Verdict
Summary
Sometimes, this movie is very much a bullet ballet done in the Hong Kong glory style of the late ’80s / early ’90s, but sometimes it’s a little too hammy for comfort.
Plot: Terrorists attempt to assassinate a holy man, and with a limited time to find the correct blood donor to help him, some cops stage a takedown of the terrorists, while also trying to protect the blood donor.
Review: A Tibetan holy man will be coming to Singapore for a visit, and a squad of ruthless terrorists plans an elaborate assassination, which fails on the first attempt. The Lama is severely wounded and a blood donor of his very rare blood type is desperately needed. The only one who can donate blood is a goofball named Fatty (Eric Tsang from the Lucky Stars franchise), but once it becomes known that he’s the only possible donor, the terrorists set their sights on him and his family. Enter a squad of elite cops (played by Alan Tam and Ka-Yan Leung) and a cocky self-professed “street fighter” (Andy Lau) who are Fatty’s only chance to save the Lama before the killers can accomplish their mission.
From director Jing Wong, The Last Blood (sometimes known as Hard Boiled II or 12 Hours of Terror) has a wildly uneven tone with blood curdling violence and slapstick humor, thanks to Tsang’s wingnut performance. Sometimes it feels like Wong was going for the tone of Lethal Weapon 2 with the addition of a Joe Pesci-type sidekick, but the Hong Kong style is sometimes very chilling with incredibly violent deaths (one guy gets shot in the balls about 10 times at close range), but then it has over the top comedy bits where cops are slapping Tsang upside the head like The Three Stooges for getting in their way. It’s a weird balance. The movie has a ton of gunfire, blood squibs galore, and an explosive climax at a hospital where doctors and surgeons are murdered by machine gun-wielding terrorists. Sometimes, this movie is very much a bullet ballet done in the Hong Kong glory style of the late ’80s / early ’90s, but sometimes it’s a little too hammy for comfort.
88 Films has just released a premium Blu-ray edition of The Last Blood, and it comes in a nice, crisp high definition transfer, a slipcase, a foldout poster, an audio commentary, and more.
