Shock Wave 2

The best Hong Kong movie in the last 10 years! Herman Yau has made a lot of movies, but in the action genre he hasn't really shone until now. Shock Wave 2 is such a load that even John Woo himself would bow. I don't remember much of the first one and I know I wasn't that interested at the time, so I approached the second one on its own and it's a great film full of spectacular action and a wonderfully interwoven plot. The very opening with a spectacular airport explosion is such a visual mayhem that it almost blew my balls off, and little did I know that the next forty minutes would go from one action scene to the next. The film then stops for a while, otherwise I would have needed an ambulance, and culminates in another thirty-minute intense finale where I was screaming all the swear words with excitement probably across the house. The ageless Andy Lau gives one of the best performances of his rich career, and at 50 he does a Tom Cruise style job. The action is superb, there are great bloody and realistic shootouts, contact fights, scenes with bomb squads trying to defuse challenging bombs, and spectacular explosions that are among the best the genre has ever produced. The finale is so monstrous and spectacular that I couldn't believe my own eyes. To make matters worse, there's also a brilliantly thought out, intricate and convoluted plot with a twist every ten minutes or so and it all clicks together like a puzzle at the end. Rightfully the highest rated Hong Kong actioner in a long time. Pros: perfect and spectacular action, great actors, impressive visual effects, dynamic pacing and never-ending tension, challenging, twisty and intelligent script. Cons: at times it’s so complicated that inattentive viewers can get lost, a quieter middle. 8.5/10. (21/02/2021)