Movie	Extras
Audio	Video

This is the Universe Laser DVD review.

Movie
That’s more like it.  After the just so-so ‘My Lucky Stars’, the gang gets it in gear again.  The subsequent Lucky Stars movie gets even better.  The first is really nice, the second is great and ‘My Lucky Stars’, the third, is the worst of the bunch.  That’s okay because the last one, ‘Dragon Forever’, is the best of the bunch.  In any case, this one is truly a sequel if there ever was one.  This is really a sequel.  The movie concerns two essentially unconnected storylines, but with one tiny connection: some bad guys want to kill a girl, who, through typical Hong Kong movie contrivances, ended up living with the 5 goof-offs from the past Lucky Stars movies, Richard Ng, Charlie Chin, Stanley Fung, Eric Tsang (although he wasn’t in ‘Winners & Sinners’… as a part of the group) and Sammo Hung.

I say it’s a sequel because ‘My Lucky Stars’ served as a launching pad for these guys in this movie.  The situations are pretty much the same but made more ludicrous and unrealistic.  The people are rather simple (if anybody actually would’ve gotten in the bathtub, I have about 4 bridges I’d like to sell them… hell, I have 5 bridges I’d like to sell).  That doesn’t mean the comedy isn’t nice.  It’s funny, for sure.  It’s just more of the same from the previous movie.

I love the logic, though.  Some big bad guy sends three assassins to kill the girl, Rosamund Kwan, but when all is said and done, the head honcho seems to have been forgotten, and is still perfectly safe, in his drug haven of Thailand.  The movie also starts off in Thailand, with Richard Ng getting a voodoo doll, and finishes somewhere in a theatre, voodoo dolls gone from everybody’s mind for the past hour or so.

Whatever the logic of the movie, I love the casting.  Andy Lau (‘God of Gamblers’, ‘Fulltime Killer’) is here in a very early role.  He doesn’t do much except fight (he even does hand-to-hand!) in one scene and then disappears from the movie.  Michelle Yeoh (‘Police Story 3’), in her second screen appearance, plays a cameo role as a judo instructor.  She gets to beat up Mr. Ng and fight Mr. Hung.  Not bad for a 5-minute role.  You can also see Sandra Ng (‘Portland Street Blues’) and Wu Ma (too many to name) if you look quickly.  You’ve also got Yasuaki Kurata playing one of the assassins.  If I say Funakochi Fumio from ‘Fist of Legend’, I can hear everybody say ‘Ahhh…’, so I’ll move on.  Richard Norton (‘City Hunter’), usual American-type bad guy in a few Hong Kong movies plays another assassin.  The last assassin is played by Chung Faat, whom you’ve seen but don’t remember.  He’s been in approximately 4064 movies, so I don’t need to say any more about that.  The nicest piece of casting is giving Rosamund Kwan (‘Once Upon a Time in China’, here, ‘Dr. Wai in and the Scripture Without Words’) a substantial role.  She was quite young when she made this movie and she’s literally as cute as a button.  Her face is round and she’s got those two big, pretty, black eyes.  He role isn’t as demanding as… um… playing any other role in filmography, but all she does is have to be adorable and, intelligence aside, nobody can argue she failed that endeavour.

Talking about acting any further would just be wasting words.  Just your typical silly comedy acting.  Nothing serious, nothing award-winning.  Suffice to say that the Three Stooges influenced these guys a lot.  The action is the only thing left to talk about.

It’s nice.  As much as I like the comedy, the Lucky Stars movies are known because of, well, the Lucky Stars.  Now, while I’m aware the other actors are in 3 of the other Lucky Stars movies, they aren’t in ‘Dragon Forever’, and the stars of that movie are clearly the more famous trio of the bunch.  Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung get to fight, and they fight well.  While the action isn’t as extensive as in some of the other movies they’ve done, it certainly does satisfy you.  Just to give you an example.  Sammo Hung fighting Mr. Kurata, who’s got sais, with tennis rackets, is so well done that I forgot Yuen Biao had already started fighting Mr. Faat.  Making me forget Mr. Biao is fighting is no small task.  Jackie Chan, not to be outdone, has to fend off Mr. Kurata while one of his arms is basically incapacitated, thanks to a bullet.  Exciting and inventive as usual, the action directors (led, of course, by Mr. Hung) once again deliver some great fights.

I have nothing else to say.  It’s not the best of the Lucky Stars movies but it’s not the worst of the Lucky Stars movies (I don’t think I’ve said those three words enough, so that’s why I repeated them).  The movie is entertaining, which is what it should do.  There’s enough action to keep you entertained, if that’s what you want, and there’s enough nice comedy to keep you laughing, if that’s what you’re looking for.  If you’re looking for good drama, get really drunk, pass out and maybe you’ll see some in your dreams because that’s not what this movie is about.  This movie wants to make you forget your troubles for an hour and a half, and with that goal in mind, it succeeds.

Stars’ Files
Even though Yuen Biao’s role is big enough, he’s not here.  They only included Jackie Chan’s and Sammo Hung’s biographies.  They’re nice, if riddled with mistakes, and their filmographes are complete and huge.  It’s nice to read about them in such bad English, even if I’ve done it many times before.

Trailer
This is 3 minutes long and has loads of comedy and action.  Therefore, it’s a good trailer.  The movie doesn’t have any horror, or drama, or science-fiction in it, so showing those in the trailer would be useless.

More Attractions
‘Battle Creek Brawl’ (2:13), ‘Twin Dragon’ (2:42) and ‘My Lucky Stars’ (3:52, here) have trailers.  Like most Jackie Chan movie trailers, the focus is on action and/or comedy, and the ones here are no exception.  You’ve got some comedy bits, followed by action bits, followed by comedy bits, followed by action bits.  After watching this movie, if you think you’ll expect something else, then you’re a dolt.  When you see this, you know what you’re getting.

Audio
Like most Universe Laser DVDs of the era (1999 or so), the sound is actually quite nice.  The voices sound a bit hollow but other than that I didn’t really see… hear a problem.  The separation is good enough and there are even some nice surrounds.  The motorcycles going by in the car chase actually go from centre to left to centre again, along with the camera pan.  It’s nice to see.  You get some positional effects as well.  All in all it’s a nice soundtrack.  The music and effects and voices are all balanced pretty well, and nothing cancels anything out.

Video
1.77:1 letterbox.  Like the usual Universe Laser DVDs, the picture is not anamophic but it’s passable.  Big scratches are not there, but you still have small specks.  The colours aren’t too good, but they do their job well enough.  The picture also lacks detail and sharpness, but you can’t expect too much.  It’s better than a VCD, and that’s about as complementary as it you can get.  It’s not horrible, I’ve seen worse, but it’s not especially mindblowing either.

12/11/2004