This trashy Taiwanese-American cooperation tries to mix all stereotypes of U.S. police buddy-movies/serial-killer thrillers and Asian supernatural horror films into one brew... unfortunately, its taste is revolting.Mind me, the technical aspects and even some of the otherwise typically hammy acting is okay, but the convoluted plot kills it all, particularly after confusing Taoist prophecies, silly modern killer monks and, most annoyingly, lofty melodramatics are introduced. And I won't even speak about the ridiculous finale.I seldom cared less about a thriller's outcome.2 out of 10 lethal air conditioners

DOUBLE VISION (Shuang Tong) Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)Sound formats: Dolby Digital / SDDSFollowing a series of murders in which the victims died under mysterious circumstances (one drowns on the top floor of an office complex, another is disembowelled in his sleep, etc.), Taiwanese police engage the services of an FBI agent (David Morse) who joins forces with a disgraced cop (Tony Leung Ka-fai) and traces the clues back to a murderous religious sect...Produced by the Asian wing of Columbia Pictures, DOUBLE VISION is a beautifully-made bore. With its moody visuals and stately pace, Chen Kuo-fo's torturous film aspires to something more upmarket than your average 'slasher' movie, and the results are pretty mixed, to say the least: Too 'arty' for the multiplex crowd, and too commercial for Art-house audiences, DOUBLE VISION swaps atmosphere for action at almost every turn, save for a violent massacre toward the end of the film and a confusing climax which suggests a supernatural explanation for the murders before going off in a different direction altogether. In fact, Chen's kid-glove treatment of the established 'serial killer' formula - a series of outrageous crimes, followed by an investigation in which an assortment of details lead to a final confrontation with the killer - suggests an aversion to the material that extends all the way down to the murders themselves, few of which are especially graphic, except for a couple of CGI-enhanced eruptions early in the movie, and the narrative suffers accordingly.On the plus side, Morse and Leung (not to be confused with Tony Leung Chiu-wai, star of Wong Kar-wai's HAPPY TOGETHER) are well-matched as cops from opposite sides of the world, forced to set aside their cultural differences in order to track the killer to his/her lair. Morse is OK, as usual, but Leung has the showier role, playing an honest man whose life is in turmoil following a recent tragedy in which his young daughter was taken hostage by an officer whom Leung had accused of corruption. Rene Liu (FLEEING BY NIGHT) plays Leung's wife, a lost soul struggling to cope with the fall-out from her husband's guilty conscience. Grim stuff, in every sense of the word. The uncensored director's cut - available on DVD in Asia - adds more gore to the proceedings, but little else. Gorgeous production values, expansive widescreen compositions and a busy soundtrack aside, the movie is a wash-out.(Mandarin and English dialogue)

Stylish hybrid of serial killer and supernatural horror flicks is well shot and fairly slick, with mostly good acting and some mild suspense. Tony Leung Kar-fei is soulful and very effective as the troubled police officer who is partnered up with FBI agent David Morse. While usually a fine actor, Morse seems out of synch with the rest of the cast--which seems appropriate for his character, at least initially, since he is the unwanted lone American lending his expertise to resentful Chinese police. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with English language characters in Hong Kong movies, his dialogue sucks and the director doesn't seem to have a clue of how to direct his non-Chinese cast member. The murders are kind of ridiculous, colorful but impossible unless the supernatural is involved, making the movie's early attempts to provide a scientific basis for the deaths seem like a ludicrous waste of time. Still, Double Vision is fairly creepy and effective for most of it's length, building to a shockingly violent confrontation in a Taoist Temple that was constructed within the walls of normal looking office building. The scene is good but would have been even more effective without several obvious and not very good computer effects that are both unnecessary and distracting. (Why do a decapitation with a computer effect and make it look like something out of a Playstation game when old fashioned make-up effects look so much better?) Unfortunately after this scene Double Vision goes completely off the rails, going on for an unnecessary twenty minutes more filled with trippy effects and seemingly endless scenes that make no sense. All in all this one's more than worth a look, but it could have been a lot better.

The reason I went to see the movie was because simply: I liked the concept. The nine gates of hell has always held my interest and few films have taken advantage of the possibilities that celluloid offers.Needless to say, I saw this with very high hopes, and thus my opinion may seem somewhat opinionated.Let me just say that the movie is not scary... leave the concluding scenes (which didn't make much sense anyway). No jump in your seat thrills, no creepy buildup, and hardly any characters that were actually scary. But this is not necessarily bad for some movies (let me emphasize 'SOME MOVIES') as it can help segue the genre into a totally different and unexpected one. This script tries to do that, but fails miserably. What we have here is a hybrid of a detective and horror story, or maybe the worse parts of both. Characters are one dimensional, most characters are expendable and hardly matter, and try however hard I wanted, but I could not feel sympathy for any characters. And amazingly enough, the main character who spoke very little English, and when he did it sounded very heavily accented, but apparently, he must have been fluent in English... after all, he spews big words in lines which left the actor seeming confused.Most of the scenes were utterly miserable and unnecessary, and after the movie, I wondered if the screenplay was made by an amature screenwriter.Take my advice: Do yourself a favor and skip this one.