ebiros2 Sam (Alan Tam) and Crab (Andy Lau) are good buddies. They both gamble, but Crab can con people who he feels is "fair game". They get called to improve security at a casino located in Lake Tahoe. They get the Yakuzas who were cheating the casino, but Yakuzas tries to get even by kidnapping Crab's girlfriend Tong (Idy Chan). Crab goes to the Yakuzas to get Tong back. Yakuzas gives Crab the choice if he wins the bet he can take Tong, but if he loses, then he'll be poisoned by means of poisoned brandy. Crab cons them into thinking he won the bet and takes Tong home but he dies in the process from poisoning. Sam is also attacked by the Yakuzas, but he's more enraged over the loss of his friend and swears revenge a la gambler style.The story is cool but what's great is the friendship between Sam and Crab. Sam would go all the way to avenge his friend's death. This is one of the best movie of this genre and still a good movie to watch after 17 years since its making.

fourletterfury Wong Jing's original and forerunner to the successful "HK Casino" film franchise is an excellent example of how skilfully the genre can be presented.Crab (Andy Lau) is a smooth professional gambler, although "con man" might be more accurate to describe some of his sleazy and deceptive means by which he tricks his rich victims out of huge amounts of money. Although it must be said, he never steals from the innocent, but only slimy business tyrants. His friend and gambling partner, Law (Alan Tam) is arguably the more careless of the two. They are called in to assist a Casino owning friend of theirs who has lost a lot of money to some cheating Japanese Yakuza, and so their investigation into the suspected men ensues. Needless to say, this attracts unwanted attention and eventually leads them into trouble with the Yakuza. When Law's girlfriend, Tong (Idy Chan) is kidnapped by the Yakuza in exchange for Crab, a punishment for stealing back some money in a gamble, Crab goes straight after the kidnappers...Without giving the whole film away, little else can really be said, but the film does contain a great deal of plot twists and interesting developments.Alan Tam is probably the best lead here, and gives an emotionally deep and interesting performance. Andy Lau is not nearly as great as he was in "Casino Raiders II", the unrelated sequel, but still gives a solid depiction of the morally uncertain 'Crab' Chan.In all, very rich noir-visuals and stylishly subdued direction from Wong Jing and Jimmy Heung make this a strong high-point of the HK Casino-Noir genre.

mindless_junk With a movie starring 2 top HK movie stars: Alan Tam and Andy Lau, you know that you are in a real treat.The movie is simple, 2 best friends, both are gamblers. One decides to leave and join the good side, but old enemies won't let go of the past. Eventually, he has to face his enemy once again, in a final showdown at the casino table.Good performance from both leading actors, who share pretty much equal screen time. The female leads also complement the movie very nicely, though their characters lack the depth.Though movie tries to be logical, but there are logical holes, such as Lon's boss willing to make such a big bet on Lon's recommendation alone - that is pretty unbelievable. But one must suppress logic in watching a movie like this.A 6/10 on my book

ylive Even in HongKong, the city of copycats, Jing Wong is infamous for his shameless way of movie making. While other HK directors are imitating Hollywood movies, he copied other HK directors' movies. 'Casino Raiders' is one of them. If you watch it carefully, you will find that this is so similar to John Woo's 'A Better Tomorrow'. (Like Chow Yun Fat in 'ABT', Andy Lau got lost his everythig for his best buddy!)Fortunately, this one is a good movie. The running time is a little bit too long. But the title song and performance is good and the twist in the last scene is splendid!. If you really want to Jing Wong's movie (or gambling movie), 'Casino Radiers' and 'God of Gamblers' is a safe bet. ¡Ú¡Ú¡Ú/¡Ú¡Ú¡Ú¡Ú¡Ú