1987 - EASTERN CONDORS, non stop action film

Sammo Hung along with his buddy Yuen Biao star in this fast paced and action packed war film.  The inspiration for this film was clearly Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen.  You can't say they exactly ripped off that film but the similarities are shall we say remarkable.

Sammo is a member of an elite United States Army unit which consists of a group of army prisoners promised a pardon if they go on a dangerous mission to destroy a North Vietnamese military base.  Sound familiar?  What this film is really about it Sammo staging lots of amazing actions scenes as only those Hong Kong stunt guys could do even though they look and probably are really dangerous.

As previously stated along for the ride was Sammo's buddy Yuen Bian who along with Jackie Chan had been trained in martial arts and acrobatics at the "Peking Opera School."  The three of them became part of a group called "Seven Little Fortunes," a touring theatrical company.  From there they all eventually ended up in the Hong Kong film world and the rest as they say is Hong Kong action movie history.

 

Eastern Condors has been accused as being an anti American film. But the criticism of the United States is so mild that it's almost impossible to detect.  I've seem more anti American films financed by major American studios in such films as Three Days of the Condor, Enemy of the State, Dances With Wolves, Little Big Man and Wag the Dog that are a lot more critical of the United States than the mild knocks on this country that are in this film.

If you are a big fan of action movies, Eastern Condors should satisfy you.

The film was written by Barry Wong, the running time is 100 minutes.

1978 - WARRIORS 2, Sammo Hung's slam bang action/comedy film

Another mix of that odd humor and martial arts action that came out of Asia for a while.  The actor/director and writer Sammo Hung has made a deceptively simple action film.

Warriors 2 starts out with a lot of goofy Sammo humor.  Sammo is attempting to sell pork balls or something.  After a lot of lame comedy the film settles down into a sort of revenge flick with Sammo and his friend Cashier Hua attempting to bring to justice a corrupt mayor who has killed Hua's mother. The film contains a long and interesting training sequence where Kung Fu master Mr. Tsan an expert on  the Wing Chun art of fighting, trains Cashier Hua for the big fight climax that the film has been building to.

 

But the reality is nobody watching this film is tuning in for the plot.  Bring on the fighting.  The last 30 to 40 minutes of Warriors 2 is a lengthy fight scene which is quite exciting to watch and extremely impressive as a piece of action cinema.

 

Running time on this film is 90 skull pounding minutes.

1980 - ENCOUNTERS OF THE SPOOKY KIND, trend setting horror, action, comedy

Actor, director and co writer Sammo Hung practically invents the martial arts horror film with this rather idiotic comedy.  Sammo plays a man doing battle with ghosts in a haunted house while simultaneously dealing with a cheating wife.

The film has lots of very silly scenes and for such a famous film, it plays a lot more goofy than I was expecting. The film ends with Sammo being possessed by a monkey god while he fights his wife's lover who is also possessed by some ancient Chinese warrior. 

 

There's lots of fighting towards the end of the film and a lot of it is just really foolish even for my low brow taste. I know that a lot of these Asian action films like to combine humor with action but in this case "oh come on."

Sammo Hung is a very talented guy and the film was a big hit for him so this probably puts me in the minority opinion on this film.  The film was written by Sammo and Huang Ying, the running time is 98 minutes.

1997 - MR NICE GUY, non stop action from Jackie Chan

Lots of action and beautiful women with a silly plot to sort of tie it together.  This is Jackie Chan and director Sammo Hung at their peak.

Jackie is a television chef who used to be a cop,  He gets involved with a reporter who has a video tape which incriminates some drug dealers.  Start the action which doesn't let up for 101 minutes.

As usual Jackie does a lot of his own stunts.  The humor is kind of silly also as usual but the action is extremely impressive.

 

Written by Edward Tang and Ma Fibe, but don't go looking for any deep characterization or plotting. The running time is 101 minutes.