How to Meet the Lucky Stars
A little rusty and a little creaky, the boys are
called back into service one more time in this the last of the Lucky Star
series. The first in the series Winners and Sinners came out in 1983
and the series is certainly showing its age here. The film was made for
good purposes though the proceeds were to go to the old time director
Lo Wei but he actually died before the film was completed.
The film just has very little energy and very
few laughs going for it. In the first three films in the series even if
the humor was at times questionable, the action always more than made up
for it. In this one though without Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and only a few
cameos from Sammo, the action falls flat as well. What it still does have
going for it though is some of the old chemistry and the presence of a
few old war horses Stanley Fung, Richard Ng, Eric Tsang and Walter Cho
and some new blood in the presence of the very sexy Francoise Yip.
Police Chief Walter Cho calls the boys together
Sammo plays two roles one as a cop, the other as the old character
in the hospital with a broken leg to get revenge on the Gambling Flower.
During a professional gambling tournament, she cheated and destroyed the
life of Chos brother who went bankrupt and killed himself. The boys along
with Yip spend the first half of the film in training for the big gambling
match but as usual they spend as much time chasing after Yip. This strain
of lechery was silly thirteen years ago now it has gone into the realm
of the absurd. Whats a bit amusing though is that the boys think that
Yip is the daughter of the dead brother but is in fact Miss China City
a high class prostitute but the boys cant even get lucky with her!
The Gambling Flower has one weakness a liking
for tomboys and they use the real daughter as bait. That all gets a bit
serious for a film like this as she is caught (after sleeping with Flower!)
and injected with heroin. Finally the big gambling showdown takes place
and the pace of the film picks up a bit.
The film just wanders all over the place with
little pace and little interest. Sammo does have a few small action scenes
in his cameos a real tough one with his nurse Diana Pang Dang ! but
nothing like in the older films.
My rating for this film: 5.5
