High Forces Review: Andy Lau Soars In Bonkers Airplane Hijack Thriller - 8days Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

High Forces Review: Andy Lau Soars In Bonkers Airplane Hijack Thriller

Andy Lau fights hijackers onboard the passenger-filled Airbus 380 so fiercely you worry for the bad guys.

High Forces Review: Andy Lau Soars In Bonkers Airplane Hijack Thriller

High Forces (PG13)

Starring Andy Lau, Qu Chuxiao, Liu Tao, Zhang Zifeng

Directed by Oxide Pang

Here’s the plain plane truth about Andy Lau’s high-up, high-octane, ultimately highly-bonkers airplane hijack thriller.

He deserves double hazard pay with extra insurance thrown in. Man, he really works hard for his money in this big-scale pic. Actually, two pics.

Firstly, as airline security officer, Gao Haojun, Lau fights hijackers onboard the passenger-filled Airbus 380 so fiercely you worry for the bad guys. He shoots them, breaks bones up close in the aisle, cargo hold, crawl space, toilet, etc. Heck, he even smashes heads into perfume bottles in the duty-free section. And then dangles out of the screeching plane holding onto a perilous parachute cord.

Secondly, the man is actually making two action movies directed by Hong Kong's Oxide Pang (The Detective) here.

One — This said Die Hard-in-the-sky better portion that’s super thrilling as it matches Executive Decision and thrashes Passenger 57. Enhanced by The Breaking Ice’s Qu Chuxiao as Mike, the ruthless hijacker-leader who's a damn good young-punk baddie. “I know how to make mortals experience hell,” he taunts, shooting passengers coldly.

Two — Alas, all the good work gets undone when High Forces dumps its Hollywood-style airborne excitement to become rah-rah nationalistic as it turns into an absurd disaster flick in its last segment that’s basically a glorified PR video for China's emergency rescue services.

Hey, a mainland-HK film can’t possibly get away with portraying an air crew, airline exec and even cops as greedy, evil villains, right? Of course it needs to reassert morals and restore faith in a heroic, dutiful and spectacular manner.

“I don’t want to kill anyone,” Gao tells a flight attendant-turned-ally. Yeah, right. Before proceeding to wipe out everyone who gives him the evil eye. Including stabbing one badass. stewardess right in the neck.

The stakes are upped as Gao's estranged wife, Fu Yuan (Liu Tao), and blind daughter, Xiaojun (Zhang Zifeng), are in the plane with him. Providing ample opportunities for super-daddy moments as the suppressed rage-aholic blames his bad temper for causing his kid's blindness in a car accident. Boy, the tense sequences when an unidentified Gao communicates secretly with Xiaojun via a toy walkie-talkie are terrific.

FYI, it's hard to tell one flight attendant from another. But pay attention to Fiona (Jiang Mengjie) who talks about having made numerous simulated skydives. It’ll lead to a nutso, laugh-out scene later.

You'll do this. Laugh louder as the show goes on. Mostly during its conclusion when an impossibly long highway is cleared for a massive, frenetic everybody's-a-hero emergency landing that's so what-the-hell preposterous someone needs to issue summons for drunk flying, scriptwriting and CGI-ing.

Imagine Uncle Andy, 63, straining to push a huge jammed nosewheel down onto speeding trucks ahead of a potential hospital-level hernia.

Anyway, before running into Die Hard Lau, the criminals intend to jump out of the plane using parachutes after getting their ransom money. Which is kinda dicey, especially for would-be millionaires. I mean, at least the psycho in the recent Korean flick, Hijack 1971, only wanted to land in North Korea.

We, though, wanna stay onboard as much as possible with Andy being Andy in an Andy Lau movie.

Before High Forces maybe got passed to a state committee for approval and the machinery of a rescue promo reel takes over, the dude is the movie-star reason why we're utterly fixated. He talks soft to his family and talks tough in a riveting hide-and-seek up in the clouds with Qu's equally charismatic Mike who, like Gao, has an anger management problem too.

Director Pang helps us differentiate whose ailment we're watching by using a red tone for Gao's rage breakouts and green for Qu's as though it's Red Hulk vs Green Hulk.

It's quite funny.

But not as funny as that nutty rescue-services promo reel. (3.5/5 stars) out in cinemas

Photo: Golden Village Pictures/Clover Films 

Advertisement

Advertisement

Shopping

Want More? Check These Out

Watch

You May Also Like