Revenge of the Green Dragons (2014) Review!!

Synopsis – Two best friends rise through the ranks of New York’s Chinese underworld in the 1980s.

My Take – What do you expect from a gangster movie, especially when Martin Sorcese is producing it & directed by Andrew Lau, the man behind the Hong Kong action er Infernal Affairs series (Officially remade as The Departed)? Typically gangster movies are predictable, but this film does not even try to be different! With a similar plot line & set of events which have been witnessed in almost every other gangster movie!

Nevertheless Andrew law manages to keep the everything engaging, as the focus of the story is nicely kept between the gang members, their relationships and the intrigue and betrayal among them. The action scenes look nice with the touch of hand-carried camera angle emphasizing the panic in them. The movie doesn’t get to be too graphic about the violence, fading out to black or just out right skipping to other scenes when things are about to go visually disturbing. The acting overall however feels like it’s missing something. Justin Chon tries his best at an action-crime role, but being known as the Asian dude from Twilight sure doesn’t lift his status on this movie. The other casts just barely kept the acting going with no real effort on the expressions.

Having Ray Liotta doesn’t really help the acting overall. For me the movie overall feels like a Martin Scorcese movie about street gangs with Hong Kong standard acting. This movie can be termed as an average just another gangster movie to come out & may even hit his target audience, but I wouldn’t recommend watching this for anyone looking for a nice entertaining action film.