If there is a director that knows their way around action, is Johnnie To. He would be great to do an action movie out of a video game, with his choreography and dazzling camera work, his bravura shots and his willingness to challenge the viewer's expectations.

However, "Three" is not much more than a curio, a minor work that could have been much more and ends just being an interesting one hour and a half, with a plot flimsy as they come, and so much silliness the viewer will be forgiven if they start giggling in the action sequences.

The story is simple: a thief has been shot and the police takes him to the hospital to take the bullet from his head. It seems one of the police people shot him but they don't want that to come to light. The thief himself doesn't seem to want to be operated on, and believes his friends will save him. At the same time, the doctor that is taking care of him has a little bit of god-complex.

The movie centers on the thief, the police boss and the doctor, all played quite straight by known actors from Hong Kong, and how their relationship evolves while at the hospital. However the plot doesn't offer much and from the very beginning we have the feeling that a showdown will come sooner or later. The characters are paper thin and as simplistic as they come, and the acting, even if acceptable, doesn't elevate the product.

But what makes this movie something more than just your run-of-the- mill action movie is To. From the moment the thief gets to the hospital, the viewer will notice director To is up to his camera tricks. Long shots, lots of actors, amazing camera work, ridiculous slow-motion moments... To directs the movie as if it was the deepest and most amazing action movie ever and it elevates the movie up a couple of levels. It is just amazing. However, it is so flashy that sometimes falls into the silly and it seems more a class in directing action scenes than a proper movie (some of the excuses for an action moment are as lazy as they come, but To won't let anything pass by if it lets him put the camera at a weird angle).

Acceptable, with great action camera work, but with the same complexity as an empty canvas.

If you have read any synopsis of this movie. You are led to believe that you will see the cops shoot the criminal, you don't. This is not really about a shootout in the hospital, when it is really about the female doctor who is made to look a bit incompetent, and from what I can tell is deemed to be incompetent because she is a woman. The cop in charge is shady and has set the criminal up, we have no idea whether the criminal deserves it or not because we never saw what happened before they brought him to the hospital. Then the criminal is constantly quoting western literature and philosophy and we have no idea why. Then there is the shootout which was filmed in slow motion from almost every angle. And the ending has no impact and is pointless. This movie is almost as boring as watching grass grow. Give it a pass even if you are a fan of Zhao Wei or. Louis Koo.

THREE is another disappointment from Hong Kong director Johnnie To, an example of style over substance that offers a new kind of story but in a way which is implausible to most viewers. The setting is a hospital, but if you're hoping for a HARD-BOILED style action flick you'll be disappointed; there's only one shoot-out right at the climax and even that's mishandled, although admittedly shot in a novel format. For the most part this is a twisty-turny enterprise charting mixing sub-plots between a handful of lead characters: Lam Suit's cop on the hunt for a traitor; Louis Koo's handling of an injured patient and criminal; Zhao Wei's doctor and her Hippocratic oath. I'm a big fan of Wei and Koo in particular but they're underutilised here as the story feels dragged out and regrettable. The ending, which should have been exciting, becomes reliant on awful CGI with that high-rise stunt in particular looking ridiculously poor.