SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A lot of criticism has been raised at SPECIAL ID for its production problems, resulting in a slightly choppy, hastily put-together movie and a story that isn't entirely satisfying. To be honest, none of this stuff bothers me when I watch an action or martial arts film; all I care about is the calibre of the action. After all, who watches something like WARRIOR KING for the story? The good news is that SPECIAL ID is a film packed with the best kind of action pulled off by Hong Kong producers: wonderful car chases, hard-hitting martial arts fights, and all manner of bruising brawls and showdowns. I could care less about the story, as long as I see Donnie kicking ass in a well-choreographed way, and SPECIAL ID gives us ample opportunity to see the star at his best.Okay, this film isn't of the calibre of KILL ZONE, or FLASHPOINT. But then, I didn't expect it to be; few films are. Instead, it's a decent thriller with some cracking and spectacular action scenes destined to be enjoyed over and over again. I really enjoyed watching it, and if that makes me an undemanding viewer, then so be it.

Weak action film is far from Donnie Yen's best.The plot has Yen as a deep cover cop battling a crime lord.I interviewed Donnie Yen when this film played at the New York Chinese Film Festival in November 2013 and before I could say anything about the film, or anything t all, Yen began talking about how disappointed he was in the film. He went on to talk about how the film was put together the wrong way and was doomed never to work. He seemed to be distancing himself from the film, which was strange since no one at the festival had seen it yet. You know a film can't be really good if its star bad mouths it.Actually the film is't horrible. The plot is a mess but the action mostly works and sometimes that's enough. In the present case it's almost enough, certainly the film would be worth seeing streaming or as a loaner, anything so long as you're not paying much to see it.Donnie's done mostly better and he's done worse.

I'm always surprise that Donnie Yeh has not exploded onto America like Jackie Chan or Jet Li. I saw a biography on the man and learned that he spent a lot of his childhood in the states and as such speaks better English than the average Chinese action star who basically just learned how to read lines in English. Kind of Ironic, and added to the fact that The Don is more attractive than his peers you would think Hollywood would be knocking on his door, Or maybe they are and Donnie chooses to stay away from the headaches the ones that came before him had to go through.Special ID shows the kind of hands-on film making Donnie gets to do in his native land. The action sequences are long and energetic like I would expect from a Kung Fu flick, and never let down. What I love best is the martial arts sequences are very contemporary with what's going on today. The Don does the traditional high speed flying kicks that are trade mark in Kung Fu, but I noticed that Donnie is using the rapid punches that remind me of his role as Ip Man. I also notice that mixed martial arts seems to have influenced the fights in this movie with a lot of low to the floor fighting which actually made the conflicts realer for me. Outside the fight choreography, there was also an awesome chase scene as well.Donnie plays a police officer who wants to take down China's most ruthless crime syndicate. In order to do this he has to go deep undercover, but when the mob boss suspects a traitor in his ranks, Don as "Dragon" Chan, is in trouble of getting his cover blown and his life ended, which puts him in conflict with his duty as a police official. His best ally is Fang Jing, an officer who puts herself on the line and in the action. I love noting more than to see a woman who is more than just eye candy to the action hero (but she does do eye candy very well).Another highlight for me is one of The Antagonist's henchmen Sunny played by Andy Oh. He spoke a lot of English in the film for reasons I did not fully get, but this may have help with me relating to the character, as I did not have to read what he was saying, but the fight scene between he and The Don was brilliant.Once again the Don delivers a worth wild Action flick, to add on to the many reasons why Hollywood does a disservice to itself sleeping on his skills, but it's probably for the best as an American made Special ID just would not be the same.

Oh dear, this is really sad. Following something of a career revival with the outstanding Sha Po Lang, Ip Man and Wu Xia, Donnie Yen has really been unable to maintain the quality of his efforts. I fear he is slowly falling back to the ranks of cheesy unrespected action movies with which he had been associated for most of his career. With The Last Bladesman, The Return of Chen Zhen, 14 Blades and now Special ID, he's been having more misses than hits.When teasers for Special ID started to appear, Internet excitement started to mount that this could be the sequel to SPL that we had all hoped Flash Point would have been. Alas, that is not the case.Yen plays undercover cop Dragon Chan, doing the usual bad guy routine to get into the good books of the triad bosses. When trouble starts to brew in China with connections to one of his former underlings, his boss, Captain Cheung (Ronald Cheng), sends Yen out to work with Mainland Chinese police to crack the case. One last case before he can return to being a normal beat cop. Sounds good on paper but the execution is a sad state of affairs.In China, Yen uses his usual unorthodox methods to meet up and reacquaint with his old buddy turned crime boss, Sunny (Andy On). Yen, predictable for a movie, is an unpredictable and reckless cop, which rubs his China police partner Fang Jing (Tian Jing) the wrong way. This is intended to introduce some spark and chemistry between the two but sadly falls flat, mostly due to the fact that Tian Jing looks like she's about 12 years old besides Donnie.Of course while out in China, some rather unnecessary twists are introduced to keep things exciting, but they just didn't work and really didn't make a lot of sense.In the end, what we have is an extremely forgettable action movie and another strike out for Yen. What I liked about this movie was Tian Jing, with some of the best stunts in the movie and a memorable car chase sequence; she stole the best scene in the movie. Agreed she appears too small and frail to pose any real danger. She is, however, surprisingly quite convincing as a martial artist, exhibiting some pretty fancy and gutsy moves.I look forward to seeing her in Jackie Chan's upcoming Police Story 2013. What I didn't like was Donnie Yen's character. It is repeatedly reiterated that Yen's character is stupid but he can fight. We're no longer in the 80s where an action hero can get by just on brawn. No one wants to root for a stupid character but unfortunately that's how Yen's character is written. This is a far cry from Yen's character in SPL, a smart, super cool detective who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Yen's character in this is just a silly caricature, like something out of a kid's movie. Also worthy of note is the criminal underuse of Collin Chou. Nope, no Donnie vs Collin this time.Andy On is pretty good as the bad guy and did a decent job of making his fights against Yen believable. Though what was not believable was why he would be doing all the dirty work himself if he was such an up and coming big-time crime boss, surely he would have sent some of his lackeys to take care of business.Agreed, no one comes to a Donnie Yen movie expecting Shakespeare, they want to see some ass kicking. So how are the action scenes? Again, mediocre at best. The earlier fights were sloppy, likely in an attempt to make our protagonist appear human and vulnerable. Later fights improve somewhat but could have been cut and pasted from so many other generic action movies. The final fight is good but a lot of us would have already seen it in the most recent extended trailer.Special ID is a pretty solid disappointment on all levels. What I loved about both SPL and Wu Xia is that they were both powerful dramas, the fighting was restrained and there were actually only a few fight sequences. This served to make the movies more believable and actually made the action sequences more memorable and impactful.I can't bring myself to recommend this. Rather I recommend, if you haven't seen SPL – go and get it now!Rating 5 out of 10.FOR THIS AND OTHER REVIEWS CHECK OUT MAXIMUMEXTREME.NET