Skyline Cruisers

Skyline Cruisers is a good-looking but ultimately boring movie because the thieves have a gagdet to get out of any situation -- these guys make James Bond look like a cheapskate -- and that kills any suspense, which is key for a heist movie like this. For example, while being chased by some guards, Jordan Chan hits a button on his truck's dashboard which sends $$ID=Sam Lee$$ and $$ID=Michelle Saram$$ flying out the back with oversized roller blades strapped to their feet so that they can shoot at the guards. Wouldn't just sticking your head out of the window suffice? One wonders if they need some kind of special apparatus to wipe themselves on the toilet. Not only is Skyline Cruisers' action gimmick-heavy, the film itself is as well, with too many uses of slow motion/point-of-view/computer morphing shots. These things in small doses can give a movie a nice visual flavor, but when they are overused (as they certainly are in this case) they get bland and annoying after a while.

Like many recent Hong Kong action movies, Skyline Cruisers seems to be trying too hard to deliver everything to everyone, and delivers very little as a result. I'm getting a bit tired of films (from everywhere in the world) being so self-conciously "hip" or "cool" (case in point here: Michelle Saram's ridiculous orange-blond dye job -- I thought good thieves were supposed to be inconspicuous) and overusing wires/computers to make their stars look like good fighters; $$ID=Jordan Chan$$ is a good actor, but, please no more Matrix-style wall run gags from him. Skyline Cruisers almost translates into the "so bad it's good" category, but in the end I was just too bored to even nitpick at the asinine attempts at action sequences.

Review Courtesy of Neil Koch