No amount of ultra-cool cinematography can hide the fact that Skyline Cruisers is a vacuous affair, devoid of real excitement or drama. For the most part, it exists as an exercise in aesthetics - from the good looking cast (including babes, Shu Qi and Michelle Saram) to the slick high-tech gadgetry, style is paramount. The result is a good looking but turgid and confusing mess.
A gang of cool thieves are enlisted by a scientist to help retrieve a stolen cure for cancer. Using an array of amazing spy gadgetry (the likes of which make the invisible James Bond car seem possible), they attempt to break into a top security lab but all is not as it at first seems.
The film starts with an unbelievable (and I mean that in a bad way) heist that piles the nonsensical upon the absurd. Once this tone is set, it continues for the majority of the running time. Unfortunately, instead of acknowledging and embracing the downright absurdity of the plot, the cast seems to be taking things far too seriously. Only in the closing scenes do the proceedings get crazy enough to become truly entertaining. If director, Wilson Yip, had ignored all attempts at being cool, and had made the whole film as ridiculously gung-ho and over-the-top as the last few minutes, he may have had something of a cult hit on his hands instead, the end result is yet another disappointing HK actioner.
