Millionaires' Express

East meets West certainly isn’t a new idea for the martial arts genre.  The structure of most kung fu films bump through the wagon ruts of classic western cliches and high noon showdowns anyway.  But Millionaires’ Express (1986) takes things a step further, creating a comedy mash-up of simultaneous stick-ups and hijackings all stuffed under writer / director Sammo Hung’s ridiculous 10-gallon hat.

 Ching Fong-tin (Hung) is an outlaw with a heart of gold returning to his hometown with a plan to derail the Millionaires’ Express and funnel all the big spenders into his hometown.  But there are other agendas at work, including a bank hold up and international heist, all ignorantly competing with one another.  Toss in a group of ambitious hookers and an overeager local police force and the stage is set for a Blazing Saddles finale with some Shanghai style.

 

Next to Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung is probably the most likable figure in Hong Kong cinema.  So most fans would probably be willing to give the scattershot plot of Millionaires’ Express a good deal of slack.  After all, it’s supposed to be a convoluted comedy of errors punctuated with some amazing stunts and fast-paced action. But those punctuations are very few and far between, with the first genuine fight sequence coming at one hour into the film’s running time.  Juggling too many characters – with too many boring backstories – Hung’s film gets hung up on uninteresting subplots and melodrama when it should be showing audience’s a good time.

 

The final 20-minutes will certainly win back their attention, featuring a bruising series of fight scenes, including Japanese samurai swords and a mobile gatling gun, that highlights Hung’s direction at its finest.  The film not only pays homage to Hollywood westerns, but finds inspiration from classic musicals, choreographing the comedy and kung fu with equal measures of visual inventiveness. But this is one trip that just makes too many stops along the way, overstuffing the plot with more detours than it can handle.

 

Arrow Video’s two-disc limited-edition Blu-ray sports a new 2K restoration that blows the old Dragon Dynasty release out of the water and includes four (yes four!) versions of the film, the lengthiest being a “hybrid” edit that combines elements of all the Hong Kong and international cuts.  Extras are piled on too, like a trio of commentary tracks (even one from co-star Cynthia Rothrock), new and archival interviews, a fold-out poster and illustrated collector’s booklet.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembo...
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there...
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annab...
Read more