The Corruptor Review
by Craig Roush (kinnopio AT execpc DOT com)March 18th, 1999
THE CORRUPTOR
** 1/2 (out of 4) - an enjoyable movie
Release Date: March 12, 1999
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Mark Wahlberg, Ric Young, Jon Kit Lee, Elizabeth Lindsey, Byron Mann
Directed by: James Foley
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
MPAA Rating: R (strong violence, language, sexuality)
URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1999/corruptor.htm
THE CORRUPTOR can best be summarized as a movie about individuals who are stuck in the gray areas of life. Many a film has been made about this dubious ground which lacks morals and order, and survival is easily half chance. But try as it might, THE CORRUPTOR, directed by James Foley (GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS) cannot reach the level of intelligence necessary to skillfully carry this theme. Instead, it's simply a plain old detective thriller with neon lights and naked women put in for "atmosphere."
Chow Yun-Fat, making his sophomore domestic effort here after last year's action thriller THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS, stars as NYPD Asian Gang Unit officer Nick Chen. On the payroll of a local Chinatown mobster (Ric Young) and faced with a surging wave of crime in his territory Nick is also in the company of a new partner, Danny Wallace (Mark Wahlberg). Although Danny reeks of inexperience, Nick takes him under his wing and the two go on a mission of vengeance to clean up Chinatown -- despite emotional baggage and an interesting plot twist.
The script for this story is clever but not excessively so, the first such piece written for the screen by Robert Pucci. It demands a lot of energy from the director and the cast, hidden amongst awesome pyrotechnics and furious gun battles, and unfortunately neither Foley nor Wahlberg and Chow can deliver on that promise. Instead, the movie comes off feeling like a fake, which pretends to have its supply of adrenaline wound taut like a tennis net but never delivers on that promise. Camera tricks and editing room finesse can only go so far to hide these shortcomings.
The rest of the script devotes itself to a detective story which is not skillfully written. Although the plot may have been orderly and clear to Pucci, on the screen it plays out in an unrefined fashion. Bits of crucial information are bookended by half-finished subplots and become lost among the flashiness of THE CORRUPTOR's visual side. This last bit, the visuals, is perhaps the movie's most redeeming value, for there are moments when the action is good and the plot is straightforward. Put simply, THE CORRUPTOR falls into its own gray area: it does not succeed and it does not fail, giving it the unfortunate disposition of being easily forgotten.
all contents © 1999 Craig Roush
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Craig Roush
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Kinnopio's Movie Reviews
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