Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars
Review
Format: VCD
Stars: Sammo Hung, Richard Ng, Eric Tsang, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Yasuaki Kurata, Chung Fa, Richard Norton, Andy Lau, Dick Wei, Lau Ka Wing, Phillip Ko Fei, others

A Lucky Stars movie. Luckily undubbed. My Lucky Stars, US version, was dubbed so terribly that I didn't like it alone for that reason, so I copied the fights onto a vhs, nothing else. But I really think that the Lucky Stars are really funny together, in Cantonese that is. Even when they're just chasing after women the whole time (Winners and Sinners) they're still funny, and I laughed at this movie a lot. It really doesn't have a worthwhile plot, other than Jackie and Biao are cops after some bad guys, while Sammo, Tsang, and the others are trying to get it with a woman, or two. So it's very humorous, in my opinion. Eric Tsang and Richard Ng are incredibly funny with their facial gestures and everything. Tsang, after being bullied at the dinner table, gets angry and stands up and asks, "So I'm easy prey?" and the rest of them answer, "Yes!" Tsang gets a grin on his face and says, "Well at least I got an answer!" Slapstick, you either love it or hate it, really.

The action isn't lacking so much as Winners and Sinners, which I want to review dearly but I don't have it anymore, I need to see it again, but it doesn't match the likes of My Lucky Stars. Biao, Lau, and Jackie infiltrate a drug hideout, and there are some good looking fights, but they seemed undercranked by a frame or two, yet it actually looked good. Dick Wei and Jackie have a little bout, Andy Lau takes on Lau Ka Wing, and Biao fights Phillip Ko Fei. The one with Jackie and Wei is great. Very fast, and the two of them are masters at moving their bodies around with their hits. Lau Ka Wing (from Knockabout) fights Andy Lau, and Andy Lau isn't too great looking here possibly because of his uniform, but I like the way he moves his legs. However, he performs too many I-don't-have-to-look elbows, backhands, and punches. Lau Ka Wing looks awesome as a fighter. I love how he moves. You could tell it was him if you only saw his shadow, I swear. He's all arms it seems, and he's a short character, of a somewhat large build. Every punch he throws is emphasized, and I suggest you check out My Lucky Stars, which I've yet to review. He fights Sammo at the end, and I can't express this enough, but his style is extremely unique. Andy Lau's movements are sharp, but he needed a double for a jump off some boxes, as well as some other things, and I heard his double was Chin Kar Lok, who seems to be a very capable stunt man. Phillip Ko Fei and Biao probably steal the show, though. Their fight is the longest and, in my opinion, looks the best, and it's the fastest. Again, it looked undercranked, but watch it a few times and you won't care anymore. The rhythm between the two of them is very well done, with Phillip Ko using bend elbows mostly and Biao throwing straight punches and lots of kicks. Biao does a kick at the end that blew me away: an arial cartwheel off a box, 360 degree right kick that misses, lands on the same leg, and immediately throws his left leg right up into Ko Fei's face. Very well done. Jackie also does an impressive maneuver, actually two. He does a front handspring from up above, down onto a horizontal wooden beam maybe 7 or 8 feet up, and down to the ground, and when fighting against Dick Wei (who uses a double once when falling) he jumps across a gap but bouces off a vertically placed plastic sheet to get there. Cool stuff.

Some other action is in there. Richard Norton and Jackie perform in an alleyway, and although I didn't care about this fight when I first watched the movie, I think that Jackie looks the most realistic here, for some reason. Maybe it's because I wanted to look at his facial expressions, and Norton surprised me here too cause he actually looked good moving the way he did, keeping up with Jackie and all. Norton also fights Sammo at the end, but he looks terrible and Sammo steals the spotlight. Norton's movements are very predictable and jerky because let's face it, the guy's 6'2 and has REALLY long legs. The two of them do maybe 5 wing chun moves at the end of the fight, and Sammo does a great looking branny off a table.

Kurata is someone I'd like to see fight without weapons. He uses sais against Jackie, which I hated. Kurata's talent wasn't used very well here, I believe, because he knows how to move and look good at the same time. Possibly it's because he's somewhat short, maybe 5'8, and medium build. His kicks, which WERE shown, were done well and looked impressive. Sammo fights him with Tennis Raquettes after he sees that Jackie's only human and can't fight fist vs. sai. Oh, and when Jackie rolled over the table, why did he have a double? It was obvious, the guy had short hair, and I thought it was Kurata (who was fighting in the same cut, so that's impossible), but I think it was Chin Kar Lok again because it looked like his head.

Biao and Chung Fa fight at the end, and every second of this short fight is great. I love watching it. They do kickboxing, then wing chun. Biao does a kick to remember as well, as you can get from the clip on my Movie Stunts Page, where he jumps up, kicks across with his left leg, Fa leans back, so Biao says, "Ok, I'll just go down with my right leg," and comes down with his other heel on Fa's stomach. Impressive. And their wing chun looked good too, very fast. But their fight was too short, much too short.

A good movie, but lacking in action. I love the humor, so it deserves a good rating.

8/10

UPDATE 10/9 - Rating System Change

4/5

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