How sad is this?

A different way of telling a story

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

With the aid from a New York City policeman (Mark Wahlberg), a top immigrant cop (Chow Yun-Fat) tries to stop drug-trafficking and corruption by immigrant Chinese Triads, but things get complicated when the Triads try to bribe the policeman.Roger Ebert wrote, "Director James Foley is obviously not right for this material. It's a shame, actually, that he's even working in the genre, since his gift is with the intense study of human behavior." High praise for Foley, who made the excellent "Glengarry Glen Ross", but has also gone on to work in the "Fifty Shades" franchise. Maybe Ebert was too kind.For some reason, this film seems like it had the script of an exploitation film but the budget of a major feature. This ends up with sleazy situations and bad dialogue that do not belong in anything this major. One wonders how this was not a major stumbling block for Wahlberg, though it may not be his only misfire.

The Corrupter is a pretty good, but not great action packed thriller starring HK legend Chow Yun Fat. This is the second English language US production for Chow Yun Fat and he gives an excellent performance. He shows more range and depth than his Hollywood debut The Replacement Killers and easily compliments the complexities of the storyline and his character. As excellent as Chow Yun Fat is, his supporting cast does not perform at the same level. For the most part, the support cast is decent. The biggest problem here is the horribly miscast Mark Wahlberg, who opposite Chow Yun Fat was terrible. If Mark Wahlberg was to make this now, he would probably nail it. At the time he did not have the acting chops for a character as complex as this and is not rugged enough to convincingly play a NYC cop, rookie or not. His performance was wooden and looks silly when he tries to act tough. If he could refrain from sounding like Michael Jackson when he talks that would have been a step in the right direction. Flaws and criticisms aside, I enjoy the film. The film looks great and is packed with tons of gritty, bloody action with a stylish 90's rap score to boot.

This One is Criminally Underrated, Director James Foley and Crew Deliver a Barrage of Action and Characters that are Stunning. We Not Only Remember the Violent Outbursts of Stylistic Violence, the Characters Stick in the Mind As Well. Certainly Chow Yun-Fat, Giving One of His Patenting Performances with Mannerisms and Controlled Mania, the FBI Agent, Brian Cox's Mess of a Father, the Chinese Gang Members, and Yes, Mark Wahlberg at His Most Restrained.The Car Chase is Simply one of the Most Complex and Violent as You're Likely to See, Not Afraid to Kill Innocent Bystanders at a Blistering Pace, In Fact the Whole Sequence is Alarming.The Movie has Everything Action Fans Could Want and More. The Cinematography is Excellent and the Film is Filled with Things that are Uncomfortable and Unique. Overall, it is One of the Best from James Foley, Wahlberg, and Can Hold its Own with Fat's Hong Kong Films. Yes, John Woo's The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992) are Better, but This One is No Slouch.

Really intense action, entertaining! This movie shows some great action scenes, really intense sometimes, that makes you get deep attention to it, but this attention is primarily focused in most part of the movie trying to understand the why and where of all the events shown; in a good part of the film you see great actions scenes, but don't understand why are happening!. A great entertaining action films about one of the hardest challenges that a cop can face!ABOUT THE MOVIE: In this movie, about an Asian cop that works cases on Chinatown - New York (Nick Chen - Chow Yun Fat), and a White Cop that strictly followed the academy instructions that is suddenly assigned to that jurisdiction (Danny Wallace - Mark Wahlberg); Chen didn't liked this new partner. They are somewhat close to the mafia of Chinatown leaded by Henry Lee (Ric Young) and Benny Wong (Kim Chan); while working,some police of internal affairs follow Nick and Danny to find corrupt relationship between them and the mafia, this cop unit is leaded by Schabacker (Paul Ven-Victor). The main objective of Nick is to take down a gang of young boys that is very violent and is terrifying the neighborhood, the Fukiense Dragons leaded by Bobby Vu (Byron Mann), Chen and Danny manages to infiltrate to this band trough Jack (Jon Kit Lee), a boy new in the gang and whose girlfriend was protected in change of information. Trough the mission, Danny has to face the shadow of his father Sean Wallace, who was a corrupt police officer (Brian Cox). In this movie you can get involve in one of the most hard works that a police officer can have, in a difficult and violent place, with intense racism (against people different from Asian race), violent gangs, illegal immigrants, drugs, guns, great drug dealers and bosses, prostitution, killings, and of course, the cancer of our century - corruption.6/10