"In this sequel to the 2012 Hong Kong mega-hit, a psychotic killer's desperate escape attempt turns rival police chiefs against one another, battling it out on the streets and at the station." - (Alert)
A hospital emergency room becomes a battleground when a criminal admitted with a gunshot wound refuses treatment and the policeman who brought him in waits for the man's cohorts to arrive so he can arrest them all. - (Baker & Taylor)
When a police sting goes bad, a master criminal (Wallace Chung, Drug War) makes a desperate choice: he forces the cops to shoot him. Once there, he refuses treatment, instead waiting for his cohorts to break him out. Caught between an obsessed cop (Louis Koo, Triad Election) and the troubled surgeon assigned to save his life (Zhao Wei, RED CLIFF), the hospital is now a taught-and-tense situation that could turn into a bloody battleground at any moment. - (Well Go USA Inc)
Video Librarian Reviews
Hong Kong filmmaker Johnny To is one of the top directors of action thrillers and crime dramas. If Three is not one of To's best, it is still entertaining, consistently engaging, and executed with a precision that turns intriguing ideas into superb action sequences. Set almost entirely in a hospital surgical ward, Three stars Louis Koo as driven cop Ken, who crosses the line when he shoots ruthless gangster Shun (Wallace Chung) in the head. Ken accompanies Shun to the hospital where the latter survives. Vicki Zhao costars as the intense surgeon who clashes with the frustrated cop (who could lose more than his job if Shun lives to tell his story) while the manipulative Shun plays mind games with both of them and waits for his gang to rescue him. The director fills the enclosed space of the ward with numerous characters and stories that unfold in the margins and cross paths in intricate choreography, building to an explosive climax and astounding close-quarters shootout that throws dozens of characters into the beautifully designed slow-motion chaos in an impressive long take (accomplished with plenty of CGI). The clash of compromised heroes and a cocky criminal mastermind is clever without being dramatically resonant and the script is more engineered than written, but the direction here offers a master class in action movie filmmaking. Recommended. (S. Axmaker) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2017.