Frank Rizzo Note: This review contains spoilers, so it's probably best to read this after you've seen the movie.I stumbled upon Gen-X Cops (1999) while I was watching television on satellite. I read the plot summary, and it sounded interesting. But, unfortunately, after I had finished watching the movie, I was left disappointed. This is a weak and overlong action flick, that is filled with clichés, and it's a movie that seems to be set on autopilot. The movie also seems to take its ridiculous plot seriously, as if we cared.The movie starts out well: The Hong Kong Police are looking for 10 pounds of nuclear bombs, which has been stolen by an Asian street gang led by Akatora (Tôru Nakamura). At the same time a deal is going down, the Hong Kong police station is bombed.Inspector Chan (Eric Tsang) is a timid cop who is assigned to hire three teenage recruits, Jack (Nicholas Tse), Match (Stephen Fung) and Alien (Sam Lee), to go undercover and find out who has bombed the police station. The trio agree to go undercover under one condition: Chan must go parachuting.Gen-X cops starts out well and interesting, but then the movie goes on autopilot- -it turns into a mindless action picture. Central villains are killed off for unexplained reasons, and then, another bad guy enters the picture.The film is also very weak on character development. Jack, Match, and Alien make an odd resemblance to the Ninja Turtles. They fight together, they make jokes together, and it's amazing the H.K. police managed to choose three recruits, who act like a bunch of kids. At the start of the film, we're meant to believe that the heroes hate the police, yet it is never explained why they've bothered to become recruits. But other than focusing on the three heroes, the film focuses on Inspector Chan, who trades insults with the Inspector To (Moses Chan), who believes he can do better than him.Chan is a likable character, but even likable characters can face unfortunate demises. It would have been best if Chan were still alive and be able to serve as the comic relief. But Gen-X Cops is so mean spirited, that one wonders why such a lovable character would be killed off in the first place.Another death scene doesn't make any sense. Consider the scene where the villain faces the three young heroes in a final showdown. I was expecting a big death sequence here and there, but wait- -the fight stops, and the villain allows the heroes to make it out of the building if they can, while the villain stays to die in an explosion.The action sequences are nothing special or exciting, but confusing. It's difficult at times to know who's doing what to whom, or even why. There's even a final action sequence where the trio unconvincingly try to outrun a nuclear explosion.Gen-X Cops has an interesting premise, but a very weak execution. We're forced to watch clichés, such as the bad guys realizing that the teens are actually "cops" and the inspector being pulled off the case, and going it alone. Jackie Chan, who produced the film, appears by the near end of the film and steals his scene. Gen-X Cops is such a retread that it's a movie where I realized that I should have fallen asleep through it.

Libretio GEN-X COPS (Te Jing Xin Ren Lei)Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic)Sound format: Dolby DigitalJackie Chan co-produced this routine blockbuster as a showcase for some of Hong Kong's hottest new teen stars, including Nicholas Tse, Stephen Fung, Daniel Wu and comic relief Sam Lee. The convoluted storyline posits Tse, Fung and Lee as a trio of rebellious young cops, recruited as undercover agents by police commander Eric Tsang to investigate the shady business dealings between low-level Triad underling Wu and a Japanese crime lord (Toru Nakamura) who has seized a shipment of deadly explosives for nefarious purposes, prompting a sequence of betrayals and counter-betrayals amongst members of the opposing criminal factions, until events reach an explosive climax during a showdown at the newly-opened Hong Kong Convention Center.Veteran director Benny Chan (A MOMENT OF ROMANCE, NEW POLICE STORY) marshals proceedings into a cohesive whole, though the movie fizzles badly after a dynamic opening sequence before rallying again somewhere around the halfway mark. The action scenes are staged and executed with all the breathless abandon one expects from HK cinema, but many of them unfold so quickly, it's often difficult to know who's doing what to whom, or even why, and crucial plot points are sometimes lost along the way. Few of the actors emerge with any credit, though Nakamura is admirably solemn as an English-speaking Japanese villain who clings to old-fashioned notions of truth and righteousness in a world where such virtues no longer have currency. The young leads are OK (Wu's transition from beleaguered second-in-command to ruthless hard man is surprisingly convincing), while Tsang spends much of his screen time trading insults with his younger, slicker police counterpart (Moses Chan). Stand-out set-pieces include a breathtaking skydive from the roof of a high-rise building, and the climactic scenes of destruction at the Hong Kong Convention Center, rendered via CGI and miniatures by a US effects team, supervised by Oscar-winner Joe Viskocil (INDEPENDENCE DAY, APOLLO 13). Sensitive viewers may be irritated by some xenophobic comments directed toward the Japanese villains, and there's a couple of dialogue exchanges which play directly to bigoted attitudes about gay men, but the offence is fleeting, if unnecessary. Ultimately, this big budget fluff - designed to compete with a flood of Hollywood blockbusters dominating the HK box-office - amounts to little more than a feel-good fantasy thriller, as slick and hollow as the very films it seeks to emulate. A huge success on its home turf, the film spawned an inevitable sequel, GEN-Y COPS (2000).(Cantonese and English dialogue)

jake-179 This movie totally SUCKED! I was SHOCKED! I rented this movie because Jackie Chan produced it, and I figured I was in for a real action movie, Jackie Chan style. What I got was a load of slop! I kept waiting for the movie to get better and it never did. There are NO Jackie Chan style action sequences. The story is paper thin. The fat, stupid cop named "Chan," is a character for whom the audience is supposed to feel sorry, but you hate him just as much as the characters in the movie do! They are all making fun of him and you have to agree with them! He is not likable. Neither are the Gen X cops! They are just a bunch of punks. I would have liked to have seen at least ONE Jackie Chan style fight scene, but there wasn't any to be found.At the end of the movie, Jackie Chan makes a cameo as a fisherman. He tells the three young punks, "When I was your age, I was stronger, faster, and better." That line sums up this movie! It is totally true! Not only was Jackie better when he was younger, he still IS better and he is more than twice the age of the stars of this movie! They did not display ANY talent worth watching.As if that wasn't enough, the plot and dialogue were absolutely awful. This is nothing but cheap, poorly written crap. I hated this movie and I am sorry I rented it. This movie is not up to standard for a Jackie Chan project. Avoid at all costs!

Venus8 The actors were all new to me. I've not watched HK films in years before watching this one, and compared to the horrible movies i've seen before, the ones that left me wanting a refund for my time, this wasn't so bad. The faces were fresh and some of them were just eye candy, a definite incentive to see this film again and again. Of course, if you are one to watch for interesting plots, HK films aren't for you.