Z/Web

A fun, rather silly early Jackie Chan film about a young kid (Chan) who is undisciplined and trouble. Though his father is a Kung Fu master and the boy’s skilled, he’s assigned a new master who toughens him through a year of harsh discipline and training and eventually turns the boy into a master at Kung Fu. The twist is the new master is an old drunk and appears to be incapable of anything, but turns out to be an amazing fighter, and he teaches the boy his “drunken” style of fighting (which is the most powerful of all forms of fighting). Pretty good, with glimpses of Chan’s signature style, but there are a lot of meaningless side fights that don’t move the story along and are rather boring. Ultimately, the best parts of the film are the story and the awkward relationship between student and master and not the fighting, which seems a repetitive and occasionally goes on too long.

This was surprisingly good, though the plot was overly twisted and convoluted, of course. This time the gang has been found out by the casino boss they stole from in the first movie and he wants his money back, plus interest, or he’ll kill them all. So the gang’s forced into action to steal $97 million in two weeks. Then it turns out that’s all a front to get them to compete in a robbery contest by a robber who wants the title of best thief for himself. That’s a stretch, but the movie’s fun enough to allow it. Basically, that’s all this film is: a fun ride with mildly amusing in-jokes and clever crimes, and the expected twist at the end that makes everything work out ideally. Good fun.