Du cheng feng yun III (2016) Reviews

• Despite the star power, this third instalment of Wong Jing's gambling-themed franchise is lazily scripted, messily directed and no more than overblown, over-the-top nonsense

  moviexclusive2016-02-05

  From Chow Yun Fat's Ko Chun to Andy Lau's Michael Chan to Chow Yun Fat's more recent Ken Shek, three generations of gambling legends unite in the third instalment of Wong Jing's 'From Vegas to Macau' franchise; and how perfectly apt really, since it was from the prolific mind of Wong Jing that these iconic characters of Hong Kong cinema were hatched and etched into the public consciousness. Yet, as befitting as it may be for him to be at the helm of this reunion party, it is also ironically the reason why we are quite so utterly disappointed at this lazily scripted, messily directed piece of overblown, over-the-top nonsense which Wong Jing is passing off as a fun Lunar New Year caper. Not that the previous two chapters, which saw Chow Yun-Fat portray Ken as a playful and even zany riff on his 1980s 'God of Gamblers' character, were classics; yet imperfect and at least mildly shambling as they were, 'From Vegas to Macau' and 'From Vegas to Macau 2' were a boisterous mix of kinetic action and goofy humour buoyed by Chow's effortless screen charm. That charisma is sorely lacking in this bloated follow-up – given how Ken is joined not only by Nick Cheung's former D.O.A. accountant Mark, but also his master Ko Chun's disciple Michael (Lau), Michael's no-nonsense partner Kitty (Li Yuchun), a new nemesis named J.C. (Jacky Cheung) and last but not least a female equivalent to his male robo-butler named Skinny that the latter unsurprisingly takes a romantic interest in. Continuing on the downward trajectory set by its immediate predecessor from the original, the sorry excuse of a plot that picks up from the events of the former has the love-crazed J.C. plotting to exact revenge on Ken for leaving Molly (Carina Lau) in her current comatose state. So J.C. detonates a bomb in the form of a robot designed to look like Michael at Ken's daughter's wedding (Kimmy Tong), and sets Ken and Nick up to look like they stole the US$15 million they recovered from Molly's international criminal organisation D.O.A. in the last instalment. Thanks to Michael and Kitty, Ken and Nick manage to break out of a high-security prison in Hong Kong, where they seek refuge in Michael's home in Singapore before going to a fictional island named Paradise Island in Thailand to confront J.C. To nitpick at Wong Jing's script for his story is perhaps missing the point; after all, Wong Jing makes no attempt to disguise that it exists merely as narrative glue to connect standalone gags to action-heavy set-pieces. Yet even more than the last sequel, this one presumes audience goodwill in overlooking the gaping holes and lapses of logic in its plotting. Unfortunately, there is little quid pro quo in our willingness to suspend disbelief. Compared to the previous instalments, there are a grand total of three gags that work here – the first which has Ken lead his fellow inmates on a sing-along of the classic 'Prison on Fire' song 'The Light of Friendship' (友誼之光) at the prison where no less than the song's Macanese singer and songwriter Maria Cordero is the warden; the second which has a traumatised Ken regard himself as Zhang Wuji and his friends as other 'Jin Yong' characters after watching a classic adaptation of 'The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber'; and the last which sees Michael and Kitty play a game of mahjong with Yuen Qiu and Lo Hoi Pang to the tune of Sam Hui's classic 'The Mahjong Heroes' (or '打雀英雄傳'). As much as we love to see Chow Yun-Fat, Andy Lau and Nick Cheung clowning around with each other, the rest of the gags are tired, forced and uninspired, so much so that the middle act set in Michael's house passes by like a slog. Only the surprise appearance by Law Kar-Ying as an ammo expert by the name of 'Only Yu' (you either get the joke or you don't) enlivens the proceedings, though after that initial tongue-in-cheek name-play, Wong Jing can't even seem to follow through with anything amusing. Seemingly aware of his audience's tedium, co-director Andrew Lau over-compensates in the last act with an excess of gunfire, pyrotechnics and CGI. Instead of actual locations, Lau has opted to build a number of grand sets to make up J.C's elaborate underground lair, most of which he then proceeds to blow up in slo-mo theatrical fashion after equally dramatic shoot-outs. Still, the action hardly excites, and is often over in a blur. The only two sequences which leave an impression – but for the wrong reasons – are a completely gratuitous one where Lau unleashes his 'Michael Bay' ambitions by letting Robot Stupid and Robot Skinny take on four evil robots in 'Transformers' fashion before Nick Cheung turns into 'Iron Man' to finish them off, and a totally cringe-worthy showdown between Ken and J.C. in the latter's (literally) highly charged laboratory where Jacky Cheung gets to show off his best 'Harry Potter' wand-waving impersonation before Carina Lau miraculously emerges from her coma to end everything off on yet another melodramatic note. Despite the high-profile additions of Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung, 'From Vegas to Macau 3' is easily the weakest entry of the series, no thanks to a shambolic plot, imbecilic gags, and incoherent action. What fun we had watching Chow Yun-Fat reprise his role as Ko Chun and his hyperactive doppelganger Ken is sorely watered down here, as Wong Jing spreads his time amongst the other key players and even plays down his role. Instead of honouring the legacy of his past screen creations, Wong Jing does them an absolute disservice and even disgrace by bringing them together without meaning or motivation. There is only so much nostalgia can get you, and it is too easy to recognise all that star-power as bluff.

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• Full of disappointment

  www-811-1677552016-02-07

  yes it have so many "STARS". From Chow Yun-Fat, Andy Lau, Nick Cheung to even PSY. But the storyline is just painfully awful. Totally waste of money. All the jokes are 70's/80's. Clearly the director and screenwriter are run out of creativity. Those jokes are just too old. They are no longer funny at all. And I don't think people who haven't watch the previous HK gambling movie series are able to get the joke. Finally I think Chow Yun-Fat and Nick Cheung them have already did what they can do. But the story and jokes were just unacceptable. That's why it only have a 1 star.

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• Excellent actors, Terrible movie

  armstrongyong2016-02-09

  As a Chinese, I watched this movie when having my Chinese New Year holiday. Before I enter the cinema, I know that the movie won't be live up to the hype. And after I finished watching this movie, I feel that my time and money is already wasted for this f**king movie. I should have stay at my home instead of watching this f**king movie. And here's the reasons I hate this movie way much more worse than I expected: 1. The plot is messy and make no sense. Yeah I know that this is suppose to be a comedy movie, but the jokes are not funny and the pointless plot make the jokes even more unpleasant to hear. 2. What? Robot romance? Machine Guns? I thought that this is suppose to be a movie about gambling? 3. Awful dialogue ,writing and acting. Don't get me wrong, I like to see various popular Chinese stars like Andy Lau, ChowYun Fatt and Jacky Cheung have interaction at each other in a movie, but the awful dialogue and writing totally ruined their performance in this f**king movie. As a conclusion, I must say that this movie is a total piece of utter garbage and nobody should ever waste their time and money on this f**king movie. Movie fans deserved to watch better movie that this f**king movie. Avoid it at all cost.

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• Beyond Bad

  nobodycared2016-02-26

  I would give a zero if I could. This has got to be the worst movie I've ever watched in my entire life. The whole movie is soulless, tasteless and detestable. I almost felt insulted after watching it. The producer and crew had no respect to their audience. The plot was empty and sloppy, the camera work was like a cheesy 80s TV show, the acting was amateur. One of the actors simply didn't have any facial expressions throughout the movie. I went in with low expectation but I was still stunned by how bad it was. They couldn't even get simple shootings done right. The few action scenes were badly shot and look completely unrealistic. Hidden ads are no longer hidden, they are dumped right to your face blatantly without any disguise. That is the most shameless "hidden ad" I've seen in movies. The movie producer really cared about nothing but making a cheap movie to roll in whatever money they can get. Shame on them!

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• Worst movie ever

  musibi2016-02-13

  This movie might have top echelon actors from Hong Kong but the script and directing are worst ever. There is no story line and it fails miserably on trying to be funny. Don't waste your time on watching it. I'd rather watching paint dry. Not sure why Chow Yun Fat and Andy Lau even bothered with this movie. I guess the studio paid them well and they didn't care. Or the director thinks Hong Kong people are so pathetic that they will pay to watch this crap. Last of but the least. How on the earth this movie got 200 million RMB box office in China is beyond me.

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