FATAL RAID – Review

THE FATAL RAID is a contemporary Hong Kong action flick offering the best and the worst of this category of subtitled imports. It’s cops vs. bad guys, setting up a slew of intense, elaborately staged action sequences. It also features a handful of lethally gifted babes (some of whom wear less than their situations call for) among the ranks on both sides of the law, reviving the “girls with guns” subset of the martial arts family that thrived a couple of decades ago on both sides of the Pacific.

My low rating comes from the script being hard to follow as it jumps between two time frames 20 years apart, and several illogical aspects to what the characters do, even once we understand their motivations.

In THE FATAL RAID, some Hong Kong cops in 1998 got into a major battle with a gang in Macao, resulting in lots of casualties and destruction of property. Stuff blows up big time. The collateral damage would have made horrendous public relations for both sets of authorities, so the incident was covered up like a UFO sighting attributed to swamp gas. As a result, there was no compensation for the families of the deceased officers, or consideration for the few survivors. That proves to have unwanted effects long afterwards. As usual, the cover-up turns out to be worse than the crime.

Twenty years later, two of those survivors are placed in charge of a protection detail for a Hong Kong politico going to Macao for a high-profile conference. A new crew – largely consisting of the aforementioned babes with bullets – is deployed, only to find themselves unwelcome by their Macao counterparts, still resenting the mayhem from that previous visit. A small group of young revolutionaries tries to disrupt the meeting, leading to another big mess the brass wants to shove under the rug. But they’re not the largest threat to the event. That’s a whole ‘nother bunch with different agendas and better weapons.

As the action plays out, we get some terrific hand-to-hand fights and chases. The trio of young women in the newer Hong Kong cop crew (Min Chen Lin, Jeana Ho, and Elaine Tang) would be perfect for, and better served by, a CHARLIE’S ANGELS knockoff. But the shootouts make everyone look inept. Rarely have so many bullets been fired from so many machine guns to hit so few bodies. The bottom line is that if you’re looking for an adrenaline rush with a PG-13 serving of eye candy, this could be a viable option. If you seek more all-around quality in the genre, you can find more satisfying scripts supporting their action, like the recently-reviewed RAGING FIRE.

FATAL RAID, subtitled or dubbed into English from Cantonese, is available on DVD, BluRay, or streaming from Well Go USA Entertainment starting Aug. 23, 2021.

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars