The opening burst — a carload of cops trying to pass a truck on China’s snow-covered Mt. Paektu is greeted by a culprit-crafted log avalanche — calls to mind an action-packed pre-credit sequence from a vintage 007 yarn. Pay close attention to a certain stray gold bar, a plot-motivator tossed into a frigid crater lake by a bad guy with a point to make. The first two-thirds takes place outdoors, with aerial drones shooting droning plows and miles of red snow. First time director Cui Siwei clumsily draws his cast to a hunting lodge where his characters spend the last act shooting at each other indoors, where it’s warm. What is with Asian action films when it comes to writing well-rounded female characters? Violence is good clean fun, but lovemaking is dirty, as evidenced by the film’s one big sex scene: two fully-clothed characters kissing in a shower. A few exciting action scenes highlight an otherwise humorless, gratuitously violent, and ultimately pointless exercise in killing people on screen. (2018) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.