Once a Thief (John Woo’s TV Version) (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

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MOVIE COMPANY: APIX ENTERTAINMENT
DVD reviewed by Dennis A. Amith
CAST: Starring Sandrine Holt, Ivan Sergei, Nicholas Lea, Rober Ito, Michael Wong and Jennifer Dale
DIRECTED BY: John Woo
PRODUCED BY: Wendy Grean
RATING: Rated R
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0116712
TYPE OF MOVIE: Action

Two expertly trained martial arts renegades break from their Hong Kong mob family to escape a life of crime.  Mac and his beautiful partner Li Ann escape to a top secret crime-fighting syndicate in America.  But the powerful Hong Kong crime lord and his empire reach across the ocean to settle the score.  The hyperkinetic action only stops to upload as a flurry of bullets and martial arts moves ignite the screen.

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color
• Movie factoids

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I could find.

DVD REVIEW:

The original “Once a Thief” was a movie starring Chow-Yun Fat back in 1991 directed by John Woo.  It was a wonderful movie and at the time “Face Off” and John Woo’s name started to become popular in the US (not just among HK movie buffs), the TV networks wanted a John Woo movie they can show on television.

Of course, NBC couldn’t show the HK movies, so they redid the film with Asian Americans with one notable HK actor, Michael Wong, Ivan Sergei known for his TV appearances, Sandrine Holt known for her UK films, Jennifer Dale who has done many movies but notably known for her voice on X-Men: The Animated Series and Nicholas Lea known for his work on X-Files.

Will, I’m sure anyone would jump in a chance to star in a John Woo movie but since this was made for television, you are not going to see the typical John Woo magic.  No million bullet shots or blood.

The movie was definitely thinned out when it came to John Woo’s violence.  No particular attention to sounds such as the gun clicks but it did have a few usual slow motion scenes that he’s known for.

Of course, I recommend the 1991 version but those of us who watched this on television were hardcore John Woo fans, curious John Woo spectators or someone who had nothing to watch that night.

I purchased this DVD because it is lower priced than most DVD’s and I’m a John Woo fan. Also, the movie has this “Director’s Cut” logo on the top and it’s rated R.

OK…I may not remember the TV version but what was the director’s cut…I don’t know.  Why this got “Rated R” on it, I don’t know because there is no blood.  Oh, there is violence (ala gun shots) but maybe that’s what was cut from TV…I don’t know.

The video is pan & scan and the sound is not 5.1 of course.  As for the extra’s, there are none.  Movie factoids…change that to “factoid”.  Just one page mentioning the cast, directed by John Woo and that’s it.

Pretty much what you should expect is the typical movie of the night on DVD but in this case, directed by John Woo.

You really have to be a John Woo fan to buy this DVD.  Otherwise, not recommended.

THE MOVIE:  C-
THE DVD EXTRAS:  D-
THE DVD OVERALL:  C-