ej's kung-fu capsule review for films of the chop-socky old-school. - 1. basic plot type - school vs. school.
2. plot construction - So-so. It's easy to follow, but doesn't amount to much.
3. dramatic - No.
4. funny - Occasionally; the old petty thief who's Wong Tao's side-kick and comic relief does a credible job of it.
5. dialog - So-so.
6. cast performance - Pretty good, for this type of ersatz genre film sequel.
7. crew performance - Competent, but never more than this.
8. amount of fighting - Plenty 9. quality of fighting - generally disappointing - way too gimmicky - for instance, the old thief is a coward, but if you pull his whiskers he suddenly becomes a berserk kung fu master (yeah, sure!). And while Wong Tao turns in one of his better acting performances, his fight performance is sub-par - very rigid and mechanistic.
10. special any cast or crew notes - Not really; although it's a strange choice to show flashbacks to the original SiES film with Jackie Chan and pretend that Wong Tao is Chan's character all grown up, since Wong doesn't look in the least bit like Chan.
11. big positive - The performance of the actor playing the old petty thief is very amusing.
12. big negative - Clear that nobody here had a clue as to what made the first film successful.
bottom-line - who should see this movie - 'fu film completists and Wong tao fans.
