With the aid from a New York City policeman (Mark Wahlberg), a top immigrant cop (Chow Yun-Fat) tries to stop drug-trafficking and corruption by immigrant Chinese Triads, but things get complicated when the Triads try to bribe the policeman.Roger Ebert wrote, "Director James Foley is obviously not right for this material. It's a shame, actually, that he's even working in the genre, since his gift is with the intense study of human behavior." High praise for Foley, who made the excellent "Glengarry Glen Ross", but has also gone on to work in the "Fifty Shades" franchise. Maybe Ebert was too kind.For some reason, this film seems like it had the script of an exploitation film but the budget of a major feature. This ends up with sleazy situations and bad dialogue that do not belong in anything this major. One wonders how this was not a major stumbling block for Wahlberg, though it may not be his only misfire.

This One is Criminally Underrated, Director James Foley and Crew Deliver a Barrage of Action and Characters that are Stunning. We Not Only Remember the Violent Outbursts of Stylistic Violence, the Characters Stick in the Mind As Well. Certainly Chow Yun-Fat, Giving One of His Patenting Performances with Mannerisms and Controlled Mania, the FBI Agent, Brian Cox's Mess of a Father, the Chinese Gang Members, and Yes, Mark Wahlberg at His Most Restrained.The Car Chase is Simply one of the Most Complex and Violent as You're Likely to See, Not Afraid to Kill Innocent Bystanders at a Blistering Pace, In Fact the Whole Sequence is Alarming.The Movie has Everything Action Fans Could Want and More. The Cinematography is Excellent and the Film is Filled with Things that are Uncomfortable and Unique. Overall, it is One of the Best from James Foley, Wahlberg, and Can Hold its Own with Fat's Hong Kong Films. Yes, John Woo's The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992) are Better, but This One is No Slouch.

The Corrupter is set in New York City where decorated veteran detective Nick Chen (Chow Yun-Fat) who operates in New York's Chinatown, trying to keep the peace & prevent a turf war between rival Chinese gangs. Rookie cop Danny Wallace (Mark Whalberg) is assigned to Chen's team, the only problem is that he is American, a white American. Chen is unhappy at first but decides to try & teach Wallace the way things go in Chinatown while trying to prevent Wallace getting himself killed. During a drugs bust they arrest an undercover FBI agent, then soon after the FBI agent is killed in a Chinatown hit. The FBI think there's a leak in Chen's department & Chen himself comes under pressure. With the violence escalating & gangs kill each other for all out control Chen & his team are caught in the middle of it...Directed by James Foley I thought The Corrupter was a really average cop drama thriller with very little to distinguish or recommend it, those look for some some decent gun-play & action in particular will be very disappointed. The script tends to go for slow burning drama rather than out & out action, there's an OK car chase & a few forgettable shoot-outs but nothing else. I also felt the script was too unfocused, there are various little subplots going on, the illegal immigrants, the prostitutes, Wallace's personal problems with his father, a gang war & struggle for power in Chinatown along with various office politics & red tape that ordinary cops have to deal with. It's all pretty dour stuff to be honest, nothing grabbed me or excited me or drew me in & I just ended up feeling pretty bored, at an hour & forty minutes long The Corrupter does take a fair bit of patience to sit through & I found I had lost mine way before the end credits started to roll. The character's are alright, as far as buddy buddy cop films go they are not typical though. Chen is written as a decent man who has to bend the rules to get things done & keep the peace while the fresh faced Wallace plays it strictly by the book at first but soon realises that life on the street has no rules, they are quite well fleshed out & drawn but they are stuck in such a bland cop drama that it's hard to care or get involved in their story. All in all I just didn't think The Corrupter added up to much, with an emphasis on drama rather than action this won't appeal to your average mainstream action fan.Even with a reasonable car chase about halfway through there was far less action in The Corrupter than I was expecting, even the shoot-outs & gun-play are dull. Filmed in New York & in Canada this looks nice enough with hat gritty, low colour documentary style cinematography that some may like while other's like me will find just bland & anonymous.Taking a paltry five million during it's opening weekend at the box-office The Corrupter is a hard sell, is it meant to appeal to those interested in drama? It's surely too shallow for that. Or is it meant to appeal to the action fan? Well, there's barely any action in it. I just can't see who would like this. The acting is alright, the performances are decent enough I suppose.The Corrupter is a film that I didn't like that much, sure it's well made & reasonably acted but with a bitty story & lack of action I was left distinctly underwhelmed. Average at best for what it is & nothing special.

Chow Yun-Fat's second English language actioneer "The Corrupter" boasts a plot with greater narrative depth and stronger characterization than "The Replacement Killers," Chow's top-grossing U.S. feature film debut. Nevertheless, "Glengarry Glen Ross" director James Foley's cops & robbers saga lacks the visceral music-video bravura of Anton Fuqua's mythical gangster mow down epic. While Fuqua blew out all stops with his ballistic homage to John Woo in "The Replacement Killer," Foley adopts a 'reality-what-a-concept' focus a la Sidney ("Serpico" & "Prince of the City") Lumet in his treatment of a dirty cops crime chronicle. Good acting by Chow and a first-rate cast make this blood-stained, cultural murder mystery, with its share of surprises and shoot-outs, worth a second look."The Corrupter" concerns an uneasy alliance between veteran NYPD Detective Lieutenant Nick Chen (Chow Yun-Fat) and his new partner, rookie cop Danny Wallace (Mark Wahlberg of "Renaissance Man"). Wallace finds himself assigned to the Chinese dominated Asian Gang Unit after a turf war erupts between the Triads and the Fukienese Dragons in the Big Apple. Wallace and Chen investigate the Chinatown mob, headed by slippery, Janus-faced Oriental businessman Henry Lee (Ric Young of "Nixon") who skillfully plays both cops against each other as well as against the mob. Meanwhile, the Fukienese Dragons, run by vicious Bobby Vu (Byron Mann of "Catwoman"), are the culprits behind the latest bombings and shootings. Lee uses the Dragons to ice his immediate superior Uncle Bennie (Kim Chan of "Lethal Weapon IV"), so that Lee can take over the rackets without upsetting the Hong Kong mob.Initially, Lt. Chen and Danny cannot tolerate each other. Chen doesn't want the idealistic white cop on his team, but they come to respect each other after a series of near-death confrontations with trigger-happy goons. The complications stack up when Wallace busts a drug-dealer who is an undercover FBI agent. FBI Chief Schabacker (Paul Ben-Victor of "True Romance"), stomps into their precinct with a take-no-prisoners attitude. He has always suspected that Lt. Chen was in deep with Uncle Benny, and he wants Wallace to expose Chen. Meanwhile, Danny's seedy, ex-cop father, Sean Wallace (Brian Cox of "Rushmore"), shows up and asks Danny for some dough to help pay off his Mafia gambling debts. Danny has nothing but contempt for his dad, but Sean becomes Danny's conscience before the gunsmoke clears.Freshman scenarist Robert Pucci exploits Chinatown in "The Corrupter" for both its territorial as well as metaphorical iconography. As the title implies subtly but unmistakably, the crime lords who pay off the cops don't qualify as "The Corrupter" but rather the setting that mires them in the corruption of life. Not even the villains can avoid their fate in Chinatown, as Pucci points out with moody bits of dialogue like: "You don't change Chinatown; Chinatown changes you." Pucci's screenplay covers familiar territory, but he enlivens it with several twists and turns punctuated by hair-raising shoot-outs.Director James Foley tries his hand at a Tarantino through-the-gun-barrel darkly plot and shows himself equal to the task. Audiences may have a tough time with "The Corrupter." First, even if word-of-mouth propels this energetic buddy cop thriller beyond its meager opening day box office receipts, the tragic ending rules out any sequel. "The Corrupter" shares more in common with 1970s' cop movies like "Hustle" with Burt Reynolds. Second, while Pucci's screenplay stockpiles all the clichés and conventions of the police genre, Foley never lets action overshadow character. Forget the familiar bulletproof vest escape hatch or the miraculous recovery from multiple gunshot wounds a la "Lethal Weapon 1 thru 4." Foley furnishes some sizzling action sequences, but he never lets us forget that today's hero can quickly degenerate into tomorrow's crook. Nobody escapes "The Corrupter" without paying his dues. The guns may make the killers look cool, but these dastards cannot escape their comeuppance.One of the assets of "The Corrupter" is its solid acting. Undeniably, Chow Yun-Fat delivers his best performance to date. Chow displays greater range of expression and character here than even in his legendary Hong Kong epics. John Woo never got as spirited and animated a performance as Foley draws from Chow in "The Corrupter." As dapper Lt. Nick Chen, Chow reveals as much character with his body language as he does with his dialogue. Foley deliberately downplays Chow's signature gun-wielding antics when the superstar whirls while firing away with a pistol in each fist.Mark Wahlberg, last seen in "The Big Hit," gives a tight-lipped performance that quietly but effectively contrasts with Chow's gregarious chops. Soft-spoken and bespectacled, Danny Wallace grows as a character from the moment that he teams up with Chen. Wahlberg avoids any flashy Mel Gibson heroics.The support cast excels, too. With his silky-voiced speech patterns, Ric Young is believably wicked as a double-crossing crime lord who tires to burn the candle at both ends without getting singed. Paul Ben-Victor is appropriately abrasive as an FBI honcho who wants Chen's head on a platter. Oddly enough, Kim Chan stars as elderly crime lord named "Uncle Benny." Check out his death scene in "The Corrupter." Last summer, Chan played a similar Chinatown (as in Los Angeles) crime king in "Lethal Weapon 4." Foley's longtime lenser Juan Ruiz-Anchia's flashy, sharp-lensed photography thrusts audiences into the thick of the action. Foley and Ruiz-Anchia repeatedly provide awesome aerial night-time shots of the Big Apple.Altogether, "The Corrupter" rates as an above-average but violent cops and crime lords shoot'em up. No, the violence does not match John Woo's gory but stylist Hong Kong thrillers "The Killer" or "Hard Boiled" that both starred Chow, but "The Corrupter" contains an adequate amount of gunplay to satisfy genre fans.