Dom Robinson reviews
The Corruptor
You Can't Play By The Rules
When There Aren't Any.
Distributed by
Entertainment in Video
- Cat.no: EDV 9035
- Cert: 18
- Running time: 106 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 23 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Director's Commentary,
Music video, Cast biographies and filmographies, Behind-the-scenes Featurette
Director:
(After Dark My Sweet, At Close Range, The Corruptor, Fear, Glengarry Glen Ross, Reckless, Two Bits, Who's That Girl?, TV: Gun, Twin Peaks)
Producers:
Screenplay:
Music:
Cast:
Nick Chen: Chow Yun-Fat (Anna and the King, A Better Tomorrow 1-3, City On Fire, The Corruptor, Full Contact, God of Gamblers, Hard Boiled, Hong Kong 1941, The Killer, Once A Thief, Return of the God Of Gamblers, The Replacement Killers)
Danny Wallace: Mark Wahlberg (The Basketball Diaries, The Big Hit, Boogie Nights, The Corruptor, Fear, Renaissance Man, The Substitute, Three Kings, Traveller)
Henry Lee: Ric Young (Booty Call, The Corruptor, Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Last Emperor, Nixon, Seven Years in Tibet, Signs and Wonders, A Thousand Men and a Baby,
TV: Tenko)
Schabacker: Paul Ben-Victor (Body Parts, A Civil Action, Cool World, The Corruptor, Dreamlover, Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Heatwave, Firestorm, Houseguest, Maximum Risk, Metro, Point Blank (1997), Red Scorpion 2, The Rookie,
Sunset Heat, Tombstone, True Romance, Wired)
Sean Wallace: Brian Cox (The Boxer, Braveheart, Chain Reaction, The Corruptor, Desperate Measures, For The Love of the Game, The Glimmer Man, Hidden Agenda, Iron Will, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Manhunter, Poodle Springs, Rob Roy,
Rushmore, TV: Inspector Morse, The Lost Language of Cranes, Sharpe)
Bobby Vu: Byron Mann (American Dragons, The Corruptor, Crying Freeman, Red Corner, Street Fighter)
The Corruptor
is another fish-out-of-water/buddy-buddy story with two cops paired up who
hate each others guts at first, but soon learn to tolerate each other.
Nick Chen (Chow Yun-Fat) has risen through the ranks and become one of
the NYPD's most-decorated officers and it's his job to keep the peace in
Chinatown, while new boy Danny Wallace (Mark Wahlberg) arrives having
been assigned to Chen's unit but it's clear from Day One that he's not in
Kansas any more...
However, they're going to have to work together if they're to sort out the
turf war that's erupted between the established nut-balls, The Triads and the
new nut-balls on the block, The Fukienese Dragons. The latter have a
temperamental 'leader' in the form of Bobby Vu (Byron Mann) who attempts
to overplay his hand on several occasions, but the chain goes all the way back
to the mysterious Benjamin Wong, aka. Uncle Benny (not to be confused with the
rice-maker known as Uncle Ben).
We're gonna get Fukienese on your ass!
Anamorphic picture, original 2.35:1 ratio, no artifacts and crisp, clear
colours which are very effective on the outdoor scenes. The average bitrate is
a great 6.9Mb/s occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
The sound quality is first rate with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound that
comes into its own with plenty of rear-channel action (oo-er, missus!) when
the gunfights ensue.
Extras :
Chapters and Trailer :
There are 23 chapters spread over the 106-minute movie which is fine and
the theatrical trailer is also included, mastered in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.
Languages and Subtitles :
There's just one language on this disc - English, but it is available in Dolby
Digital 5.1 and there are also English subtitles for the hard of hearing.
These are very useful throughout the film since everyone with a Chinese
accent that speaks English still needs a good translator!
And there's more... :
A 44-minute Behind-the-scenes featurette is split into several chapters
and can be watched in part or all at once. It concentrates on several
different aspects such as the research into the location, the cast, production
and director, a full-length unedited version of the car chase, marketing the
film and a stills gallery.
There's also a music video from UGK (Take It Off) and no
I've never heard of them either, Cast biographies and filmographies
for all the actors listed at the top of this review plus director James
Foley, who also lends his vocal talents to the feature-length Director's
Commentary.
Menu :
Animated and scored mixing clips from the film together for both the main
and scene selection menus.
Plenty of extras, excellent sound and picture.. but inbetween the few action
scenes, oh, what a dull film it is: another double-crossing cop versus cop
film that tells us there's corruption within the police force. How original,
not.
If you liked the film anyway, then it'll be good value as it contains all the
extras of the Region 1 DVD, but for my money, if you want a piece of Hollywood
action featuring Chow Yun-Fat, stick with
The Replacement Killers
instead.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
