experten Review of Expect the Unexpected

Expect the Unexpected (1998)

Good start, good ending, the rest is crap

[5/10 · 5 October 2001]

First I like to say that I see a lot of movies and I have quite a few HK movies. Many HK movies are so bad that it is hard to believe, often ruined by typical ridiculous HK humor and unrealistic acting, but hidden among all those disappointing movies are some really good movies, sometimes so violent, morbid or tragic that they could never have been made in Hollywood. And thats what I like; serious violence, tragic, suspense, maybe a little romance but not too much and absolutely no HK humor. Unfortunately, Expect the Unexpected is not one of those very good movies, even though the ending is enough to make sure that it would be impossible for Hollywood to do a remake of the movie (not that they would want to).

The beginning of the movie is good and the ending is even better, but everything in between is uninteresting romantic crap. The violence in the movie is good,consisting of realistic shootouts with some good bloodsquibs. There are no John Woo style massacres, the action is not so stylistic but more realistic. The problem is that most of the movie is a boring study of the cops romantic problems and childish courting. The directing is good, the problem is the weak story. The actors are also good. Ching Wan Lau is one of my favorites, but I recommend for instance "A Hero Never Dies" , "Full Alert" or "Running out of Time" if you want to see him in much better movies. 5/10