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Exiled

These thieves should be booted for operations this dull

By Matt Pais

August 31, 2007

Critic's Rating:

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A group of Chinese criminals is sent to kill Wo (Nick Cheung)—a former colleague who's chosen to go clean—but agree to let Wo join them in one last job in order to earn money to support his wife and child.

Big question: Can director Johnnie To give this routine action flick some stylistic pizzazz?

Skip it: Nothing but a series of repetitive gunfights and bad conversations, "Exiled" crawls along without any characters worth rooting for. All the action in the world is worthless when, out of a group of violent people who all exist along a small spectrum of cruelty, we don't particularly care who lives or dies.

Catch it: If you dream of living in a society unfettered by police involvement. Observing the violent behavior of his area's crime bosses, Sergeant Shen (Richie Ren) remarks, "What they do is not my business."

Bottom line: It's nice to see action "heroes" think before acting and consider loyalty and brotherhood as some of their values (along with money and telling stupid jokes). But "Exiled" is just a paper-thin and conventional tale of forgettable characters with really, really bad aim.

Bonus: You can calm down about minor conditions involved in all-inclusive vacation packages. The killers in "Exiled" are offered up to $200,000 to travel out of the country and take down a wanted man, but they have to pay for their own plane ticket!

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