T.h.e. Professionals

 

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Director: Wilson Tong
Year: 1998
Rating: 5.5

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If you have seen the film Heat it will only take a minute to explain what this film is about. That’s because it follows the plot of Heat almost down to the same dialogue being used at times. If you have not seen Heat, I advise that you do so because it is a vastly superior film to this one. Not that this film is not terrible by any means but it is missing some important ingredients such as Robert Di Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer and Ashley Judd. Heat was a very interesting exploration of the two main characters and the film ran for well over two hours. This version is the typical 90-minute HK film and thus can only touch on the highlights of Heat, but it has none of the layered complexity of Heat.

Basically, there is a group of professional thieves led by Norman Chu – the same guy who dueled Michelle Yeoh in Wing Chun and a group of detectives that follow them (headed by Louis Koo) and wait for them to commit a crime. To some degree it looks into the personal lives of these characters. The girlfriend of Chu is Ada Choi. 

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