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Once a Thief Review

The film starts out breezy enough. Likable trio of art thiefs mastermind elaborate heists in Paris. Afterwards they toast their laurels and have a jolly good time. You almost forget you're watching a John Woo film. Never fear. Guns start ablazing. Things blow up real good. Bad guys eat lead. It's soon revealed that Joey(Chow Yun-Fat), Jim (Leslie Cheung), and Cherie(Cherie Leung) were raised by an evil father figure who taught them petty thievery at the threat of a caning or starvation. The three grow up to be master criminals employed by evil Daddy's thriving Hong Kong crime syndicate. Heavy stuff but Woo is in top form here juggling thrills and levity along with the film's darker themes. The film also contains enough clever twists and surprises to satisfy the more discerning viewer. Yun-Fat is in top form here as the devil-may-care Joey. Yun-Fat commands the screen as both comedian and action star. This may not be the equivalent of Woo's masterworks, "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled", but it is an impressive entry in the directors canon.

Once a Thief Overview

Action film maestro John Woo (Mission: Impossible 2 Windtalkers) directs this lightning-paced caper of stolen art and broken hearts starring Chow Yun-Fat (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). Over-the-top action sequences and mind-blowing gunplay get mixed with comedy and romance in this thrilling crowd-pleaser. Joe (Chow) Jim (Leslie Cheung Happy Together) and Cherie (Cherie Chung) have been partners in crime ever since their childhoods spent on the streets stealing to survive. Now world-class art thieves their relationships and lives are put on the line when they agree to one last mission: steal a multi-million dollar painting for a mysterious client who's bent on revenge.System Requirements:Running Time: 108 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 043396084254 Manufacturer No: 08425

Once a Thief Specifications

A romantic art-heist comedy, far lighter in tone than most of director John Woo's work, and in places much sillier. As kids, Chow Yun-fat, Cherie Chung, and Leslie Cheung (A Chinese Ghost Story) were starving street urchins together. They are rescued from the law and trained by a Fagin-like older crook, who transforms them into glossy international cat burglars. The best sections (especially the opening and closing heists) are as masterfully smooth as any action set pieces in the Woo canon. But the tone wavers alarmingly, from the sophisticated (Chow as Cary Grant) to the savage to the sentimental and back again, with a disastrous slapstick coda set in the states, in which the baby food hits the fan. The busy plotting distracts us from a strong theme: the struggle between good and bad father figures (the other is a stalwart cop played by Chu Kong) for the souls of these noble criminals. Not to be confused with the rather limp 1995 remake, produced by Woo for Canadian TV in 1995, with The X-Files' sinister Krycek, Nicholas Lea, surprisingly effective in the Chow part. --David Chute

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