Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Anssi Vartiainen So, John Woo, one of, if not the greatest Hong Kong action director, directed a comedy. An action comedy, this is still Woo after all, but still a comedy. The story going that there are these three orphans, who have two foster fathers. One of them a criminal overlord, one a police officer. Initially they lean more towards the former, being master art thieves, but the influence of the latter cannot be denied.This is a peculiar movie to review. I mean, John Woo is John Woo. When you see one of his movies you expect iron tight action scenes, grim urban settings and tough antiheroes. And while this movie does have all of those, it doesn't feature them in a prominent role. It almost feels like a silly parody of a John Woo film, except that the man himself directed it. And yet at the same time it kinda works. Kinda sorta. I mean, it's silly beyond belief, but the action scenes, when they happen, are of the usual Woo goodness - though admittedly he doesn't bring in his A-game here.The actors are also charismatic and talented - with Chow Yun-fat once again stealing the show. The silliness of the story means that there are no great character moments, but then again I'd say that there is enough substance here to please those that require three-dimensional characters in order to enjoy a movie.Once a Thief is a barrel of laughs. Is it John Woo's best work? Not even close. Nevertheless, it's an enjoyable way to spend an hour or two and it certainly doesn't pale in comparison with Western action comedies.

lasttimeisaw The penultimate HK picture of action-tastemaker John Woo before he was signed up to conquer Hollywood-land in 1993, ONCE A THIEF reunites Chow and Cheung from Woo's most esteemed A BETTER TOMORROW franchise, teams up with Cherie Chung (who would soon get married and retire entirely from the screen) in this ultra-breezy ménage-à-trois caper, which, at the start, sets its adventurous background in an exotic France, then after the midstream, routinely retreats back to Woo's turf to anticipate its bullets-flying homestretch.The film is super fun to watch, on account of the charming facade of those three Hong Kong screen icons. Joe (Chow), Jim (Cheung) and Cherie (Chung) are three orphans raised and trained by a sinister crime boss Chow (Tsang) as professional thieves, meanwhile they also befriend with another father figure, the kind-hearted cop Chu (Chu). Joe and Cherie become an item when they grow up, and Jim holds back his affection to Cherie. In France, they successfully steal a Modigliani's painting, but their next mission goes amiss, resulting in a heavily-armed skirmish and Joe is presumably dead. Jim and Cherie return to Hong Kong in despondence, and their romance blossoms, then a wheelchair-bound Joe shows up unexpectedly and reticently gives them his blessing. The trio reconcile like old-times, only now Joe is the third wheel in their good rapport. More urgently, they have to settle the old scores with Chow, and Woo leaves a very wayward twist to temper the picture's trigger-happy excess, as if he tellingly tips off audience that don't take the story seriously, it is a jolly ride, just enjoy the experience.The emotion tangle of the triangular relationship could have been developed into a more complex and heart-tugging structure since they are all able players, although a cordially comic gaiety seeps thoroughly into the narrative thanks to Chow's chameleon-like swagger (including his wheelchair dance routine) and Cheung's wet-behind-the-ears ardor, which leaves Chung most of the time like a pretty foil. Also the good dad/bad father trope doesn't really register under such black-or-white and cartoonish impetuosity.The action set pieces are flashy at their best, churning-out at their worst. They may look dashing at first glance, but soon plummet into passable effects borne out of a shambolic manufacture, a sign of the times of HK film production. One particularly WTF scene materializes when Jim sawing a wooden plank under the bottom of a barreling lorry, which is transporting precious artworks of Musée du Louvre, on which planet, the lorry would have a wooden bottom? Which instantly snatches audience out of the credentials of the trio's teamwork. Moreover Violet Lam's synthetic score doesn't help, it is sheer obtrusively objectionable to one's ears.ONCE A THIEF is a jaunty divergence from John Woo's more polished, bullet-ridden and heroic fraternity bravura, but shackled by the incoherent attribute between a heads-in-the-clouds lark and a dead-serious survival strategy at gunpoint, the entire experience is a mixed-bag of thrill, embarrassment and frivolousness, often in a cyclical fashion, before one's investment runs dry.

dworldeater Once A Thief brings John Woo back to his comedic roots. While, I myself have not seen Woo's earliest films, I know before he did action he was a comedy director. It makes sense(to me at least) that Woo did a project in a lighter direction coming off of his dark masterpiece Bullet In The Head. Once A Thief is an action packed comedy caper about a trio of art thieves that grew up together as orphans and have two adoptive fathers. One of the father's is good(a kindhearted police officer played by Chu Kong) and the other is bad(a gangster played by Ken Tsang). The friendship/love triangle theme between Chow Yun Fat, Cherie Chung and Leslie Cheung kinda works(but not nearly as well as it did in The Killer). In no way is this film in the same class as The Killer or Hard Boiled. However, it still should be enjoyable enough for most fans of the genre. The cast has excellent chemistry as most of these actors worked with John Woo frequently and/or together in various films. Like I said before, the tone of the film is light. The film moves along at a brisk pace and has enough shoot em' up action to please most of John Woo's fans. Once A Thief came out in between two of Woo's best films, Bullet In The Head and Hard Boiled. It can't touch either of these, but I still regard Once A Thief as above average and good for what it is.

pbtips It is quite impressive after I found out movie was made 11 years ago. Many scenes have been copied in many other movies and even an American remake. Most Hollywood action actors cannot act in slow scene, but not Chow. As in many Hong Kong movies, you cannot just classify them as pure action or pure comedy or pure love story. The other support can act too. American audience will lose most of the jokes in Cantonese. However, you will enjoy the movie from the beginning to the end even you have to read the sub title that is not quite correct in many cases.