hung also toys with Cheung with a small bomb. 

The whole tunnel setting (I'm guessing they used a real location) looks large and feels authentic, giving the movie a blockbuster feel (on a US$23 million budget). But the siege itself isn't 100 percent believable. If you're the mastermind, you don't need to place yourself in danger, in the middle of the siege. You can run the operation remotely. Anyway, it is believable enough.

The movie was made with the cooperation of Hong Kong's bomb squad, so the technicalities are detailed and convincing. For example, Cheung drills into the fuse of the old war bomb and neutralizes it with some liquid chemical (could be made up but it looks real). Cheung declines to wear a bomb suit for this operation as the bomb is so large that a bomb suit wouldn't offer any protection - nicely foreshadowing the power and danger of the bombs in the tunnel.

However some liberties were taken for dramatic purposes (splitting the explosives into two bombs reduces the blast damage to the tunnel, it doesn't increase the damage) but most viewers won't notice. Carmen and the grenade? You could wrap tape around the grenade's spoon (lever) without wrapping it round her hand, allowing her to safely drop the grenade.

Less convincing but still effective is Hung's relationship with Carmen. Their breakup in the kitchen seems to come out of nowhere. However the two characters are well established and believable, lending emotional weight when Cheung is in danger.

Overall, the movie works. Pacing is good, characters are sympathetic, plot is mainly believable. Too few Hong Kong movies pass this bar. 

Side note: Cheung uses a Leatherman OHT multitool a few times, not the Leatherman EOD MUT which is designed for bomb squad use.