The Killer-Criterion DVD. What a complete movie. The other half of Hard Boiled, with the meaty drama and boy does it just unfold effortlessly. Peckinpah-esque in it's conclusion that you think about for days. Gun ballets, codes of honor, guilt, loss, tragic. One of the greatest films I've ever seen. Period. For me, I can't immediately like a film or be easily surprised. But with this and Hard Boiled it was like being a 5 year old again. I need to watch this about 5 million more times.

INFINITE BALLS!!

City on Fire

Finally got a version with Cantonese, English subs and uncut. (The US DVD is crap.) Lacks the touch of a John Woo HK movie, but it still works really well. Chow Yun-fat really shines as a more comedic and simple character who just happens to be an undercover cop. And the relationship between the two main characters in The Killer is reversed, oddly. (Same actors, other is dominant here.)

And Reservoir Dogs is an inferior copy. This is the movie they accused Tarantino of ripping off, and I thought it wouldn't actually be that obvious. IT IS! Sure, Tarantino does his "I'm gonna mess around with time and not show you anything" bit and makes all of the characters talk big and act flashy-but this film actually has characters instead of characterizations and a whole film worth of plot leading up to the heist.

3.5 balls out of 4 dancing Chow Yun-fats.

Yes, he dances!