Blood Brothers
2007; directed by Alexi Tan

Blood Brothers owes more than a little debt to the 1973 Chang Cheh movie of the same name. The film was hugely influential on John Woo, who was a producer on this picture, so it should probably come as no surprise that Blood Brothers also is heavily inspired by Woo's Bullet in the Head. Like a lot of these derivative sorts of works, Blood Brothers tries very hard to be something more powerful than it is, and loses the viewer in the process.

The brothers of the title are Daniel Wu, Tony Yang, and Chang Chen, who decide to leave their small village to seek out their fortune in Shanghai. This leads them to working for Boss Hong (Sun Hong-Lei) at the Paradise Club, a popular nightspot headlined by the lovely Lulu (Hsu Chi). Boss Hong is only using the club as a front for his illegal activities, and soon the trio become wrapped up in Shanghai's underworld, and each of them deals with their new responsibilities in different ways.

Blood Brothers doesn't veer too much from the usual plot of a movie of this type. There's double-crosses, hidden romances, lots of sappy music, and, of course, the mandatory shootouts in slow motion. This is not necessarily a problem in and of itself, but where Blood Brothers really falters is in its' editing and pacing. Far too many scenes linger on for too long. When this is combined with the melodramatic nature of the acting, Blood Brothers fails to keep any sense of forward momentum.

The shootouts do manage to create some excitement. But let's face it -- we've all seen this type of stuff done before. Even with some nifty ultra-violence delivered via a fountain pen to the throat of a poor sap, this is John Woo shootout 101 tactics all the way. If you're really itching to check out a modern take on the heroic bloodshed genre, then you might want to give Blood Brothers a try -- but don't set the bar too high, or you're likely to be disappointed.

RATING: 5