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Bullets Over Summer DVD Review

Evan Roth | San Francisco, CA United States | 12/24/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Excellent Hong Kong movie in the same vein of such other popular titles as "The Mission" and "Beast Cops." The attention-grabbing intro in which two undercover cops break up a liquor store hold-up draws the viewer in and keeps them riveted throughout the fast-paced film, which utilizes an edgy cinematography and good character development. Two undercover cops stake out an apartment to catch a criminal across the street and along the way one of them falls in love with a pretty young woman and the other befriends a pregnant woman working at a dry cleaner's. Lots of gunfire and graphic action sequences. Highly recommended!"

Two great scenes don't make a great movie.

W. K. Miller | NC, USA | 05/01/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"BULLETS OVER SUMMER opens with a convenience-store action scene; this is a great scene, enjoyable and memorable. However, that action doesn't continue throughout the whole movie. BULLETS OVER SUMMER is a strange mix of action, drama, comedy, and romance. Overall, the film is also a mix of equal parts failure and success. Brian and Mike are Hong Kong undercover police, searching for "The Dragon," a ruthless killer. They use an old woman's apartment as a stakeout location. Both of them start odd romantic relationships. Brian gets together with a teenage girl who just wanders into their apartment and demands a place to sleep. Mike hooks up with a pregnant woman who works at the dry cleaning business. Meanwhile they are staying at the apartment of "granny," an old woman who likes to serve them noodles. Granny also gets into arguments with neighbors and passersby-- Granny likes to talk a lot of trash... and her trash-talking scenes are really funny.The romance scenes drag the plot quite a bit... they aren't very believable, yet they really comprise about half the movie.There is one great action scene at the beginning (at the convenience store) and one great action-to-drama scene near the end, when Brian and Mike finally encounter the gangster subject. In between the movie is uneven, and it's unfortunate, because the cast and director pull those 2 scenes off with style, excitement and grace.The music varies from creepy atmospheric music like that in Memento (which works well) to ridiculous cheezy 80's guitar rock, which sounds terrible, and ruins a few scenes. The previous reviewer likened this to Johnny To's THE MISSION and also BEAST COPS. THE MISSION is far superior to BULLETS OVER SUMMER, and it's a different type of movie altogether. BULLETS OVER SUMMER tries to appeal to everyone, with the romance, drama, comedy, and action. It doesn't have nearly the style or smooth flow of THE MISSION. B.O.S. focuses on the nice-guy clean cut cops, and their nice girlfriends, and the wacky funny granny. You rarely see the shootouts or the bad guys in dark suits, which is a shame. BULLETS OVER SUMMER: 3/5 stars."