Before CCTV cameras and facial recognition, police had to do their surveillance manually, relying on disguises and, if they were lucky, photographic memory to hunt down bad guys and arrest them. Remaking Hong Kong action thriller Eye in the Sky, Cold Eyes followed one such surveillance team– a hardened captain with a rookie with photographic memory– and the two leads go through many of the beats familiar in many an action thriller, but nonetheless the action sequences are so exciting that the 2 hour runtime flies by. Cold Eyes may be a familiar investigation for most thriller fans, but the film conducts it rather well.
"remake of Eye In The Sky (2007) redressed in Korean clothing, Cold Eyes concerns undercover cops who blend in with the armed robbers they're pursuing, & organised criminals who are indistinguishable from crooked politicians and 'fat-ass executives'."
— Anton Bitel
Ha Yoon-ju becomes the newest member of a unit within the Korean Police Forces Special Crime Department that specializes in surveillance activities on high-profile criminals. She teams up with Hwang Sang-jun, the veteran leader of the unit, and tries to track down James who is the cold-hearted leader of an armed criminal organization.
