Reviewed by: Arshadnm6 Date: 04/09/2005 Summary: Good Action Movie and plenty of Thrills and Spills!!! A good entertaining action thriller with better than average results. Michael Wong, effortlessly named ‘Mike Wong’, stars in this elaborate movie, with some twists and plenty of action, to keep the viewer impressed throughout the movie. Mike Wong is an SDU Captain with a lot of principles and damn good at his Job. He controls a large team of SDU members, whom all look up to him and respect him for what he does. Their mission is to apprehend and capture the notorious ‘Ice Queen’ whom is the so-called queen of drug smuggling. Despite mikes notify-able protest, he is involuntarily teamed up with Gigi Leung (whom you might recognise from other movies, such as ‘Hitman’ or ‘Full Throttle’) a rigid customs officer. Despite their clashes, they eventually understand each other and learn to work alongside one another in order to complete their mission. There are several twists throughout the movie, where people seem to be double and sometimes triple crossing the SDU members and at times can get a little tedious. The character development for Michael Wong is set at a good pace, with enough background references to understand why he does, what he does. Unfortunately the rest of the SDU team are given very little roles and at times when a few SDU officers die, you seem to show no remorse, since you hardly knew them and there are plenty of them to go around anyway. Also with Gigi Leung and the rest of her customs team, the same could be said where more is focused on her perspective of the difficulty working alongside the SDU Team, disregarding the feeling of her team. This was a well thought-out movie but unfortunately the movie is far too short to actually be memorable. For better works of Gordan Chan, I suggest you consider ‘Beast Cops’ or ‘2000AD’. Overall this movie is full of action-packed material and a good addition to the series (alongside Final Option and New Option), but one thing has to be said: Michael Wong really should try to recover from the habit of using half English and half Cantonese dialect in every movie, otherwise his career will never kick off in the HK industry. Overall Rating: 7.2/10 Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: Chungking_Cash Date: 01/27/2003 Lead Michael Wong, who is of mixed American and Chinese backgrounds, knocks another sync-sound film off its center of gravity by delivering more lines of dialogue in his native tongue (English) than in his adopted one (Cantonese, the target dialect of Hong Kong). Directed by Gordon Chan "First Option" is the prequel to the director's 1994 film "Final Option." Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: kurama_tengu Date: 06/23/2002 Summary: Surprisingly Entertaining...Worth a Look. In the states, Michael Wong either not known, or simply known as "Russel Wong's brother who acts in Hong Kong". As a result of this reputation, I have heard very little of Michael Wong, save for a few movies. "First Option" is the first Michael Wong vehicle I have been able to watch. In my review for "Modern Romance", I noted that much of Wong's dialogue was half-English, half-Cantonese. With "First Option", that is also the case. However, despite the odd dialogue that Wong's character Don speaks as a result of his bad Cantonese, "First Option" is a surprisingly entertaining action movie. This film reminds me of the horrible Golan-Globus films made by Chuck Norris in the 80's such as "Delta Force" and "Invasion USA", but not in a bad sense. I know, sounds confusing, but as I watched this film, those are the titles that sprung to mind. The entire SDU force versus renagade mercenaries sub-plot was very interesting to me and reminiscent of the previously-mentioned movies and the others of that genre. Wong however is a superior actor to Chuck Norris, which isn't saying a lot, and also shows good charisma in this role. I am one who loved the cheesy Yoda-like moral spouted off by Wong at the end. Only in Hong Kong could you get away with that. With "First Option", you get great action scenes, a nice soundtrack to go with it, and a flow of scenes that keeps you on the seat of your pants. Don't look for any great performances though. This is strictly for the action fans. [8/10] Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 03/09/2002 Summary: Solid action movie Another movie i am so sure i already reviewed. Nothing spectular here but the story and gun fights are all solid. Micheal Wong speaks almost entiriely in English which does help with his acting, but Gigi Leung once again shows but a multi talented actress she is. She looks great in this film, fitting in perfectly into her character, she steals the show!! 7/10

Reviewed by: Chuma Date: 02/23/2001 Summary: "Damn!" A drug bust by the Customs Office goes belly up when the drug smugglers open up with machine guns and grenades. In the aftermath, the Police SDU is called in to mop up. The group is led by Don, an unconvential leader who gets the job done, but is not liked by his superiors. Afterwards, the SDU is assigned to work with Customs on the case as it is tracking a large shipment of drugs. The smugglers are heavily armed and Customs does not have the firepower to deal with it. Don does like this, but he agrees to go along with it. The SDU's first operation with Customs does not go well, all the suspects are killed and Don is shot at by accident by a Customs officer (not before he expresses his frustation at the suspect dying, which came out a pisser on the subtitles). The woman Customs officer apologises and then uses her own intiative on the case to investigate a shipping company linked to the smugglers. At the shipping yard they are shot at and almost run down by the smugglers who escape with their shipment of durgs on a cargo container. Around this time, one of Don's friends named Rick who is now a Drug Investigation Officer from the USA, arrives to assist on the case. The next major operation the SDU has planned with the Customs Office is at an abandoned warehouse complex on the outskirts of Hong Kong. Their is a lot riding on their operation and they are eager for it to go according to plan... This movie was an enjoyable action filled cops vs. bad guys story. It has many great action scenes along with the right amount of key characters to bring it off. Rating : 7.5/10

Reviewed by: illmatic Date: 10/05/2000 If I watched this movie 100 times, I don't think I could find one good thing to say about it. "C'mon, Micheal, you can do better than this".

Reviewed by: resdog781 Date: 08/26/2000 Summary: The Ultimate Guy Movie?? Despite the fact that I am a meathead, I'd have to say that this movie was so overpumped with SDU action that it was ridiculous. I'm a casual fan of the SDU films (since they're almost all the same) but this one sucked. Michael Wong stars once again as Captain of the SDU squad, pitted against *snicker* drug-running Navy SEALs. In the words of Dr. Evil, "....rrrrrriiiiight." Michael Wong CANNOT act worth jack shit, and he speaks worse Chinese than me. And I'm an EFL-ABC for Christ's sake. Everybody around him just seems to nod their head and respond with their Cantonese answer. The action scenes were okay, showcasing the versatility of the SDU not only as a police force, but as a para-military force as well. That's just about the only compliment I can give this pile of crap. To sum it up, this movie tries to be a Jerry Bruckheimer production, but without the gigantic budget, cheesy acting or cool music-video editing techniques. I differentiate between "cheesy" acting and the acting in this movie. "Cheesy" refers to acting so horrible it's funny and actually works well in the movie it's used in, such as any role Nicolas Cage has played in any action movie he's been in. This film's acting was just plain BAD. Like, "fast forward between action scenes" bad. And even the dialogue in the action scenes was pretty grating. Thank god the HK film industry has all but given up making these kinds of films. But then again, Gordan Chan's latest film was...*shudder* "2000 A.D.".....God help that man.

Reviewed by: grimes Date: 04/08/2000 In this film, Michael Wong is Don, a SDU officer working with Customs to catch a group of extrmely dangerous and well armed drug runners. Gigi Leung is a customs officer. This film largely dispenses with character development or anything unrelated to the job at hand. The few moments that discussed the character's personal lives remain entirely undeveloped, which is a bit awkward. Why bother mentioning them at all? Gigi Leung is a little better than I expected, although not all that great. The film has a number of good action scenes. Both films give a good sense of the tenseness of this kind of extremely dangerous police work. The officers involved are in a constant state of high tension and nervousness because they know they are in extreme danger. The highlight of this film is what is either a direct quote from, or a reference to, Star Wars. It comes completely out of left field and had me laughing out loud. Michael Wong as Yoda? Sure, why not.

Reviewed by: jfierro Date: 12/21/1999 I'm not sure how a respectable director like Gordon Chan and top-notch screenwriter Chan Hing-Kai (A BETTER TOMORROW) could be responsible for such garbage. Really disappointing. There are huge leaps in logic, plot holes galore, and a number of extraneous characters. Of course, it doesn't help that your two lead actors can't act. Note to filmmakers: if you are trying to make a serious movie, please do not cast Michael Wong. While he has a likable enough screen prescence, he cannot carry a dramatic scene to save his life. And he appears to have completely given up on Cantonese. Well over half of this movie is in English. And HK filmmakers have no grasp of English dialogue. As Pablo mentioned, there's actually a point in the movie where Michael says in all seriousness "He had a good heart, but he was seduced by the dark side". Then again, that could have been a joke that was beyond Michael's thespian skills. Unbelievably, he was nominated for best actor for this role over the likes of Francis Ng

Reviewed by: pablo Date: 12/09/1999 When a standard Customs raid turns deadly, Don Wong and his SDUteam is called in to help. The two organizations work together to uncover a major drug smuggling operation. I'm not sure how (of if) this film fits in with _The Final Option_. Michael Wong's character isn't referred to as Stone Wong, his character's name in _The Final Option_ (note to English subtitle readers: there's a character named 'Stone Man' in the film - it's not Michael's character - quite confusing). In any case, this film doesn't compare favorably with the former. Acting and script is subpar. Michael Wong, showing off his newly pumped up arms, looks promising in his first few scenes, but quickly settles down into his usual acting style. And I think I caught Gigi sneaking a peek at her cue cards a few times. The script is awful - only _Star Wars_ can get away with serious use of the phrase 'seduced by the dark side' (this was not just in the subtitles). Where the film shines is in the action sequences. There are several combat sequences in the film, and each one features great combat tactics and conveys real tension.