Chuen jik sat sau
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 15 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 15
  3. Negative: 2 out of 15
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  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    83
    Underworld opera of the bravura kind, this is driven, like most Hong Kong action, more by emotion than logic.
  2. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Eric Campos
    80
    Exciting, but not completely original.
  3. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    80
    In keeping with Hong Kong's style-as-substance tradition, Fulltime Killers is beyond reproach.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    The story won't win any prizes for coherence, but that doesn't much matter. As in most Hong Kong thrillers, it's the visuals - love those boldly choreographed shootouts! -- and moments of absurdity that count.
  5. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Henry Sheehan
    70
    Fulfills all the conventions of raw Cantonese gun opera.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    Filmed with panache, wit, chic amorality, and an inexhaustible supply of Micro Uzi ammunition, ''Killer'' nevertheless represents a baroque dead end for the Hong Kong action genre.
  7. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    60
    The film is filled with the kind of choreographed carnage that became synonymous with Hong Kong action during the genre's heyday, but there's an elegiac self-consciousness to it all that acknowledges that while the best is behind us, there's still something to be said about its passing.
  8. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Dennis Lim
    60
    There's plenty to enjoy -- in no small part thanks to Lau.
  9. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    60
    High-octane plunge into pop gangster psychology.
  10. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    The story matters less than the style, full of swooping camera movements, rapid-fire editing, and color-drenched displays of violence the Hong Kong school is famous for.
  11. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Tim Merrill
    50
    On the whole this is pretty standard shoot-‘em-up fare. Bang, crash, boom -- yawn.
  12. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    50
    Too scattershot to take hold.
  13. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    40
    Style is content in action movies, but when all the style originates elsewhere, it's just plain lazy.
  14. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    38
    A flashy homage to a dozen better movies, this self-conscious Hong Kong action flick is so packed with visual thrills, you may not notice that there's absolutely nothing beneath its impressively slick surface.
  15. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    30
    Perhaps the directors are under the delusion that the dodging and leaping can make up for an ending that leaves the cast members of "Killer" adrift and nearly scratching their heads in puzzlement.

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