Thursday, December 7, 2017

The Odd Couple (1979)

Original title: Bo Ming Chan Dao Duo Ming Qiang

Director: Chia Yung Liu

Writers: Raymond Bak-Ming Wong, Raymond C. Lai

Composer: Frankie Chan

Starring: Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Ka-Yan Leung, Chia Yung Liu, Lung Chan, Fat Chung, Ha Huang, Ching-Ying Lam

More info: IMDb

Plot: The titular 'Odd Couple' are Sammo (King of Sabres) and Lau Kar Wing (King of Spears). They compete regularly against each other but every encounter results in a draw! Both decide to recruit young pupils and train them up. The late entry of the real villain, the smoldering Laughing Bandit who sports a big scar, has an even bigger grudge against the Kings of Sabres and Spear.



My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again?  Oh, hell no.

That recent trailer above makes this look like art compared to the actual film.  What it fails to show is the utter Saturday morning cartoon characters and slapstick nature of just about the whole movie.  The extensive comedy is aimed at very small children.  It's just awful.  The Three Stooges had more class than this.  The English dub makes it worse.  The voices are whiny, nasally, and mostly high pitched.  And it's obvious that this dub track was made in the 90s as there's a fucking Spice Girls reference of all things.  But it's not the voice actors that make this so bad...





See what I mean?  It's extremely rare that I turn a movie off and never finish.  I wanted to on this so badly it was a mental exercise to keep it going.  I at least watched this while working on other things but it was in front of me the whole time.  I do have something good to say and that's the fight choreography is very good.  The final battle with the baddie is fantastic and gravely serious.  Skip to the last twenty minutes if you don't want the goofy, cartoony face bullshit. 

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