The point of a movie like Motorway isn't really to add anything to the existing cinematic vocabulary or challenge its audience. It exists only to titillate the most superficial of human instincts, indulging in the visceral without any real consideration of anything cognitive.
Therefore, a quick look at the trailer, which features fast cars driving around, spells out exactly what the feature-length product offers: a poor story thrown together to justify excess stylized action.
Said story is this: Cheung (Shawn Yue), a smug, douchebag archetype, is a reckless rookie police officer in a bizarrely souped-up traffic cop squad of elite Hong Kong drivers that winds up in the middle of a generic cops and robbers scenario.
Screwing up routinely by dangerously chasing speedsters (seriously, the antagonists are initially traffic law violators) through the streets, thus nullifying the effectiveness of their underground squad, he demonstrates an inability to step away from metaphorical pissing contests.
To really ramp up the cliché of it all, his partner, Lo (Anthony Wong), is considering retirement (does anyone want to wager on whether he lives through the movie?), while again confronted with a criminal from his past that got away.
What unfolds is a series of Karate Kid driving instruction sequences, with Lo teaching Cheung to make sharp turns in a bizarrely conceived ode to bring down stunt driver cum diamond thief Sun (Guo Xiaodong).
The entire thing is laboured and ridiculous, which would be okay if there was some self-awareness, but no one seems to be in on the joke. Fortunately, fast cars drive around and crash into each other for a third of the runtime, helping with much of the redundant narrative drudgery.
It just sucks that nothing about the action presented is particularly original or propulsive, making it all a moot point.
(Media Asia)Therefore, a quick look at the trailer, which features fast cars driving around, spells out exactly what the feature-length product offers: a poor story thrown together to justify excess stylized action.
Said story is this: Cheung (Shawn Yue), a smug, douchebag archetype, is a reckless rookie police officer in a bizarrely souped-up traffic cop squad of elite Hong Kong drivers that winds up in the middle of a generic cops and robbers scenario.
Screwing up routinely by dangerously chasing speedsters (seriously, the antagonists are initially traffic law violators) through the streets, thus nullifying the effectiveness of their underground squad, he demonstrates an inability to step away from metaphorical pissing contests.
To really ramp up the cliché of it all, his partner, Lo (Anthony Wong), is considering retirement (does anyone want to wager on whether he lives through the movie?), while again confronted with a criminal from his past that got away.
What unfolds is a series of Karate Kid driving instruction sequences, with Lo teaching Cheung to make sharp turns in a bizarrely conceived ode to bring down stunt driver cum diamond thief Sun (Guo Xiaodong).
The entire thing is laboured and ridiculous, which would be okay if there was some self-awareness, but no one seems to be in on the joke. Fortunately, fast cars drive around and crash into each other for a third of the runtime, helping with much of the redundant narrative drudgery.
It just sucks that nothing about the action presented is particularly original or propulsive, making it all a moot point.
