cover

image courtesy of Amazon

Rating:

starstarstar

Movie Review
DVD Review index

Gen-X Cops

(US version)

menu

DVD menu screen. Image courtesy of Columbia.

Manufacturer: Columbia (catalog number 05026)

Region: 1 (North America)

Price: $20

Running time: 113 mins.

Sound: Dolby 5.1, Dolby 2.0

Format: anamorphic widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, English

Subtitles: English, French

Talent files: Jackie Chan

Trailers: "Gen-X Cops" (original Hong Kong trailer), "Who Am I?" (US version)

Other extras: 30-minute featurette, 55 minutes of deleted scenes/alternate takes

Well, hooray, hooray, hooray. Someone at a US studio finally got their head out of their ass and decided it would be a good idea to not to hack up and re-dub a HK film for its release here. This is probably the best-looking and sounding DVD I have seen of a Hong Kong film, and should (if things go right) set the stage for other quality re-releases of HK movies. The extras are pretty cool; the behind-the-scenes stuff (while a lot of it is fluff) is actually kind of interesting. I didn't know that the young actors did almost all their own stunts. The deleted scenes are kind of cool also, but one ultimately sees why they were cut because they don't really add all that much to the film as a whole.

My major complaint about this DVD is that (besides some cheesy voices in the English dub, but I guess that's to be expected) the English subs are on all the time. This got to be very annoying later in the movie when all the characters were speaking English. It's especially puzzling since the featurette and deleted scenes don't suffer from this problem.

Here are the deleted scene and alternate takes included on the disc:

  • During the shootout training sequence, we see Nic Tse sitting below the action, listening to a Walkman. He rifles through some papers and discovers something interesting on one particular piece.
  • Stephen Fung breaks into a teacher's office, opens a safe and finds a large amount of cash along with a list of students' names.
  • Sam Lee is fooling around on the target range when he sees two guys who are quitting the academy. Lee convinces them to "lend" him some money and then calls them cheapskates when they only give him HK$400.
  • Some students confront Tse (who is still napping on the training course) and accuse him of cheating. Tse insists they cheat themselves and the group motions to beat him up. Sam Lee is shown shooting the students with a paintball gun; they leave, but say they'll report Tse first. One of the teachers shows up and is hit with a paintball (Sam Lee does a funny "oh, no" look). Tse tries to state his case but the teacher is a hardass; Fung comes down with some papers and points out that he has evidence that the teacher was taking bribes. The teacher begins to berate the two when Lee opens fire again and Tse and Fung run away.
  • The first scene with Eric Tsang and the Gen-X Cops in Tsang's apartment is a bit longer; Tsang talks more about the police station explosion.
  • When the Gen-X Cops and Grace Yip first meet, the scene denegrates into a fairly playful fight.
  • A scene where the Gen-X Cops and Yip discuss why they wanted to be cops. The four go into Tsang's bedroom and make fun of him.
  • The Gen-X Cops' and Daniel Wu's first meeting has different dialogue (more profanity).
  • Grace Yip is shown stealing a motorcycle so she can trail the Gen-X Cops; there is more intercutting of her while the Gen-X Cops are at Francis Ng's hideout.
  • The scene where the Gen-X Cops go to meet with Francis Ng is longer; more homosexual references are made (men seem to be coming on to Fung and there is a joke about guys named "Dick") and Francis Ng talks longer to Tse. We see Wu's gang sneaking into the hangout and killing some of Ng's men.
  • The initial confrontation between Ng and Daniel Wu is a bit more violent (Ng shoots Wu three times instead of two); the shootout afterward is also more violent.
  • After their getaway from Ng's hideout, the Gen-X Cops crashland their boat on a beach. Sam Lee gets out and starts beating up Wu. Tse tries to get Lee to stop, saying that beating him up won't solve anything. Lee points out that he might as well now, since the cops think they're in Wu's gang. Wu then pulls out a gun and takes control of the situation.
  • Grace Yip's interrogation at the police station is more violent.