Tricky On (Alex Fong) travels to Macau to help rescue the kidnapped daughter of his best friend Ban (Lap Sam Lam). Assembling a crack team consisting of cocky sharpshooter Wood (Ken Chang), sadistic S&M assassin Rain (Anya), and talented driver Kangaroo (Danny Summer), On successfully completes the mission, only to discover that Ban hasn't been entirely honest with him.
Produced by classic kung fu studio Golden Harvest and directed by 'Bloody' Billy Tang, who made the excellent Cat III classic Red To Kill, action thriller Sharp Guns attempts to recapture the energy and style of late 80s/early 90s Hong Kong action cinema, blending the high octane, bullet riddled action of the 'bloodshed' genre, known for its impossibly cool characters and outrageously bloody set-pieces, with the sexiness of the Femme Fatale sub-genre, known for its impossibly hot women in very revealing get-ups.
Sadly, what we get is a very pale imitation of those HK classics, a disappointing popcorn flick saddled with a forgettable gangster plot that involves unlikely crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses (hell, there may have even been a quadruple cross in there somewhere), a team of anti-heroes who share zero chemistry, and surprisingly uninspired action scenes from Tang, the director striving too hard to be cool when he should be concentrating on generating pulse-pounding scenes of majestic blood-drenched chaos.
Despite their best efforts, the cast do little to help matters, with star Alex Fong trying hard to replicate the charisma, confidence and panache of Chow Yun Fat, but only managing to come off as incredibly smug, while eye-candy Anya confidently struts her stuff in low slung jeans but comes nowhere near to the effortless sexiness of Chingamy Yau.
