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97
ACES GO PLACES
AKA:
Aces Go Places 6 ||
Aces Go Places 1997
Year:
1997 Reviewer: Andrew
Saroch
Writer
Raymond Wong attempts to take the landmark early 80s 'Aces
Go Places' films and give them a late 90s update. This
time, the star is another Cantopop singer/actor Alan Tam who
is backed up with an all-star cast and a series of 'in-jokes'
aimed at the knowing local audience. It proves, of course, not
to be a patch on the original classic.
With
the death of his criminal patriarch, cowardly son Philag (Tam)
is called back from his studies in the U.S. to head the family
organisation and avenge the death of his father. The supposed
killer is Robin Hood style superthief Ling (Chung) who is also
being chased by highly eccentric gangster Lui (Ng) - the
victim of one of her outrageous cons. As Philag is hardly
assassin material, his family hire drunken marksman Shooter
(Leung) to train the potential godfather to fulfil his task.
While Philag stalks his target, he falls deeply in love with
her and also discovers that she was not responsible for his
father's murder. These moments of romance are naturally put to
one side when all singing, all dancing madman Lui finally
captures Ling and plots his revenge.
Despite
a promising pre-credits sequence, '97 Aces Go Places' plummets
to the levels of mediocrity shortly thereafter. The first
taste of how the duration would pan out is when the soundtrack
begins to play over the credits; the well-loved Samuel Hui
ditty is given an uncomfortable and unwelcome re-mix that
grates against those enjoyable feelings of nostalgia. From
this point onwards, the attempt to re-create what made the
original series so entertaining falls flat.
Though
some have tried to argue that the premise of the original
'Aces Go Places' is too 'dated' to translate to its updated
era, the real problem is that this homage lacks all of the exuberant
spirit that made its inspiration such fun. While Hui and Maka
tackled ludicrous thieves with a mixture of ingenuity and a
dash of surrealism, the lead pair here stumble through the
plot without generating interest. Alan Tam is an able
performer, but looks uncomfortable playing a role that seems
to be ten years too young for him - a mistake that is parodied
in one of the film's few successful jokes. Tam is easily
superior to the usually dependable Tony Leung Chiu Wai though;
his blank performance gives some indication of his actual
interest in its outcome. Such a zany film needs its lead
pairing to be on top form and work around any deficiencies,
but this task proves to be beyond their half-hearted efforts.
The
cardinal sin that the film commits is to force its comedy and,
when this proves unsuccessful, pick on easy targets for
'humour'; a strange and distasteful joke at the expensive of
two disabled characters is a little indication of how low
things get. Even though there are few bright spots - namely
Francis Ng's surreal rendition of the theme from 'Police
Story' and Christy Chung's fight with Billy Chow! - it's
sad to report that '97 Aces Go Places' has little to recommend
it. Even though I was eager to like the film and the trailer
helped make this seem a possibility, this is a major
disappointment - even for the most forgiving fans of the
Samuel Hui/Karl Maka classic.
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