Film review: The Adventurers – Andy Lau fails his Tom Cruise impression in slick but lifeless heist movie

2/5 stars

Titles of action adventure films don’t come more generic than that of The Adventurers – even if it proves an apt representation of Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Fung Tak-lun’s glossy yet unapologetically superficial caper.

Since his planned Tai Chi trilogy ended prematurely with a fun but not-quite-lucrative second film in 2012, Fung has rehabilitated his hitmaker image with an executive producer role on the hit ABC show Into the Badlands . The Adventurers, however, starkly brings to mind his early reputation as a director of fluffy, mediocre action comedies.

Andy Lau Tak-wah plays Zhang, a master thief intent on tracking down the rat who put him in prison after a botched heist five years ago. While an obsessed Paris cop (Jean Reno) is hot on his trail, the film is really more about Zhang’s dreary ‘one-last-job’ theft plans for two pieces of rare jewellery.

Stephen Fung believes his Tai Chi trilogy marks a great leap forward

Respectively playing the hacker and seductress in Zhang’s heist unit, Yo Yang Yo-ning and Shu Qi – recently Mrs Fung – are limited by an innocuous script that reveals only a fraction of their usual charisma. Faring even worse are Eric Tsang Chi-wai and Zhang Jingchu, who are saddled with unconvincingly fickle roles as the protagonist’s mentor and fiancée.

A poor sense of humour and a twist ending obvious from miles away only add to the disappointment of this lethargic spin on John Woo’s Once a Thief (1991). It’s a shame how the heavyweight cast and exotic European locations are wasted on such a derivative story.

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The Adventurers opens on August 24

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