神探·李奥

清朝末年，一代宗师太极拳高手杨崇武（于海 饰）一家隐居杭州西子湖畔。杨崇武与妻子慧娘（胡慧中 饰）晚年喜得贵子杨学文（吴京 饰）。学文自幼天资聪慧，生性好武，而杨父怕他惹事闯祸，每日督促儿子苦读诗书，不准他外出。学文暗中偷学父亲的太极拳，并自创了一套辫子神功，平日勤加苦练，习得一身好武功。
　　适逢钱塘江边举行祈雨祭祀，学文和表弟偷偷前去参加龙王祭。在祭典上，学文遇见了留洋归来的千金小姐曹央云（钟丽缇 饰），学文一见钟情。为了追求央云，学文参加了革命党。他的辫子神功在禁鸦片运动中大显神威，学文与央云感情日益加深。然而向中国走私鸦片的帝国主义分子却并不善罢甘休，暗中设下阴谋诡计，一场殊死搏斗旋即展开。

《神兵特攻》的故事发生在一个科技高度发达的未来都市。曾经的出色保镖龙威失去妻子后带着受伤的女儿隐居海外，一次见义勇救下了科技公司技术员艾米，对方邀请他到公司参与新产品武装机甲的测试。面试过程中公司启用了最先进的虚拟现实技术。在虚拟现实世界里，龙威为了挽救艾米等科研人员的生命，踏上了未知的梦境之旅…

某市发生一起奇怪的交通肇事逃逸案，刑警队长王金刚在查案时，发现该案件谜团重重，通过复杂线索，又牵扯出恶势力偷盗国家原油案件，发现幕后黑手郑氏兄弟。在查找证据和追捕的过程中，正邪之间展开了一场生死对决。

小特工尹自和神枪手阿浪在行动中遇到了被日军所伤的马匪震天雷震天响两兄弟，以及父亲被督军朱大福杀害的苏小婉。讲述了一个民间爱国组织与江湖草莽同仇敌忾对付侵略者的故事。

　　Having witnessed his junkie father killed Russell Stevens grows up to become a policeman and make a difference. When he is offered an undercover job by Gerald Carver he accepts and begins to build a relationship with David Jason in order to get to the main dealers. However as he is forced to deal drugs and kill to keep his cover he finds the lines between cop and criminal being lost – is he a cop pretending to be a dealer or a dealer pretending to be a cop?
　　Larry (as he was then) Fishburne's first lead role was a typically dark vehicle. The story is the usual one of cop losing himself when undercover, however it manages to be more than that for most of the time. Co-written by Tolkin, who wrote The Player, this naturally has a nice cynical edge to it when it looks at the US's hypocritical approach to drug control and the political links between the street hustlers and the political high rollers who court respectability. The story does eventually settle into a traditional setting but even then it works well as a thriller.
　　The multi-talented Bill Duke directs well with a gritty feel and a few nice touches. However several things are a bit iffy. For most of the film Fishburne's narration/voice over is a bit like a cross between Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner – it comes across as a little too dark and heavy and also explains things like we can't figure it out ourselves. However once you get into the film it's not as big a deal. My main problem lies with the characters.
　　Fishburne is excellent, a real model of underlying anger and violence, Goldblum is good but perhaps a little OTT on the yuppie/violence thing, but there's good support from Smith and Spin City's beautiful (and often underused – but not here) Victoria Dillard. However the two main white characters (Goldblum and Smith) are both smeared with racist insinuations – Smith appears to insult his black officers and doesn't care about the junkies, while Goldblum is fascinated about all things black and talks about them as wild beautiful beasts and loves having sex with "black'. These things aren't a major problem, but with basically only two white characters in it, it's a little worrying that both are given that edge.
　　However these are minor complaints that get lost with a good thriller. Fishburne excels and Duke delivers a story that is a good thriller but also has a jaded, subversive edge.