Cover Hard 3

Ringo Lam's "The Adventurers" is a star vehicle for Andy Lau, who plays a Cambodian orphan out to get even with the renegade arms merchant who rubbed out his parents. There are lots of explosions, plenty of gunfights and fine production values. The screenplay that Ringo Lam directs is weak on character development, linear structure and conversation. The comic book reality of this movie would have been better if Andy Lau had more personality or screen presence. In his scenes with Rosamund Kwan, she lights up the screen while Andy Lau mostly scowls. There is plenty of action, staged in San Francisco, the Phillipines and maybe Thailand (the police officers in some scenes looked the same as those in "Full Contact," which Lam filmed in Bangkok). For fans of Andy Lau, a top Hong Kong film star and singer, this movie is right up their alley. Ringo Lam complained in an interview after the movie's release that Lau's price tag of over one million dollars (US, not HK dollars) ate up almost half the pictures budget and limited Lam's making this movie. The production values are fine, in spite of Andy Lau's star fee. I saw this movie on a Mei Ah VCD, and the movie is worth looking at as mindless entertainment.