everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Now this is a prequel to the first film, so rather than ABT 3 I might have suggested they call it A Better Yesterday, but I wasn't there at the time.This time Woo is out and Tsui Hark is in the director's chair, (leading to the worst film in the trilogy). Is it any wonder that Woo and Hark were once peers and that only one went on to direct internationally while the other stayed in Hong Kong making films? (In Tsui Hark's defense Woo's only real strength is action sequences, his films are otherwise no better or worse. But this IS an action film.) At two hours long this drags mightily for quite a while, and the action is over the top without the Woo benefit of being dumbly entertaining. It is like Tsui Hark said I can't promise you'll enjoy it, so I'll make it bloodier and more far fetched.A young Mark (Chow Yun Fat) goes to Vietnam in 1974 at the tail end of the Vietnam war to meet his cousin Mun as he released from prison for being involved in the black market.Mun only turned to crime to assist his ailing father to leave Vietnam and return to Hong Kong, but he got caught up in the wrong crowd and ended up in jail. So they decide to re-enter the crime world to get quick cash so that they can have another crack at leaving the country, taking Uncle/Dad with them.Now I ask you what could go wrong?Mark was only able to get through Vietnamese Customs with the assistance of an unknown woman, and she turns out to be their first contact in the Vietnamese crime underworld named Miss Chow.After their first job together goes wrong and a bloodbath ensues, Miss Chow turns into a female Rambo and blows dozens of bad guys away, and Mun and Mark acquit themselves well enough that the three of them get along like a house on fire and spend all their time together.Now that they have the cash to leave Vietnam they sell up and head off, again nothing goes smoothly and it is only thanks to Miss Chow that they get through, with Uncle nearly dying in the process.Back in Hong Kong a love triangle quickly forms, Mark and Mun both have the hots for Miss Chow, but she only has eyes for one of them, and it wouldn't be fair to say which here. Shortly after though the threesome becomes a foursome, with the return of Miss Chow's former boss and ex from an overseas stay.The boss immediately attempts to sever all of Miss Chow's distractions by initially trying to kill them, and then ordering them to leave Hong Kong immediately.Of course this is never going to wash, so we have a deranged finale with Mun, Mark and Miss Chow joining forces in a bloodbath that leaves dozens killed and involves tanks, machine guns, standoffs and switching allegiances. Basically everything that John Woo would have included, but in a manner so clumsy that for half the time I couldn't work out what was going on, and for the rest I didn't care.Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. A disappointing end to what was hardly an awe-inspiring trilogy to begin with. They should have stopped at two.If you liked this review (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com

I ordered this movie on tape (dvd didn't exist then). I expected the same classic shootouts and drama like the first two "Better Tomorrow"'s. I knew it was a prequel. The back cover said that this movie was about "Mark" becoming the hit-man he was in "Better Tomorrow 1". Boy was I misinformed. It did show some background on Mark's History. And the reason he became a killer. (Love for a woman who gets killed.) But that's it. Nothing more. Nothing about his adventures he told us about in Better Tomorrow 1. To not use this concept is the reason why this movie fails. To be fair there were some nice things like some action scenes,but they were nothing special. These action scenes cannot be compared to John Woo's sequences. Some reviewers call this the best one of the series. That really is a mystery to me,because this movie isn't even in the same league as 1 and 2. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion,but for me this was definitely the worst one of the series!

Different to John Woo's original two films, but it's almost as good. Chow (coolest man in the world) yun fat, gives a very charismatic performance, hilarious in the opening scenes when he walks around the airport with an unlit cigarette hanging from his lip, and gives a raw, powerful, emotional performance at the end. The action scenes although lacking the finesse of the John Woo trademark mayhem, are still high velocity and powerful. Aided well by the soaring soundtrack, this film although it can be a little slow, is a welcome and worthy addition to the better tomorrow films. I just loved every second of it. Although the subtitles were a little tricky to read in places but you can't blame the film for what someone else did to it. The major problem is the badly done music editing after the credits have rolled. However seeing as the actual film had finished by that point, not many people would notice.

A Better Tomorrow 3 takes place during the Vietnam war and goes back to show how Mark became the professional killer that he is. Cool action scenes, but low on the gore from the other films. The story is very well done for an action movie adding a romantic aspect to it. Excellent.***1/2 out of ****