‘Revenge of the Green Dragons’: Toronto Review — hollywoodreporter.com

What Infernal Affairs did for the Hong Kong triads and The Godfather for the Italian mafia, Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo attempt to do for New York’s vicious Chinese American street gangs in Revenge of the Green Dragons, set in Queens in the 1980s. Against a backdrop of over-crowded apartments, steamy restaurant kitchens and Mah Jong dens, the bullets and knives fly thick and fast in a way bound to push the buttons of fans of mindless violence, but there’s something missing here that keep these gangsters from blasting their way into great tradition of anti-heroes. Still, the filmmakers know their genre and have obviously worked hard to blend the Hong Kong actioner with an American police thriller, and with Martin Scorsese on board as an executive producer, there are all kinds of reasons to be curious. Using a formula that has produced results with other high-profile festival films, DirecTV is opening a 30-day window immediately after the film’s premiere in Toronto, followed by theatrical release in October from A24 Films.

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