Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

chrichtonsworld Some reviewers compare this movie to John Woo's A Better Tomorrow. I think that is very misleading. Because the action is nothing like the great shootouts in that film. Only the ending came close to a shootout we are used to seeing in the majority of heroic bloodshed titles. I think this a more a drama about these hit men who have a special kind of relationship. They are rivals who respect each other nothing more nothing less. The girlfriends add some good emotional context to their personalities. If you hear about a title like Hero Never Dies you expect some mayhem, or at least a lot of bloodshed. But it simply isn't there. Except for the ending which was a bit short. I do get that this film is paying tribute to the old genre and at the same time is trying to do something unique and different. In this case you could call it the Johnnie To touch. Most of his movies share the same themes but in all honestly only a few of them I liked. Exiled is an example of that. Actually that title comes closer to being a true heroic bloodshed title than this one. Another title you should be looking out for is The Mission.After seeing many of these so called heroic bloodshed titles / gun fu like Hero Never Dies I realize that John Woo really is the God of Heroic Bloodshed. No other directors have come close to making bloodshed titles like he did (A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard Boiled). And I really wished he would go back or at least make a new one to show them how it is done. Johnnie To clearly has another vision. But what? I don't know what he is trying to tell us but often his minimalistic approach to characterization and storytelling get in the way of whatever he is trying to convey. Consequence is that I lose interest and then automatically focus on the stuff that is compelling. Like the action. In Exiled this worked marvelously. Unfortunately this is not the case with this title. It failed to involve me story wise and action wise. I did not care about any of the characters. That is never good.So is this title worth your time? No, I don't think so. It was never compelling or engaging and the little action that was present certainly wasn't enough to redeem itself.

zv300 I'm really surprised there are not more reviews for this very good movie, but I think the depressing content is what did it. As usual, another Asian movie has not ceased to surprise me, and positively at that. This movie starts off pretty slow and really corny, making it's actual content all the more surprising. In a nut-shell 2 opposing bodyguards of warring gangs are betrayed by their own bosses after serving them and risking their lives (and limbs) protecting them. After the Bosses make a truce, they try and forget about the old "guard" who protected them. Both bodyguards loose everything, one looses both legs and his girlfriend is killed protecting his honor, and the other is reduced to working menial jobs while taking care of his girlfriend, who also risked her life for her man and was horribly burned in the process. Very heavy stuff, and completely un-expected after seeing the goofy beginning. Both bodyguards vow revenge, which is only partially realized. The respect they had for each other was touching, as for the tenacity of their girlfriends who took the brunt of the outcome of their revenge. The performance of the crippled Bodyguard was excellent, first time I've seen the "Hero" to be physically impaired. I rank this movie right up there with the best action films, AND some of the best Drama's at the same time. I don't think people were ready for a crippled Hero, which is a shame because this movie gave some credibility to the fact that you can achieve anything you want REGARDLESS of your handicap. Most copies of this DVD are not that great in quality, so that has hurt this film also, but do yourself a favor and see this EXCELLENT movie.

waynehec Yup, that's right, "John Woo meets Sam Peckinpah" is what came to mind when I saw this movie. Take the brotherhood theme of John Woo movies in the 80's and mix that with Sam Peckinpah's "Wild Bunch" and you get Lau Ching Wan and Leon Lai kicking ass in "A Hero Never Dies".True to Woo's and Peckinpah's classics, the heroes in this movie are not heroes of the Dudley Do-right mold but flawed people who manage to get themselves together for one truly heroic deed.I highly recommend this movie for fans of westerns and HK triad movies. Also recommend "The Mission" and "Running Out of Time" by Johnnie To.

Hugo Freire Leon Lai teams up with Lau Chin-Wan to defeat two triad lords. This film made me remember the "old" heroic bloodshed´s - like "The Killer", "Hard Boiled" or the genesis of it all, "A Better Tomorrow". There´s still hope for Hong Kong cinema lovers... A superb movie. A true masterpiece. A fantastic mise-en-scene - stylised and romantic - from Hong Kong craftman Johnnie To. Where primitive cinema meets barroquian style and women nature becomes truly fundamental...