Rating: *(*)
Cast: Cynthia Lam, Shan Chang, cameos by Wu Ma, Eric Tsang,
Shing Fui On, Wai Lam, Tai Bo, Alexander Lo Rei
A young boy named Hank is celebrating his sixth birthday when his family is gunned down by gangsters in the first three minutes. Twenty years later, Hank and his best friend Rob are making a living as illegal street vendors, when Hank learns that crime boss Bill Yang (Shan Chang) was the one who murdered his parents. With the help of police detective Wendy Ho (Cynthia Lam), the three of them launch a ridiculous all-out assault on the bad guys.
This is a lower tier action outing from Hong Kong, but at least it's better than the low budget Filipino movies that many Hong Kong veterans were stuck doing at the time. There's admittedly some nice stunt work on display to remind the audience of the genre's former glory, but no amount of action can make up for the film's offensively awful humor. The two leads do an adequate job with the material and the guy who plays Hank is quite good, but the real draw is Cynthia Lam, who comes across as a low-rent substitute for Moon Lee. Her fight scenes are fun to watch, but I suspect she was doubled for some of the more complex shots. The girl who plays Rob's girlfriend is quite pretty and provides most of the film's eye candy.
Unfortunately, the completely illogical action scenes generate more groans and laughs than oohs and ahhs, with guns that are never reloaded, rapid-fire rocket launchers, and shotguns that cause explosions. To the film's credit, there are A LOT of explosions that happen in abandoned buildings and it's always a treat to see REAL pyrotechnics instead of CGI crap, but none of it makes any sense whatsoever. And how do these guys, who can't hold down jobs or pay their rent, get their hands on an arsenal of pistols, bullets, machine guns, explosives, and grenades? The "make it up as you go" plot is comical in its non-linear absurdity, and it shouldn't be. While it's a nice look back at a genre that's long gone, it sadly isn't very entertaining.