PTU File: Death Trap (2005) is a 90+ minute action flick that runs like a soap opera, and that's not a good thing. Worst of all, it throws in all of the cop movie clichés from the book.
The multiple story lines all lead to the big finale in which a gang holds a medical center hostage. Before this occurs, we meet a bunch of characters, who will be affected by the event.
Yeung Fong Fong (Kristy Yang), is a PTU officer, who thinks her husband Ka Ho, a doctor, is eyeing his friend and partner; Rebecca (Anya) is an undercover cop trying to helping her police superior, Wong (Michael Wong) catch a merchant known as Yu Fei; four friends try to make it in the music business, but they need money fast; there's a femme fatale, Mei Wai (Hanabi Kim) added into the mix (I wish there were more ideas done with this character).
There are so many clichés in PTU File: Death Trap, such as the undercover cop who is promised out but the superior holds her back, the hostage situation in which crucial characters are given big moments, and the idiotic high police official who will eventually pull the hero off the case.
The movie is co-written and directed by Tony Leung Hung-Wah (you'd think the movie credits would make some of distinction from the other Tony Leungs out there). The fight sequences involving our heroines are watchable. It's during the fights and the finale when PTU File: Death Trap does really comes alive and becomes what it wants to be: an action movie chick flick.
There's even a car chase in which a hostage, a fat woman throws up on everybody. Did we really need to see that? I wanted to watch the chase, but I was put off by all the vomiting.
The shootouts are horribly edited. I mean, look at the shootout with Michael Wong and his crew. The CGI is so lazily done, it almost looks cartoonish.
Another one of the movie's redeeming values are the film's three heroines who all look cute, but that's all they have going for them. The performances are horrible, and since there's so many things going on in this movie, it's hard to care.
There's a reference to Infernal Affairs II, in which a bad guy is given a "legal" copy of the film. Later the DVD is crushed to bits by a car. Watching that happen, I was deeply offended since I think that Infernal Affairs II is a much superior film than this low-budget fare.
