Popular reviews

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  Review by Luke F ★

  Worst bit about hidden gem hunting is that you really run into some fucking bullshit

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  Review by More_Badass ★★½

  Haphazard and hamfisted as a horror-tinged psychological thriller, surprisingly lackluster as crooks-vs-cops action. That Demon Within starts with Jekyll-Hyde-esque promise as an unstable officer and a ruthless outlaw become bound by blood to an almost otherworldly degree. But as the film progressed, I kept thinking how wild, vicious, and deranged this same story could’ve been if it had been made during the late ‘80s/early ‘90s golden age of CAT III madness. Because as it is, existing between Dante Lam’s earlier stylistic throwbacks and his modern blockbuster spectacle, this is just a frustratingly inert genre exercise.

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  Review by Matt Malpica Reifschneider ★★½

  That Demon Within is the kind of film I desperately want to love or even enjoy. There is a fantastic concept at play and there are some moments of brilliance between Daniel Wu's performance and Dante Lam's direction. It just so happens that the film is undermined by a muddy structure and a plot that's far too complicated to focus on the massive character arc that's needed to be delivered by the lead.

  In the end, That Demon Within will be a film brushed into a category of should've, could've, would've as the film that might have defined Dante Lam's career...but didn't.

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  Review by Invincible Asia ★★★

  "In every man there is a latent malice."

  That Demon Within is a Hong Kong crime thriller directed by Dante Lam, with some serious horror film aesthetics that falls apart after a strong set up because Nick Cheung is the supporting actor and Daniel Wu the lead and not the other way around.

  A young loner cop played by Wu ends up wounded in a hospital. When the thief Demon King played by Nick Cheung ends up there with gunshot wounds it’s a blood transfusion from Wu’s cop that saves the Demon King’s life. He flees and continues to clean up the mess of the heist gone wrong that saw him getting shot in the first place.
  Wu’s copper starts…

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  Review by Chan Chiu-wai

  Psychological battle of a policeman with troubled past

  I had difficulties keeping my concentration throughout the whole film. An uninteresting story dragged till the end and it tried to be something that it clearly is not.

  It's a shame because I had high expectations. Dante Lam's film starring Daniel Wu and Nick Cheung shounds interesting any day of the year.

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  Review by Crawlspace Dweller Matt [♥] ★★½

  This is quite the mixed bag of things.
  That Demon Within is a Hong Kong cop thriller starring Daniel Wu as a troubled policeman falling ill to his own vengeful spirit as he comes across a group of criminals.

  Many aspects of the film are really hit or miss.
  The editing is awkward or corny at moments, but there are some cool visuals as well. There is unconvincing use of CGI for blood and car crashes, but there are also brief moments of surprisingly good practical gore effects. The soundtrack is effective and varied for the most part, but feels flat and artificial at others. The plot is rather ambitious with themes of trauma and Wu gives a good performance…

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  Review by Ed Küpfer ★★½

  Hong Kong crime thriller about a beat cop undergoing severe psychiatric distress who crosses paths with a group of violent thieves. The first hour was very intriguing, as the movie did an excellent job of setting out the world and its characters with a strong aesthetic sense. The rest of the movie was a huge disappointment, and finished with the worst movie ending since High Tension.

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  Review by Casper Chan ★

  咁撚多巧合 應該可以去買六合彩

  anyway 好仔唔當差 當差正仆街 黑警死全家

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  Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★

  You saved my life once. I owe you.
  -Hon Kong

  Dante Lam wants you to think this film is about police officer Dave Wong's (Daniel Wu) guilt over unwittingly saving the life of cop killer Hon Kong (Nick Cheung) and what he's willing to do to correct that mistake as the dead bodies start piling up.

  That's what he wants you to think when you start the film anyways, but you'll soon realize that event wasn't the entire plot but simply a trigger event to get the real plot started. I usually love complex storytelling and I was grooving on this for most of it's runtime, but it felt like I was watching 5 movies at once sometimes.

  Sometimes a…

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  Review by Gavin ★★★

  "Were you happy to become a policeman?"

  It doesn't have have a very good story but it is incredibly dark and well directed. Wu is kind of eh as the lead though, and while the thriller parts are fine, it has some problems with the "psychological" parts. I'm considering a net positive because, again, the direction is fantastic.

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  Review by Chris ★★★

  Has enough Drama! for three films, enough plot for two, and yet manages to be a single film with multiple personalities.
  There's a shaky alliance of armed robbers who are at the brink of turning on each other.
  A driven cop with One Year Left To Retirement trying to bring down the robbery crew while his department has a mole.
  And curiously, with all that already going on, we stick with a tightly wound loner cop in a different department who will set the stage that brings everyone crashing together.
  Crazy, busy, overwrought...but strangely effective. Too bad that with all the time we spend in various communities, we barely get anything for the female cast to do aside from nudge backstory into the light.

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  Review by Wendy ★★★½

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  This is the first movie I've seen at the theatres in over four months, and what a good pick it was! I went in without much expectations even though Nick Cheung recently won an acting award for his performance here. His acting was pretty good but I think his co-star Daniel Wu did a much better job. Daniel's last scene at the hospital was heartbreaking. Actually, his overall portrayal reminded me a lot of his role in that New Police Story movie he was in.

  But yeah, it wasn't until the movie was introduced by the Berlinale logo was I reminded that I should have some sort of expectation!

  Aside from the acting (from the two main leads mostly -…