Reuniting Beast Stalker's team of director Dante Lam and stars Nicholas Tse and Nick Cheung, The Stool Pigeon has a solid base and is technically well-made. Unfortunately, it over-extends itself in the realm of storytelling, leaving an end result that smacks of missed opportunities.

The story has the roles of Beast Stalker reversed, with Nick Cheung playing Lee, a cop who uses informants to bring down some of Hong Kong's top criminals. Lee's latest protege is Ho (Nicholas Tse), a young ex-con who is tapped to infiltrate a robbery gang because of his formidable street racing skills.

Now, take a breath and calm down, because The Stool Pigeon isn't a Hong Kong "homage" to The Fast and Furious. While there are a couple of car races and chases, the emphasis here is on internal conflict, not internal combustion. And when The Stool Pigeon is firing on all cylinders, it's a slick cop drama that ranks among some of the best stuff Hong Kong has put out over the past several years.

But, despite his technical prowess and ability to get solid performances out of stars not normally known for their deep acting chops, Dante Lam has never been one to economically tell a story, packing in as many characters and subplots into his films as possible. At times, like with the aforementioned Beast Stalker and Beast Cops, Lam's style works to great effect.

In this instance, though, everything thing feels a bit too bloated. Running at almost two hours (an eternity in the short attention span dominated world of Hong Kong popular cinema) there's a definite feeling here that there were a few elements that could have been trimmed or cut altogether.

For instance, within the first few minutes, it's well established that Lee is tired (both morally and physically) of his job. So did we really need subplots dealing with both a former informer and his ex-wife? Likewise, with Ho, there's an awkward romantic angle planted on that feels artificially grafted on in order to please young female fans of Nicholas Tse. I guess we should at least be glad that there are no slow-motion montage scenes where one of Tse's Cantopop ballads plays in the background.

Despite this, I still want to emphasize that The Stool Pigeon isn't a bad film at all, and I'm sure most readers out there will find at least some modicum of enjoyment with it. It's just with how well it starts that the final product comes off as a bit hollow and disappointing.

RATING: 6.75