CONNECTED

Mandarin/Cantonese (18PL) 25 September 2008

Distributor: Grand Brilliance

Running Time: approx. 112 minutes

Director: Benny Chan

Producer: Benny Chan, Albert Lee, Jiang Tai, Kevin Yung

Writer: Alan Yuen, Benny Chan, Xu Bing, Chris Morgan and Larry Cohen (original)

Casts: Louis Koo,Barbie Hsu, Liu Ye, Nick Cheung

Plot: A single father receives a sudden distress call from a stranger. She claims she and her young daughter are kidnapped by brutal gangsters and begs him to save them. Caught in a difficult situation on whether to rescue this unknown person, his instincts tell him that he may just be the only thing standing between them and a painful death so he decides to help.

My Verdict:

Green Tea says:

When the movie opens for just 4 minutes, I am pretty sure it would be a total remake and adaptation from the 2004 American movie which called "Cellular". Yes, it is. But I eventually thought that this is way better than the English version, up to certain points. The latest effort by Benny Chan, a renowned director which in past had worked together with Jackie Chan, now back to his annual production. It was not a disappointing outing. Compared to the American version, this is more exciting and more actions in it. I was surprise by its 18PL rating but honestly some part is a bit disturbing and tense. Starpower in this movie is somehow very much relied on the popularity of Louis and Nick, which I think their acting was somehow on average only. But I think Louis still make an impressive performance with Barbie's as well. I feel that the character is a bit woody here and if Cellular was made into again comparison, it slightly has the edge.

When watching Benny Chan movies, always remember these three parts of story telling: first, the cause of all the troubles; then some build-up storylines with logic and illogic stunts; and lastly ended with an abrupt but show the weakness of the protagonists. In this movie, it makes no exception. The story line was somehow normal but a little tense and exciting. Not many laughable jokes for this feature, but the creativity is still there. The stunts as mentioned earlier, is awesome considering the HK standard. Endless and massive, two words to describe the actions. This one is better than last year's Invisible Target, but nothing compares Rob-B-Hood and New Police Story.

CAST -4.0 stars

STORYLINE - 3.5 stars

CINEMATOGRAPHY - 4.0 stars

EFFECTS - 3.5 stars

an overall >> 3.5 stars