WOO'S THIEF A NONSTOP ROMP Fox movie delivers action with zest TV Preview by Matt Roush John Woo's Once A Thief Fox, Sunday, 8p.m. ET/PT *** (out of four) The first thing you hear is the off-camera voice of director John Woo saying, "Action!" And from the first to the last thing you see, that's pretty much what you get in this frisky caper of flailing fists, things going boom in the night and other madcap mayhem. A V-chip could get a hernia from the strain, but Once A Thief is about as threatening as The Wild, Wild West gone Pacific Rim. Woo, a cult director of hopped-up Hong Kong thrillers who hit it big earlier this year with John Travolta's Broken Arrow, brings an exotic flourish to prime time with a TV-movie that Fox says is "an active candidate for midseason series pick-up." Why wait? The heroes are gorgeous refugees from Hong Kong's Tang crime family: cocky Mac (Ivan Sergei) and lethal Li Ann (Sandrine Holt), two-thirds of a crafty burglary team that develops into a dangerous love triangle. The odd man out: mob heir Michael Tang (Michael Wong), who pursues a vendetta after they betray him and flee. When the furious action shifts to Vancouver, a new triangle forms between Mac, Li Ann and an ex-cop played by The X-Files' Nicholas Lea (the duplicitous Krycek). All now work for a nebulous anti-crime "offensive force" led by the sexy and sinister "Director" (Jennifer Dale), a self confessed "twisted leather freak." Forget what serves as the nonsensical plot. Once A Thief excels and exults in lavish stunts and irreverant attitude, all delivered at an exhilarating pace. Highlights include a pulse-racing set piece in which two characters dangle from a chandelier over an electrified floor as they attempt to steal a Rembrandt, and a number of bone-crunchingly choreographed fights between new partner-rivals Sergei and Lea, always at each others throats. If this should become a series, executive producer/director Woo will be lucky to ever match this movie's lavish scale of lunacy. Enjoy while you can.