75
San Francisco Chronicle
It takes just the first shot to get sucked into Breaking News, the latest bit of destruction from mayhem master Johnnie To, and it's a doozy.
Breaking News (大事件)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Hong Kong
- 2004
- · 90m
Director
Johnnie To
Cast
Richie Jen,
Kelly Chen,
Nick Cheung,
Lam Suet,
Simon Yam,
Hui Siu-Hung
Genre
Action,
Comedy,
Drama,
Thriller
When an ambulatory TV news unit live broadcasts the embarrassing defeat of a police battalion by five bank robbers in a ballistic showdown, the credibility of the police force drops to a nadir. While on a separate investigation in a run-down building, detective Cheung discovers the hideout of the robbers. Cheung and his men have also entered the building, getting ready to take their foes out any minute. Meanwhile, in order to beat the media at its own game, Inspector Rebecca decides to turn the stakeout into a breaking news show.
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What are critics saying?
75
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Taut, cynical thriller.
75
The A.V. Club by Noel Murray
The movie is one of To's typically tangled meditations on the smearing of good and evil, in moments where instinct overcomes morality. And ultimately, To cares less about the motivations of opposing forces than about the spectacular collisions they produce.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Prolific Hong Kong lenser Johnnie To delivers another solid action picture with this latest effort, a cops and robbers yarn with social commentary mixed in along the way.
60
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
It's a slam-dunk of an opener in a film filled with terrifically choreographed action and very little on its mind.
60
Variety by Derek Elley
An interesting idea comes over only half-formed in Johnnie To's Breaking News, an effective Hong Kong crimer that partly returns to the realistic style of some of his late '90s dramas, but never properly knits its theme of media manipulation into pic's punchy thriller format.
50
Village Voice
Well executed but ultimately unsatisfying, Breaking News centers its cops-and-robbers plot around a clever meta-media twist that nevertheless fails to transcend gimmickry.
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