Genres: Action, Thriller
Rating: K-16 (13)
Release Date: 18.6.2021
Length: 1h 34min
Distributor: Night Visions Distribution
Director: Renny Harlin
Cast: Nick Cheung, Richie Jen, Yang Zi, Feng Jiayi, Carlos Chan
"Renny Harlin goes back to the 1980s in a body bag for the old-style single-set bang-‘em-up Bodies at Rest. It’s Christmas Eve, it’s raining, and the bad guys are wearing masks in this hostage drama set in Hong Kong’s vast morgue; this film could only be more retro if a character cut the brakes on a speeding bus. In place of Bruce Willis, there’s Nick Cheung as the pathologist with a past, while Richie Jen does the honours as the villain who simply won’t die, no matter how many times he’s rammed by a gurney. ---
With its high-concept brawn funnelled into a 93-minute cat-and-mouse game, Bodies at Rest is low on humour for the genre but, with the help of action director Sam Wong, it pulls no punches in its many lengthy fight sequences. --- Bodies at Rest delivers what it promises --- It fulfils its brief with eye-rolling relish."
- Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
"Grabs you quickly and never really lets go for the entirety of its lean, efficient 90 minutes. --- Mix some Die Hard with a little MacGyver (because scientists!) and throw in some Assault on Precinct 13"
- Elizabeth Kerr, The Hollywood Reporter
"[Renny Harlin] still knows what he's doing - and it's not just the fact that this is a siege situation in a large building at Christmas that will remind you of the Die Hard franchise --- There are some striking moments - flashback and escape fantasy sequences are executed viscerally and a shootout in a computer room made a hall of mirrors by lighting recalls moments from, well, Die Hard, but also Enter The Dragon and John Wick: Parabellum."
- Andrew Robertson, Eye for Film