Casino Tycoon

I was expecting either a heroic bloodshed or gritty crime drama but instead, this was a mishmash of crime and melodrama with very goofy bits thrown in. It was also hard to keep track of the passage of time, I couldn't tell if things were happening quickly or if tons of time was passing.

In this movie Andy Lau works his way up to being the titular casino tycoon. The first half is enjoyable and pretty good. Like so many Hong Kong movies it mixing many genres (romance, crime drama, action among others), but the movie balances the different tones well so far. It is in the second half when the focus shift more to the Godfatheresque story of a basically decent guy being forced into becoming a crime boss that the movie loses momentum, due to many big time jumps in the story.