【電影簡介】

香港高級督察呂明哲，和混混陶成邦曾是同學。陶成邦因犯事坐牢剛出獄，女友羅燕冰前去接他。羅燕冰給陶成邦灑水去晦氣，給他剃了個新頭發，想要讓他重新做人。陶成邦和混混頭目曹楠計劃劫持運鈔車。呂明哲和幾個同事在密切監視運鈔車的情況。這時天文臺發布消息，一場風暴可能要登陸香港。

曹楠戴著面具操縱一輛吊鉤車，把正在行駛的運鈔車勾到了橋下，呂明哲下令攔截。曹楠把車內的運鈔人員摔在地上，幾個劫匪帶槍過來協助曹楠。呂明哲帶領同事到達，雙方激烈火拼。劫匪大飛劫持了一名人質。警方已占上風時，陶成邦開車撞上了呂明哲的車。呂明哲受傷,曹楠槍殺了人質，然后開車逃脫。

警局里，大家正調監控查看曹楠逃竄的行車路線。呂明哲不斷地回想起人質被槍殺的畫面。曹楠撿到了呂明哲掉落在案發現場的警官證，他到警察局把證件還給呂明哲，看到警察們都在拿著他的照片做調查，調侃自己在警局這么出名。呂明哲苦于沒有證據能抓他，只能壓抑著自己的情緒。

陶成邦作為嫌疑犯被帶到了呂明哲的辦公室，呂明哲要他說出幕后指使者。但是陶成邦一口咬定他是被槍聲嚇到，意外撞上呂明哲的。羅燕冰帶著律師來到警局保釋陶成邦，警局放人，并派人跟蹤他。羅燕冰因為陶成邦再次犯事而傷心哭泣，陶成邦說自己只是被告危險駕駛。

【音頻文本】

For viewers who aren't too fond of action films, Firestorm can be a bit intense, but there is still much to appreciate.

Upon walking out of the cinema, I remember the numerous gunshots and explosions; I remember being dazzled by the flashing images; and I vividly remember the aftermath of the lethal struggle between the Hong Kong police and the most vicious villain in recent cinematic history.

Veteran megastar Andy Lau starred in and produced the film. He goes up against Ray Lui, Lam Katung and mainland actor Hu Jun. The bad guys are well equipped with rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers and C4 and they do not hesitate to kill anyone who prevents them from robbing cash trucks. That puts Andy Lau's character in a difficult situation. As a policeman that thrives on law and order, he cannot bring in the suspects unless there is enough evidence. But since the professional villains spare no one during their actions, they are able to stay at large until the police change their strategy.

53-year-old Lau has always been known for being a dedicated actor, and this time round, as if to redeem the failure of his previous outing earlier this year, he obviously put extra effort into shooting Firestorm.Throughout the film, he is two car accidents, shot at and blown up by C4 numerous times, and he filmed most of these scenes without a stunt double. Mainland actor Hu Jun does well enough, but his character is toosimplistic by comparison. Mainland actress Yao Chen also appears in the story but her acting skills and accent make her incompatible with the rest of the film.

The action is non-stop. The sound of gunshots is often deafening and the bloody scenes threaten to dampen your senses. The Hong Kong police have not been challenged by such nefarious villains in the cinema for years, not since the Overheard series, but even that focused more on storytelling than action. The topic of crime drama was exhausted by the "Infernal Affairs" series. Similar movies that followed the series were merely mediocre repercussions. However, Firestorm sounds like a particularly loud one.

The film has led to concern regarding the future of Hong Kong cinema. Many critics underscore the fact that recent films coming out of the island city have been dominated by veteran actors from Hong Kong and actresses from the mainland. Surely, this combination is the best guarantee for grossing in both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong markets, but that's unlikely to help once the veterans gradually retire.

On a scale from one to ten, I give Firestorm a six.

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