How to Meet the Lucky Stars
Director: Frankie Chan
Year: 1996
Rating: 5.5
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 it’s 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 Cho’s 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. What’s 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 can’t
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.
