Super Car Criminals (2000) - ....Best film title ever.
Well, at least until FREAKING SPICY KILLER came along!
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A little late to the party here, as usual, but from list A, a few thoughts...
The Mirror (1999) A very minor Nic Tse vehicle, with three weak tales linked together by an antique dressing table, possessed by Sherming Yiu (so that counts for something)
Red Rain (1999) Nice little lack-of-morality tale that makes up for modest action thrills with a lot of unexpected character touches you don't often find in a lot of B's like this. I seem to recall this being shot largely in Taipei, so don't know how that will affect your appreciation of it...
Cold War (2000) Clever midfilm twist in this one. Well-told story, but I would've liked to see deeper explorations of the several character relationships because they seemed so different from the norm. This one was filmed in Seoul, so again, I'm not sure if it qualifies as an HK film (though I tend to include it, but I'm fairly loose in categorizing these things, as most around here probably know...)
Don't Look Back...Or You'll Be Sorry (2000) The first half of this, which offers some interesting commentary on the dangers of aged, nosey parents moving back in with their married kids, would have made a fun film in its own right. Unfortunately, the second half, with all the supernatural stuff after Deannie Yip can suddenly see ghosts after being hit by a truck, is dreadfully familiar.
Super Car Criminals (2000) This starts good, but goes nowhere fast. As someone else said, Simon Loui is pretty good in it, but Michael Wong balances him by being pretty bad. And while there ARE super cars in the film, precious little is done with them...
Treasure Hunter (2000) If I had to recommend a B-movie fix for you, and your were
honestly, seriously, truly in a B-movie mode, then you HAVE to start with this film! (And it IS shot on film, despite the rather cheap looking sleeve art). I'm totally shocked that Shaw vet John Cheung wasn't handed a few more B-thrillers after pulling off such a commendable job here. Rather than repeat myself, here's my rambling thoughts on it from back in the Digital Scrounge thread (not a formal review, per se):
.....I watched a movie called TREASURE HUNTER (2001) last night and loved it! I'd seen this VCD in the stores for years and could never tell whether it was some shot-on-video cheapie with a deceptively impressive sleeve, or an actual film. Turns out it's the latter, and it's the only film directed and written (to date) by John Cheung Ng-long, a veteran Shaw Bros. actor from the 70's, and despite an obvious low-budget and a surplus of characters and intrigue, he makes it look like a lot pricier than it probably was! It's like a movie from the year 2001 made by folks pining for the gonzo action movie glory days of, say, 1990!
Chin Siu-ho was in some turkeys around this time (especially the dreadful PURSUIT OF THE KILLER, where his hair did all of the acting), but he's quite good in this one, paired up with Benny Lai as a couple of laid-back marine salvage specialists (not a very common profession in HK movies, to be sure!) who unwittingly come into possession of a gadget that can cripple the world's defense systems! Boat chases, car chases, gunfights and some rather explosive and bloody demises for most of the cast (and not just the bad guys!) are soon the order of the day.
Simon Loui plays the millionaire villain in this, and while I fully expect to be ridiculed by both Simon Booth and Ms. Fan for unwittingly (I swear!) picking another movie with the guy in it, he's actually pretty cool in this. When the Papparazzi chase him to get pictures of him with starlet girlfriend Sherming Yiu, he has henchmen on motorbikes firebomb their car and kill them! You don't see THAT in Hong Kong movies anymore! Moments later, on his boat, he has a pair of underdressed trannies give Sherming a Clintonian "cigar treatment" just for kicks (though we don't see much)! He pretty much goes through the entire cast with a sadistic glee.
One thing that sets this apart from so many HK B-pictures is the phenomenal underwater photography, supervised by the director himself, who must be a diving pro in real life. I'm not sure where they shot it, but the plot seems to indicate it's near Hong Kong, but the water is so clear and blue! Cheung even choreographed the underwater action, to boot, so I'm guessing the guy simply decided to put his expertise to good use.
Definitely a keeper.
I have all the other titles on List A, but as usual, I'm pounding through them one at a time. So hopefully others have or will chime in with thoughts on those ones.
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As for list B...
Comic King (2001) Thought this was pretty cute, and the comic book industry backdrop is a nice change of pace. Liked the way the fantasy sequences, starring Nic Tse, helped Julian Cheung and Eason Chan through their romantic entanglements with Ruby Lin. There's also some amusing skewering of the Young & Dangerous and Man Called Hero genres.
Final Romance (2001) Not sure if this is the one with Edison, but if it is, I found it felt more contrived as it went along. The leads are just OK in this (but I'm not an Edison Chen fan, so I could be biased
), and their cutesy romance gets a bit tired after awhile, but luckily Simon Yam shows up to provide a little villainy.
Fing's Raver (2001) This is a good one if you're kind of in an Ed Wood frame of mind. Kind of a "Raver Madness" if you will. Writer-producer Lee Siu-kei (isn't this dude a triad in real life?) plays a police chief who gives cop Sarah Lee and her compadres TWO WEEKS to stamp drugs outta Hong Kong!
Maria Cordero's a scream in this as the delinquent mother whose a bigger part of the "youth problem" than the bloody drugs!
Her Name Is Cat 2 (2001) Pretty sad "sequel," though Ridley Tsui contributes some OK action scenes. Feels like it was filmed in 1989, which would have been cool if the cliches it trades in weren't already tired by then. Blacky Ko's brief scenes are actually lifted wholesale from HERO OF CITY! Almen Wong does model a rather fetching bikini, which counts for something at least!
United We Stand And Swim (2001) This is a typical root-for-the-underdogs flick, cute but thoroughly average stuff, but nice that it takes a winning-isn't-everything stance that would baffle most directors of American sports movies! Anthony Wong in a speedo was something I could have lived without, though!
There's a few I'm missing from List B, so thanks for posting that. Gives me a few additions to my mental shopping list! Have a few of the others, but they're just waiting their turns.
)
), the so-so PAYMENT IN BLOOD, which shares a cinematographer with COLD WAR, and the also so-so EXFERNAL AFFAIRS, which was partly shot in Hong Kong and does seem to have an HK production company behind it (interesting seeing Ko on the streets of HK in this one, if ever so briefly ?) ) . Obviously, the lineage of some HK cinema isn't something I keep up on regularly, but I'm always worried when these films get consigned to the non-HK netherverse. If nothing else, they've at least got some info on file here, so it's not a total loss, I guess. 
