Infernal Affairs III

Despite the heavy-handed take-off, an excellent movie. No doubt about it. It’s just that it’s an absolute, and I mean absolute, waste of space. Not even the fact that the creators are very clever, ingenious and never cheap in their flogging of this dead horse can change that. The entire cast led by Andy Lau is thoroughly convincing again. No doubt about that. I don’t even regret watching part three, but, in the same way as part two, it’s extremely unlikely that I would ever watch this again. What a come-down since the first Internal Affairs. P.S.: And to display the outcome of the picture as a background illustration for the main DVD menu could only have occurred to Intersonic. (06/03/2008)

The premise of the second part may seem unnecessary to most viewers, but I was satisfied while watching it. The third part finally introduces a plot that largely takes place after the first one, so it is unclear what the resolution will be. Both Andy Lau as Ming and Tony Leung as Yan once again have many opportunities to showcase their acting skills. As for the story itself and the atmosphere, this time it returns to the tone of the first part, a purely police thriller affair, perhaps not with as urgent a tone. It remains a fact that the original film would have been perfectly sufficient on its own, but it doesn't matter when watching this excellent and remarkable trilogy. 90%. (04/08/2007)

The story is closed and it is done. Qualitatively, the series has a rather descending tendency, here it was only about the third story connecting to the previous two films and making it all make sense somehow. I think this was achieved with honor, but the echoes of the first film remain so strong that the third "Volavka" is simply the third installment in the series. (05/05/2014)