Review – The Corruptor

Once again inscrutable Asians provide the cannon fodder for a cop buddy movie. This time around Chow Yun-Fat plays a seasoned veteran and Mark Wahlberg plays a young newcomer to the Chinatown beat in New York. The plot follows Wahlberg as he slowly becomes corrupted by Tong bosses, eventually getting to be just as bad as mentor Chow. The story is punctuated by sporadic chases and/or shoot-outs, not to mention so many double-crosses that it becomes a chore to keep up with who’s stabbing whom in the back. The editing is also a problem, aspiring to John Woo’s jump-cut style without really mastering it. Overall this film commits the cardinal sin of the action movie genre: it’s a bit on the boring side. See if desperate