Extreme Crisis (1998) - Stunt Coordinator Bruce Law's Only Movie as Director

[One Armed Boxer]

Forum member mpm74 recently brought this flick to my attention, the only movie in which stunt coordinator Bruce Law, who rightly receives high praise around these parts for his work on the car chases in 'Special ID' and 'The Raid 2', stepped into the directors chair.

Has anyone on here seen it? 1998 was hardly a good year for the HK movie industry, just one year after the handover it was a time when a lot of the big names in HK jumped ship to try their hand in the US, but the trailer seems to reflect Law's love of car stunts and seems pretty shootout heavy. I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of anyone who's had a chance to check it out.

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[Reel Power Stunts]

It's not a great film (it's not bad either), but is a great showcase for Bruce Law's skills as an action coordinator. The story and style owe an awful lot to "The Rock" & "Die Hard", and the large scale pyrotechnics, car flips and shootouts have more of a Hollywood polish than any HK movie of that time. I enjoyed it, because on the action front it really delivers.

[kami]

It's an entertaining and seemingly quite expensive THE ROCK-style actioner with great pyrotechnics and car stunts and very bloody shootouts. I like leading actor Julian Cheung, unfortunately this movie was one of his few leads in a big budget movie (the other ones were THEFT UNDER THE SUN and OPTION ZERO). The HK-dvd from Universe is quite bad and I have very little hope that there will be a better release in the near future. I'd still recommend watching this film to anyone who liked stuff like THE VIRAL FACTOR or FIRESTORM.

[DiP]

The trailer really caught my attention. This kind of pyrotechnics and action (live and authentic) is what has been missing in Hong Kong action films as of late.

[KUNG FU BOB]

I haven't seen this since the DVD was first released. So I guess 1999? I remember enjoying it, but not being especially blown away by it. Perhaps I'll revisit it.

[AlbertV]

That makes two of us...it's not a masterpiece, but definitely a crowd pleaser with a pretty good cast from Julian Cheung and Theresa Lee to Kenya Sawada.

[One Armed Boxer]

The guys over at fareastfilms have just posted a review of this, I think my decision to purchase is sealed -

http://www.fareastfilms.com/reviewsPage/Extreme-Crisis-2649.htm

[ShaOW!linDude]

But is there any MA in this or is it just strictly an action flick?

[DrNgor]

There are some short bursts of fisticuffs from Kenya Sawada, but nothing very memorable. I loathed this mean-spirited attempt to do a Hong Kong version of THE ROCK.