The final installment in the Option trilogy, Dante Lam's 1995 cop action/drama Option Zero tries to bring viewers into the private lives of some of Hong Kong's most elite law enforcement officers. Though it's overall a decent effort that supplies some solid action, the wooden acting and overemphasis on melodrama makes this one for die-hard fans of the genre only.

Centering on a squad of the Special Branch (or simply SB), the main plot of Option Zero focuses on the team going after a Korean arms smuggler. But much of the overlong 105-minute running time is devoted to the cops' relationships at home, specifically that of Julian Cheung and Carman Lee. This sort of thing was common in Hong Kong productions of this period, spurned by the success of the first two films in the series, The Final Option and The First Option.

There is nothing wrong with the base idea of having drama in your police procedural picture, and in fact, it has bolstered many films. Option Zero's big problem that every bit of drama seems so obviously forced that it comes off as incredibly fake, and thus hard to digest as a viewer. It doesn't help that all of the female characters are portrayed as some form of needy, whiny, shrill, grating, and/or annoying, with the biggest culprit being Carman Lee.

This may have been a byproduct of the dominant style of film-making in Hong Kong at the time, where women weren't often portrayed in the best light, but honestly, it's really probably more Carman's fault, since she displays a level of acting thankfully seldom seen outside of Lifetime movies of the week. The rest of the cast doesn't fare much better. Julian Cheung is his usual unemotional self, and Anthony Wong seems more concerned about eating snack chips than actually acting. It's a sad comment on the level of quality acting in your picture when a cameo by Michael Wong is the highlight.

Despite the sub-par acting, Option Zero still isn't a terrible movie. In fact, some parts, most notably the action that's helmed by veteran Chin Kar-Lok, are very fun. But those fun moments nearly come to a screeching halt when the emphasis turns to romance and relationships. If you liked the first two Option movies, there's really not that much differently done here, and you'll probably enjoy the proceedings and seeing the fates of the characters. Most other viewers might want to save this for a rainy day rental, since there are certainly a number of cop movies out there that are of better quality than this.

RATING: 5