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Review
by Kozo: |
As the millennium dawns, a new Gambling Hero arrives
on the screen: Louis Koo. As Cool, Louis is the successor
to Andy Lau’s Knight of Gamblers, and he handles himself
well, showing intensity and presence. Surprisingly,
Nick Cheung is quite good as official sidekick Jersey.
As for the movie, it’s the typical mishmash of action
and comedy, though the plot this time is especially
predictable.
Jersey is a wacky triad guy
who hangs out in bowling alleys with his saucy girlfriend
Christy Chung. On their vacation to Japan they run into
Cool, who’s now a low-key restaurant owner. Jersey is
dismayed that his idol is hawking sushi instead of making
bank at the gambling tables. He vows to bring Cool back,
but soon learns the true nature of Cool’s self-imposed
exile.
Cool is watching over his ex-girlfriend Yan (Athena
Chu) who’s now married to his rival, the evil Lam Kwok-Bun.
Yan is also a vegetable, thanks to a bullet meant for
Cool at her wedding. Though Cool’s guilt keeps him from
returning to his gambling ways, he does eventually get
dragged back thanks to the chicanery of his archenemy,
as well as the pleas of Jersey and Japanese gambler
Yasuaki Kurata.
What this all means is absolutely
zip, but the whole thing is fluffy fun and features a couple
new twists to the tried-and-true formula. Cool has the
amazing ability to use playing cards as weapons, and
thanks to jazzy CG effects he wields cards like a ninja
master. Still, that novelty can only last so long and
when all is said and done, there isn’t much here that
hasn’t been done before. It’s nice to see Ching Siu-Tung
back behind the camera, though.
(Kozo 2000) |
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