The Brink is a fairly run of the mill cops-and-robbers story, this time featuring a cop named Sai Gau (Zhang Jin, also known as Max Zhang) chasing down a black-market profiteer.

The movie has requisite twists, turns and threads to throw Sai Gau off the force if he doesn’t shape up. As far as Hong Kong action cinema goes, I can’t speak to how it falls in the grand scheme of things — whether actors are playing against type, if the genre is being twisted, etc. I can say that of the recent HK releases I’ve been privy to, The Brink left something to be desired — possibly because the centerpiece action sequence is an underwater fight that, unfortunately, can’t make two men duking it out underwater as interesting as it could theoretically be.

Not that it’s unique in failing that task: Most movies with extended underwater action sequences suffer the same fate.