Lock and Load, Baby! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Thanks to the thrill of Hong Kong cinema, action movies still find a home outside of most US production companies, and that fact has rarely been so admirably demonstrated as it is here with FULL TIME KILLER.
Tok and O are both hitmen, struggling to be the best at their game. However, rather than leaving their characters flat and two-dimensional at that, the skilled craftsmen are provided interesting and understandable backstories that (thankfully) aren't related to harsh lessons learned in war or going berserk at the violent death of a lifelong friend. The motivations behind these two are possibly entirely real situations, and that makes their characters -- their similarities and their differences -- far more interesting than most flicks exploring the secret life of assassins.
However, the story doesn't stop there: the killers are provided with dubious adversaries, facing doublecrosses by their employers who inevitably hope to pit these hardened men against one another. That, and a pair of police detectives intent upon bringing everyone involved to justice make this one inventive flick with heart as well as mind.
The film is staged with wonderful set sequences, many of them reminiscent of the films of John Woo, and the action -- once it cranks up a notch -- is choreographed spectacularly. Also, the film borrows heavily from its American counterparts, lifting ideas and influences of some lesser genre hits and incorporating them into the lives of the two leads.
Certainly, Hong Kong cinema is not for everyone. Often times, the action can stretch the bounds of believability, making modern cities seem more like one-horse towns in the Old West, guns that never need reloading. Dismissing these inaccuracies is easy, if you have an intelligent script to keep your interest ... and FULL TIME KILLER doesn't disappoint.
If anything, one could fault KILLER for developing too much backstory for the hitmen and the girl that inadvertantly binds them together on their quest to become the best. Too many layers of complexity can detract from the visuals, but, if you're watching closely (no pun intended), you'll be able to guess the outcome of this smart thriller with a kind of childish glee.
