For a second I thought this was an adaptation of the video game. Thankfully, it wasn't. I don't think it's possible to make a good video game adaptation for the sole reason, you can't translate gameplay to film. Sure story and event wise you can easily but the gameplay? There are so many OK games with average stories but with stellar gameplay. Some games don't even have stories. How to capture the emotions and thrills you experience during gameplay and then transfer those to a medium where you sit passively. You can't. So why even bother? Anyway, Sleeping Dogs is a different beast.
In large part, the thriller does a good job of making you wonder about events and how it's going to turn out. Unfortunately, me being a veteran film lover, I was able to deduce and predict most of what was happening, although to be fair, they did a good job with the red herrings, so kudos for the wonderful misdirection. It does keep you interested. Although, at a certain point, you can see where it leads, yet I had hoped some twist would put this upside down. Alas, this is not the case. The conclusion to the mystery is very anti-climatic and a bit underwhelming. The only reason you don't fully experience disappointment is because of good acting on the part of Russel Crowe and Tommy Flanagan.
The acting on the part of the other actors is questionable. Karen Gillan and Marton Csokas played their roles like they were characters in a parody of crime thrillers. Gillan's accent at times was very confusing and weird. If I had to guess, she was trying to mimic the femme fatales in film noirs like The Maltese Falcon or similar films. Let's just say she failed miserably on this front. Csokas, was overacting like a moron. I kind of got the idea behind it. He is supposed to be the key figure into solving the mystery, but instead of overplaying this, you should be subtle. He was the exact opposite.
I didn't mind it much, but I can understand that people won't like how long it takes for this film to get to the point. There isn't that much of a mystery, still you will have to endure some parts that obviously are put in place to put you on the wrong foot. This in combination with the anti-climatic ending will definitely make people dislike this film. I liked it, but can't help but feel it could have been far better.
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