Just Heroes (1989)
5/10
A generic foray into the Hong Kong action cinema...
19 July 2021
"Yee dam kwan ying" (aka "Just Heroes") is a fairly generic late 1980s Hong Kong over-the-top action movie, for better or worse, from legendary action director John Woo.

Now, I wasn't familiar with "Just Heroes" before now in 2021, when I was presented with the opportunity to sit down and watch it. And of course I did so, given the fact that this was a Hong Kong movie that I hadn't already seen.

And I will say that "Just Heroes" proved to be adequately entertaining. It wasn't a particularly outstanding or overly memorable action movie though, as the storyline was a little bit cluttered and all over the place, which lead to the characters sort of drifting into one another and making it a bit hard to tell them apart.

The action sequences in the movie were nicely executed and there was a great abundance of action throughout the course of the movie - as it usually was with John Woo movies.

However, I must admit that the somewhat flawed and generic storyline made the movie suffer. My interest in the movie was slowly abating as the movie progressed and there seemed to be a stalemate in the movie's actual progression in story.

"Just Heroes", a title that absolutely makes no sense for this particular type of movie, nor serves any purpose in relation to the contents of the storyline, actually had a fair enough cast ensemble, with the likes of Stephen Chow, Kuan Tai Chen and Fui-On Shing.

Ultimately then "Just Heroes" was a watchable late 1980s Hong Kong action movie, but it was at the same time also a very forgettable movie as well. It just proved to be too generic and bland. As such, I am rating "Just Heroes" a very mediocre five out of ten stars.
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