| The series starts to show its age with this installment,
which pits King Kong and Kodojak versus an evil cartel out
to steal a super soldier experiment. King Kong is the guinea
pig for the experiment headed by wacky scientist Roy Chiao.
When the evil terrorists attack, King Kong escapes with Roy’s
daughter Sally (Sally Yeh), as well as the primary piece of
the contraption: a small prism.
After the requisite chase, King Kong
returns to Hong Kong where he enlists the help of Kodojak/Baldy/Albert
(Karl Maka) who’s still enjoying his strange family life with
wife Hot Tongue (Sylvia Chang) and son Baldy Jr. (Wong Ka-Ming).
However, the evil bastards track them to HK where they endanger
Baldy Jr. and eventually kidnap Hot Tongue in an effort to
ransom her for the prism.
Sally shows up in HK chasing King Kong,
who she now calls “Husband.” After that comic jewel sinks
in, the whole gang (including Baldy Jr.) hightail it to New
Zealand to rescue Hot Tongue and confront the nefarious head
bad guy: Ronald Lacey, better known as Toht from Raiders
of the Lost Ark. While he’s busy showing off the same
scar that he sported in that movie, the film goes all wacky
as Baldy becomes the latest super soldier guinea pig - which
leads to his supposed death and a bunch of emoting that’s
best left to other movies.
Ringo Lam directed this installment,
but of course it’s just commercial crap that channels nada
Ringo Lam. The action is better mounted this time, but the
novelty of the series has clearly worn out. While Sam Hui
was charming in the first couple of films, his shtick has
grown smarmy. The most amusing thing in this movie is probably
Baldy Jr., who has his share of mind-boggling kid stunts.
This is an OK diversion that brandishes a bigger budget and
more foreign locations - which only serve to emphasize the
cheap, shallow nature of the series’ comedy. Don’t get me
wrong: I like the Aces Go Places movies. I just didn’t
like this one. (Kozo 1998) |
