Search - Running Out of Time 2 on DVD

Better than the first!

SereneNight | California, USA | 09/15/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ekin Chen stars as the Mysterious criminal Ken, a `Robin Hood' style villain, with the talents of a magician, who robs from the rich and gives to the poor. When a hostage situation breaks out, Inspector Ho (Lau Ching Wan), is once more called upon to track down the villain.Ekin did a wonderful job as Ken. He is handsome and charismatic, and fully believable as a magician and a criminal mastermind. Wan, is great as the much beleaguered and put upon Inspector Ho.I liked this sequel much more than the original movie. Ekin did a great job of acting, and Hong Kong at Christmas was simply beautiful.I recommend this movie for fans of Hong Kong cinema, or fans of Ekin. While the plot is not especially deep, it was a light and fun action movie, sure to entertain fans of the HK action film genre."

Disappointing but not disastrous by any means

Trevor Willsmer | London, England | 08/31/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It was inevitable that after setting the benchmark so high with the first film that Running Out of Time 2 would be a disappointment, and it is, though it's still an above average Hong Kong thriller. Once again it's a game of cat and mouse rather than a collection of action scenes, but this time round new writers Kin Yee Au and Nai-Hoi Yau give Ching Wan Lau much less to work with and the film seriously suffers from the lack of genuine emotional involvement of the original. It's almost a film of incidental pleasures - a couple of playful nods to the original in rooftop and taxi scenes, a nice part for Johnnie To regular Lam Suet as a phenomenally unlucky compulsive gambler, a chase that drags on so long both pursuer and pursued stop for a drink of water and an ice cream and one terrific twist over the location of a ransom drop that the film is never able to top. It also has the best CGI effects I've ever seen in a Hong Kong film, with some remarkably well-integrated shots of an eagle flying through the streets of Hong Kong. But Ekin Cheung's mastermind just isn't interesting enough and the ending is too far fetched to work."