Two Asian films that center around robberies of armored trucks, but not all similar (sounding) films are created equal as one of these is bad and the other is arguably the most underrated movie I’ve seen this year.
Firestorm…A movie about an obsessed detective (Andy Lau, who could play this role in his sleep and seems determined to do that here) after a group of well-organized bank robbers, and has to toe a murky moral line with a robber he begrudgingly respects. This film might want to be the Hong Kong version of “Heat” but it gets worse as it keeps going, and the ending shoot-out is so preposterous it comes across as more cartoonish than compelling. The lone bright spot: an opening armored car heist where a crane is used to pull the truck off the freeway. After the first ten minutes, you can stop watching. Grade: C-
Metro Manila…An excellent movie about a struggling farmer in the rural Philippines who moves his wife and two young daughters to downtown Manila in search of a better life. They quickly get hustled by the “city folk” (an apartment scam is particularly interesting, and the wife takes a job at a humiliating strip club) but the husband soon finds a job as an armored bank-truck driver. It’s dangerous, but it seems like a solution to their problems…or is it the start of a whole new set?
This is one of the best films I’ve seen at showing you how the relentless grind of poverty can turn the poor into predators. The overcrowded mega-city of Manila has millions of people living on top of each other with every life-changing opportunity having strings attached, and people wanting in on it. It’ll make you just a little bit more grateful for the life you’ve got, and the ending is one of the most bravely realistic “robberies” I’ve seen on film. It rewrites the rules of what you can consider a successful heist and a happy ending. Grade: A