Despite being billed as one of the best Hong Kong movie in 2011, Overheard 2 fails to live up to expectations and falls short of its lofty ambition. In fact, Overheard 2 ticks all the right boxes to be a great film – strong cast (Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo and Daniel Wu),thoroughly written script, quality production values (Derek Yee) and directing talents of Alan Mak and Felix Chong. Unfortunately the film fails to engage with the audience and for whatever reason it just never take the audience along for the ride. Perhaps, it is due to the overtly written script, the at times uneven direction or even subpar performances from what you expect from the likes of Lau, Koo and Wu. It is all the more disappointing when you can tell how hard the production team are trying and the amount of details they go into. It is probably harsh to say this, but sometimes, you can try very hard to achieve something and it still somehow does not work out. This is exactly the feeling that I got from this film. All in all, Overheard 2 tries extremely hard to succeed, but sometimes, engaging the audience, bringing them along the ride, can just be so much more. 100% for effort, but only 50% entertainment – probably the most over-hyped film of the year…

Neo rates it 6/10.

The only things in common between OVERHEARD 2 and OVERHEARD (2009) are having 3 of the same male leads, a plot relating to phone-tapping & blackmail of the evil criminal few who have the ability to control the stock market.

Working with DP Anthony Pun to deliver a new tone & texture to the picture, some scenes integrate a gritty look similar to heist films like Ben Affleck's THE TOWN, and the editing by Curran Pang delivers an overall tighter pace to bring OVERHEARD 2 a couple of notches up in having a narrative that moves along nicely - leading up to a finale that actually works without dishing out the fantasy - as in the first film - that calls for the audience to suspend their disbelief (just so Mak & Chong could pay homage to Korean VENGEANCE films). The topic of inside trading hits timely with the audience, and the film attempts to remind yet again the facts about the ills to the stock market - numbers are fixed by the few in power, and that the sub-prime fallout owes much to the policies of the US government. What's interesting is that unlike other films about inside trading, Mak & Chong injects a sense of patriotism by highlighting the battles won by these now evil men in the early days of Hong Kong's stock market - the powers they earned by having fought off foreign investors in attacks to crash the HK stock market turned these patriots into monsters. This plot point connects much more strongly to the audience than all the convoluted trade jargon and scam tactics we see in similar films, and reinforces the trade-mark "Heroes gone bad" character development Mak & Chong have used repeatedly since INFERNAL AFFAIRS.

With OVERHEARD 2, actor Daniel Wu delivers one of his most solid and mature performances to date. It is also refreshing to see veteran actors Kenneth Tseng and Kong Ngai in their come-back with scene-stealing performances. The casting of almost-forgotten veteran actors is an on-going trend in HK films right now which began with Leung Siu Lung and Yuen Qiu in Stephen CHow's KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004),then later with Teddy Robin and Chan Kwoon-Tai in GALLANTS (2010),and more recently Jimmy Wong Yu in director Peter Chan's WUXIA (2011).

As with just about all Mak & Chong scripts, unfortunately, the female leads are again given only roles of being speaking vases. MIchelle Ye's scenes with Louis Koo could have been so much more engaging, and Huang Yi's pillow talk with Lau Ching Wan could have been much more touching. It seems the two writer/directors still have problems connecting with the female mind beyond just displaying tears and sad faces. The dialoque given to these two actresses were so disconnected and removed from the right emotions that I was left to wonder how the male leads could have even responded to what was said to carry such cryptic conversations that make these on-screen couples come across as people who barely even know each other.

All in all, OVERHEARD 2 is the best we have seen from the mainstream HK film industry in 2011 so far, and I can't help but to think that there's a good chance we will end up seeing this and the previous OVERHEARD becoming Hollywood remakes in the coming years.

still the story is as far-fetched as ... Star Wars (or any other).

At least it stayed the course - consistently this time, not cheating out at the end with some fantasy ending.

The story is a thriller and doesn't waste time even during the credit. But it is a story only. plot points to plot points so efficiently that it breaths with diaolgue to make you think there is acting. (like most other main stream jobs) So efficient that .. it's easy to get into this habit.. and die there.

And it delivers the shock, completely ludicrous background, the perfect plan, and the tension. I prefer the other movie, release around the same time, Punished, a bit more. Although that one is more preachy.