SYNOPSIS:
Thomas and David are two quick-witted vendors hawking
Chinese fast food from their truck in the busy squares of
Barcelona. Their acquaintance with beautiful pickpocket, Sylvia
brings them in contact with novice detective Moby who is trying
to track her whereabouts. Sylvia is actually a wealthy heiress
kidnapped by the evil count who is trying to siphon off her
inheritance. The trio puts a spanner in the count's plans
and rescue Sylvia.
MOVIE REVIEW:
You got to admit they don’t make movies liked “Wheels
On Meals” anymore. The HK movie industry on the whole
and also the famous trio, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen
Biao. Ironically not even the trio can out beat themselves.
Filmed
entirely in Spain for duration of 4 months, “Wheels
On Meals” marks the first official collaboration between
the 3 opera troupe brothers after Jackie Chan’s “Project
A”. Directed by Sammo, “Wheels On Meals”
brings the usual HK slapstick humour and their trademark action
stunts to the faraway European region.
JC
and Yuen Biao plays two mobile vendors who operate their food
business from a slick, custom-fitted Mitsubishi van on the
streets of Barcelona. Sammo on the other hand is a fumbling
wannabe private detective who is hired to find the missing
heir of a rich Count. These 3 friends coincidentally are being
dragged to protect the heir from her treacherous uncle who
is after the family’s fortune.
Of
course, there’s seldom a case of too many storylines
to follow. In a Sammo and JC’s fronted movie, the fans
are more concerned about the action bits to worry about the
former. The action is less hardcore, more leisurely choreographed
and acrobatically fun this time round. Yuen’s scene
of jumping from the balcony and landing on his butt in one
take is a classic achievement.
With
such a nice, eye-catching Mitsubishi van in a movie, it will
be a waste to let it off without a car chase. Looking at the
enemies’ blockish-looking cars (this is the 80’s
mind you) flipping and tossing on the roads is like watching
a live-cartoon show. Our fave van has her share of glory moment
as well, flying itself across a highway into a truckload of
fruits.
The late Blackie Ko has a rather funny cameo as a motorcyclist
thug and Richard Ng, John Sham and Wu Ma hammed it up as a
couple of lunatics. After so many years of repeated viewing,
Beauty Queen Lola Forner who plays the missing heiress still
looks out-of-place with that cheesy Cantonese dubbing in fact
the entire Western cast had a Canto dub-over that deprived
the actual spontaneous fun. Fortunately, the storyline and
comic timing is well controlled and Sammo did a great job
blending the jokes and action into a tight 108 minutes.
The
moment you have been waiting for is the finale fight which
took place in a castle-like environment. Sammo has his hands
occupied fencing (which Yuen in the interview admits it's
a mix of Chinese swordplay) with the treacherous uncle, due
to Yuen’s character being slightly goofy, he has a great
time showing off his acrobatic abilities jumping and somersaulting
all around trying to escape his opponent. The meat of the
pie as usual goes to JC. Strenuous and physically more demanding
than the rest, he has to face off Benny Urquidez (a real martial-arts
expert) in a brutal hand-to-hand combat.
With great chemistry the cast ignited, action sets and exotic
location shoot, “Wheels On Meals” sets the standard
so high that no other HK movies (till now) have managed to
topple. And that was in 1984. Almost 23 years later, we are
still hoping to see another “Wheels On Meals”.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Far more interesting of course are the interviews. First up
is “Sammo Interview”, in his halting English;
he talks about his working relationships with Jackie and Yuen
Biao and also the current state of HK cinema.
It’s
surprisingly to hear lots of informative snippets from the
low-profile Yuen Biao. He laments the lack of tatami to soften
the impact when they land on grounds in those days of filming.
And he was also the stand-in for the fencer in the finale
of the movie. Amazingly, none of them had any knowledge of
fencing, they have to use self-taught videos as a guide prior
to the shoot!
Some NG shots, trailers and photo gallery round up the DVD.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Consider
the age of the source, this remastered version scores in the
visual department. Colours are bright and there are no visible
specks of dirt to distract you.
The
only sequences that make full use of the surround track are
the fight with the motorcyclist thugs and the car chase that
happened in the middle of the movie. I guess a good surround
track is secondary when you can watch the trio fight in their
best form.
MOVIE
RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review
by Linus Tee
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