[yasr_overall_rating]
The world’s top thieves join forces to pull off the heist of a lifetime. But when they find themselves pursued across Europe by a legendary French detective, they’ll have to take their game to the next level.
“The Adventurers” is a co-production between China and Europe and it shows. Director Stephen Fung incorporates the best of both worlds as he combines both exciting Chinese martial arts and beautiful European countryside and cityscapes. Although the movie is subtitled, there are parts of it that don’t need to be as each of the central characters speaks English at some point and I feel the entire movie could have benefited from being English-speaking but in spite of this, it does not take away from the sheer excitement and entertainment value that the film delivers.
Pierre (Jean Reno) is a French detective who has been following Dan Cheung (Andy Lau), a Chinese thief who resides in Europe, for most of his life. After having spent five years in a French prison, Dan is a free man but Pierre knows he will soon quickly be back to his old ways. In no time, Dan and his team, Po Chen (Tony Yang) and Red (Shu Qi) are in Cannes at an auction where a beautiful necklace is being sold and when the alarm goes off, and people begin to panic, once the smoke clears, the necklace has mysteriously vanished. Dan and Po Chen make their way to Prague in the Czech Republic where they meet up with their old boss, Kong (Eric Tsang), and hand him the necklace. There, Dan informs Kong that he plans on retiring but Kong offers him one more job, one that will set him up for life. Dan reluctantly agrees once he realizes he needs the money and as he, Po Chen, and Red suit up for one final mission, they quickly realize that Dan’s old nemesis Pierre, as well as Dan’s ex-wife Amber (Zhang Jingchu), are hot on their tails and when things go south, Dan recognizes that he was betrayed by someone very close to him and must find the traitor, if he is to make it to retirement.
“The Adventurers” has an old-school feel to it, the action scenes are shot for real, with minimal use of CGI and the fight choreography is outstanding. Jean Reno is one of my favorite actors and I loved his character of Leon in “Léon: The Professional,” as well as his portrayals in “The Big Blue,” “La Femme Nikita”, “Les visiteurs,” as well as “Mission: Impossible” and “Ronin.” Andy Lau is one of China’s most prolific actors and producers since the 1980s and the two make for an enjoyable onscreen battle of wits and intelligence. Most Asian movies take place within their country of origin but “The Adventurers” has a very European feel to it and invokes memories of James Bond and Jason Bourne. Sit back, relax, and have a great time keeping up with “The Adventurers.”
Now available on Blu-ray & DVD
