There is nothing subtle about A Better Tomorrow, yet it is fierce, vehement and runs on rails.

An opera of sorts whose elaborate gunfights are its arias.

The artfully choreographed scenes of slow-motion destruction are all Woo's and more than compensate for the occasional lapses into clumsy sentimentality.

[John] Woo’s articulation of speed and movement, runaway-train pacing, and razor precise editing explode onto the screen unlike anything he’d created before.