I was able to catch this movie in theaters today. But I want to write this review with a disclaimer, I actually fell asleep after the main conclusion of the story, so I didn't get to see the final wrap up, as in what happened to the characters after the main story arc's conclusion. I guess it's kind of a hint at how I feel about the movie.

This movie is much more of a thriller than action movie, so don't expect too much even though there's some gunplay in the trailer, because that's pretty much half the action there. I came in to the movie expecting an intense detective cat and mouse story. And in general it is, but the story telling was bad and the tone was off. What's awesome is that there are famous actors cameo's as bosses in this movie ( I won't spoil them). The cinematography was amazing. Everything looked beautiful. The contrast in colors, shadows, and lighting created a really atmospheric stage for the movie. The few action scenes were also filmed well. All the effects looked practical and amazing. The gunfights were done well without too much shakey cam. The first 10-20 minutes of the film were great for setting the story and tone of the film. Unfortunately the rest of the film is pretty slow and boring. There was no sense of urgency.

The acting was good, but not for this type of movie. They felt like metal gear bosses, a little too campy and comicbooky for the tone of how the first 10 minutes of the story was set up as a gritty and realistic. As the story progressed, I didn't feel the sense of urgency that the detective felt in finding Mr. Lee. There were no time frames set, no deadlines that the main characters had to meet to satisfy the gangsters. In that way, there weren't really consequences. What progressed the movie along was the bad guys randomly showing up for no reason, just like how Jason Stathom randomly showed up everywhere in Fast and Furious 7.

There were also so many characters, that they would have little to no character development. The Detective's team had like 5 members, and we have no idea what their personalities, skill sets, or strengths were. They felt like extras inserted into scenes. If anything were to happen to the team members, we would not have any emotional attachment to even care.

By the end of the movie, there is a twist, and now the whole movie doesn't make sense anymore. Why did the whole first hr and a half of the movie even need to take place? ugh, frustrating. There was probably another 15-20 minutes of the movie remaining, and like I said, after that twist, I actually fell asleep in the theater. I woke up when the credits started running. The sad part is that I don't even care about how the story ended.

This move is a remake of a Chinese film named Drug War. I have not actually seen that film, so I didn't include any comparisons in this review. But with the way this movie turned out, I think your time would probably be spent better watching the original than this remake. This movie is visually captivating, but it's story telling is dull.