Oxide Pang and Aaron Kwok re-team in this sequel to the unexpected 2007 hit. The second installment does everything well enough and is a fine mystery picture, but, overall, it's missing the quirkiness and charm that set the first movie apart from the pack, resulting in an end product that is a bit disappointing.

Coming off of the events of the first movie, police academy washout and private detective Tam (Aaron Kwok) finds himself gaining at least some respect from the police force (hence the alternate title of B+ Detective) -- at least most of them. When Tam is brought in by his friend on the force, Ke (Gong Bei-Bi), to help out with the investigation of a possible serial killer, the commanding officer doesn't take to kindly to an outsider stepping in.

This basic setup doesn't get too much more complicated than that. Most of Tam's unorthodox investigative methods from the first film are set aside for more traditional gumshoeing. Where the story-telling falls apart is that The Detective 2 doesn't allow the audience to play along with Tam. The best mystery movies reveal the same amount of information to the characters as well as the viewers. The big reveals shouldn't be accomplished with lucky guesses or convenient coincidences, and both lazy film-making methods are applied here, to the detriment of the movie as a whole.

The Detective 2 isn't a bad movie -- it just comes off more as a case of wasted potential. Sequels are often a tricky proposition, because film-makers don't want to be accused of simply copying the original picture. And one can see that Oxide Pang wanted to do something different with this installment, which is appreciated, but the lackluster effort makes this movie smacks a bit of either being a quick cash-in on the success of the first movie, or, as the blatantly obvious ending scene displays, shamelessly trying to set up a third.

RATING: 5