Europe Raiders 歐洲攻略 (2018) - Hong Kong / China
Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)
The third instalment of the “Raiders” series continue to focus on style over substance and showcase the coolness and charisma of its main star Tony Leung Chiu Wai. If this is a showreel for Leung’s credentials for becoming the first Asian James Bond, then there is probably nobody more cool with ease and have the acting chops to back it up too. Director Jingle Ma made “Tokyo Raiders” on the back of 90s cinematic success of Hollywood - “Charlie Angels”, Hong Kong’s “Gen X & Y Cops” and created a highly entertaining and cool film. Following the same 90s formula, we get updated cyber crimes and “hand of god” technologies to combine with plenty of romance, bombs and fight scenes along the ride. If you are a fan of the series or stars, you will appreciate the coolness of the film, otherwise there is not much to root for.
Tony Leung once again lead the line as the coolest agent on Planet Earth. One of things that worked for me is the romantic chemistry between former flame Tiffany Tang and Leung and its fun and engaging as the two plays off each other. Du Juan is simply the coolest fashion icon right now and her presence adds to the cool factor. Kris Wu undoubtedly continues the aim of hitting higher voltage of coolness scale. Veteran martial artists played by Yuen Qiu, Lo Meng and Cung Le provides interesting fighting cameos.
All in all, given the lack of box office success in the mainland market for this film, the good news is that we will probably not have a “American Raiders” sequel on the pipeline. Still, it’s good to see Leung plays and act cool once again and romance with beautiful costar. I enjoyed the film, more in a guilty pleasure sort of manner. It’s style over substance and it’s Jingle Ma, interesting gadgets, Tony Leung and good looking people to boot. Please shoot me for having fun, and don’t blame Wong Kar Wai’s production company for producing this as well.
I rated it 7/10