Reviewed by: Frank Lakatos Date: 09/29/2005 Summary: This movie was made probably........ This movie was made probably after Ronny Yu's The Saviour, as many elements from that movie appear in Bomb Shell, including the frenetic camera work and the elevator scene ripped off from the original. Unfortunately, like the eraly cop movies made in Hong Kong and Taiwan(this may have been shot in Taiwan, but stock footage of the HK police station are used, so I don't know where excatly this movie comes from), the pacing is slow, the script is tired, and the movie just goes on for too long. Some of Tsui Siu Keung's scenes are excellent, but there are just few quality scenes of them. Tsui mostly takes it easy, smokes, and walks around until an hour into the movie his family is slaughtered through a bomb blast by Wilson Tong and his psychotic bomb making brother. The fight between Tsui and Tong in the elevator and on the roof is well shot and choreographed, with a style and pacing not seen in Taiwanese/Hong Kong movies made during the late 70's early 80's. The standoff in the hospital between Tong's brother, Tsui, and hard boiled cop Cheung Nick is well shot. Skip the first 40 minutes, and watch an angry Tsui Siu Keung with bell bottoms knife fight Wilson Tong! In 1987, Bomb Shell's best scenes was reedited into a horrible ninja movie titled Ninja vs Ninja(1987), and released through Ocean Shores video, the same company that also has released Bomb Shell in it's entirety on VCD in Asia, and recently Tai Seng has released Ninja vs Ninja of all movies comercially, instead of releasing Bomb Shell(Tai Seng owns the Ocean Shores catalogue I believe, but I'm not sure if they own all of the titles available on VCD in Asia). All in all, Bomb Shell isn't a bad time waster, it has some style, but definately not enough of it. The director didn't have a good enough script, which didn't inspire any ideas, which is why the movie lacks style and substance. The opening theme song is quiet sentimental and flashy, but the first hour doesn't keep up with the credits or the last 30 minutes of the movie. **/*****