Vengeance

Vengeance casts venerable French actor/musician Johnny Hallyday as Costello, a Parisian chef who arrives in Macao intending to avenge the deaths of his son-in-law and grandchildren. He enlists a trio of professional assassins to aid in his perilous quest, and it’s not long before the four men are shooting their way through a notorious criminal organization. It’s an exceedingly promising premise that’s slowly-but-surely squandered by filmmaker Johnny To, which, though not entirely unexpected, proves to be especially disappointing given the undeniably entertaining nature of the movie’s opening half hour (ie the very idea of Hallyday lumbering his way into Macao’s seedy underbelly, Charles Bronson style, is more than enough to whet the appetite of virtually any action fan). The flabby midsection marks the primary indication that something has gone awry somewhere along the line, although the movie doesn’t entirely go off the rails until the first major shoot-out rolls around – as it (and its many like-minded cousins) has been infused with virtually all of the excessive elements one has come to associate with To’s work (with an eye-rolling reliance on slow motion undoubtedly standing as the filmmaker’s most aggravating crutch). The movie’s subsequent transformation from promising revenge thriller to tedious Hong Kong actioner is cemented once Hallyday temporarily exits the proceedings and the viewer is left with the dull escapades of the three hitmen, with the utterly routine nature of their ongoing efforts at completing Costello’s task proving a serious test to one’s patience. By the time the silly, Memento-esque finale rolls around, Vengeance has sealed its fate as the latest in a long line of disappointments from To (eg Mad Detective, Exiled, PTU, etc, etc).

** out of ****