Reviewed by: evirei Date: 11/14/2011 Another triad movie that tells tale of how a wrong move kills. Every decision made do have a serious consequences. Of course, there comes to this question about truthfulness. Who can you really trust? What leads to betrayal. But what impress me is Wu Jing?s sword fighting skills. So yes? the fatal move is after all a small mistake? to have a child. Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: MrBooth Date: 11/11/2008 Clearly inspired by SPL, but helmed by a less talented director/crew. The plot is overly convoluted, and by the mid-point I wasn't really clear what was going on (to be fair, I had been nodding off a bit), but then the plot in the second half seemed to head off in a different direction anyway so it didn't really matter. The action scenes are the most interesting part of the film, using a lot of CGI to create quite extreme levels of gore at times. Unfortunately, as with most CGI, it is so obviously fake that it loses most of the impact a less explicit approach would have had. Sometimes the imagination is the best special effect. The other reviewers seem to have missed the point of the final fight scene - the idea was that the two friends realised that they were inevitably going to die, and figured they might as well have a fight to the death to find out which of them was the better fighter. Yes it was gratuitous, but definitely the coolest part of the film. Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 09/06/2008 Summary: Disappointing After the movie finished, i thought to myself, is that all? I find it hard to explain what happens in the movie, it feels like there story stops so this particular scene can be added in, for some effect, case in point the fight between SAmmo and Wu Jing, the dramatic flash back of Sammo and his wife in the past which comes from nowhere.I thought the focus was on Simon Yam's character then it goes off to another plot line and Simon doesnt do much else after that. The movie has lots of characters which dont blend in well with each other, some you feel are just there as background wallpaper until its there turn to be in the limelight. ITS good to see DAnny LEe in a movie, and you always know he plays the good guy, something i beleive he can never shake off. Everyone else does what they can with the script but Wu Jing, for me, is still too babyface to be a villian. CGI blood special effects? YIKES whats going on? you dont need it!! With most of the cast from SPL back, its just shows that Donnie Yen can at least hold a movie together with his overacting and at least has a presence in a movie, no one stands out in this movie Reviewer Score: 3

Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 05/30/2008 Reuniting most of the cast of 2005's hit SPL (aka Killzone), Dennis Law's Fatal Move was a highly anticipated release for action fans. There's certainly quite a bit of action, and it's done well for the most part -- it's a shame that the scenes surrounding them aren't pulled off with the same panache. The film revolves around Lung (Sammo Hung), the head of a powerful Triad group who is looking to retire after the birth of his son. But that won't be very easy, since Lung's second-in-command, Tung (Simon Yam), is depleting the gang's reserves due his addiction to gambling and fast women, and the cops, led by Chung (Danny Lee) are determined to bring him down. Matters become even more complicated when Lung discovers that there is a rat in the gang. Like SPL, Fatal Move takes a standard flimsy Triad movie plot and tries to run all the way to the end zone with it. The actors do a decent enough job, but the script, which literally stops the action in its' tracks at points to have the characters deliver hammy dialogue, is one a bit below average to say the least. Case in point: after Lung finds the rat, he doesn't kill them, but engages in a long conversation, and then gets into a pointless fight with his bodyguard (Wu Jing) -- all while the cops have his hideout surrounded. The ending is also almost totally incomphrensible. It tries to evoke the hitman/baptism sequence of The Godfather, but comes off as just confusing and unneccessary. Again, like SPL, what ultimately saves Fatal Move are the action sequences. They're not up to the level of SPL, but they're solid enough to satisfy adrenaline junkies looking for a high body count. Dennis Law must be a fan of 300, because there's enough chopped limbs and blood spilled to fill an olympic-sized swimming pool. It's too bad that similar to 300, the claret is of the CGI variety for the most part, and looks too fake to be truly effective. However, at the end of the day, if you're a fan of brainless ultra-violent action films as only Hong Kong can produce them, then Fatal Move might be right up your alley. But if you're looking for anything somewhat serious or thought-provoking, then you'd better go elsewhere. [review from www.hkfilm.net] Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: cal42 Date: 05/19/2008 Summary: Fatal Movie FATAL MOVE is the latest Hong Kong action/triad movie (though with more “triad” than “action”) focussing on the relationships between gangsters, and one particular cell’s dealings with the law and other rival gangs. Veteran action star Sammo Hung comes off an acting career highlight with SPL to play the Big Brother alongside Simon Yam’s deeply flawed Lin Ho Tung and young contender Lok Tin Hung (Wu Jing). Yes, all three were involved in SPL, and this movie was originally conceived as a prequel to that film. When this became unfeasible, a whole new story was written, but hoping for similar success. Well, there’s one thing that will be making the US distributors rub their hands with glee – this movie already has its dumb two-word US title. No high-falutin’ philosophical gobbledegook about heavenly bodies interacting with each other requiring a tricky 30 second explanation that would make your average action film fan reach for the eject button and his Van Damme collection. That’s unless they decide to call it Kill Zone 2, that is. The early word on this film was that it was mediocre. Well, let me say categorically that it isn’t – Fatal Move is, in fact, bloody awful. The central core, acting-wise, isn’t too bad. Simon Yam plays a gangster prone to sentimentality and has a pretty sizeable gambling problem, Sammo Hung is getting good at his new lease of life as a Triad boss, and Wu Jing still flips about like a young Yuen Biao with a Manga hairstyle. The troubles quickly become apparent when Wu Jing starts hacking away at his foes with a sword. It promises to be another great Wu Jing action showcase, but for some reason these huge gouts of CGI blood start pumping out all over the screen. It’s true what they say: if you can tell it’s a CGI shot, then it’s not a good CGI shot - and frankly, these are terrible CGI shots. Worse, it continues this style all of the way through the movie. It’s strange, Hong Kong mastered the blood squib back in the late 60’s (see Chang Cheh’s HAVE SWORD WILL TRAVEL for how cinematic sword wounds should look) but these pathetic efforts wouldn’t fool a seven-year-old child. Undaunted, I continued, only to find the plot convoluted, contrived and, worst of all, extremely dull. I’d lost all interest by the hour mark (barely halfway through the movie, I might add) and the film just gets increasingly irritating after that. It’s all about double-crossings, betrayal etc, but not done with an ounce of flair, and the plot lapses into incoherence on a number of occasions. It’s a mark of desperation when, near the end, two characters duel seemingly just for the sake of it. Certainly there was no brooding antagonism or sign of unrest among the couple that I could see (although I was nodding off at this point) – one just says to the other that he didn’t see the other as the leader and they’re off. It’s like a tacked-on scene that movie executives add on when a production runs into trouble. It is, however, a great addition (CGI blood aside), and if more of these fight scenes were included it might have made the film half entertaining. Don’t rush into FATAL MOVE expecting the new SPL. In fact, don’t rush into it at all. Don’t walk, either. Give it a wide birth and pretend it never happened. You’ll only be disappointed if you don’t. Reviewer Score: 3