04-04-2020, 05:49 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-04-2020, 05:51 PM by TM2YC. Edited 1 time in total.)
Tiger on the Beat (1988)
Right from the canto-pop title song (in the style of songs like 'Eye of the Tiger') you know this Chow Yun-fat action-comedy is going to be fun, in a 'Bad Boys' type of way. Unlike his other serious action-hero roles, Chow plays a fairly lackluster underachieving cop, who even p*sses his pants in an early scene when a baddie puts a gun to his head. He gets partnered with a muscle-bound overachieving cop in the Jackie Chan mold (I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to get Chan to play the part) and they get mixed up with the sister of a drug trafficker. After an hour of delightfully wacky action there is a bizarre scene where our two lighthearted comedy "heroes" decide to really violently beat her up because she won't stop crying about her dead brother. What the f*ck?! It's like we've cut to a different movie where the same two actors are playing evil b*stards and I think the scene is actually supposed to be funny?! The madcap stunt-filled car chase that happens right after is so good it almost erases what just happened from your memory. Except in the scene after that she is suddenly madly in love with Chow and cooking a celebratory double-date banquet for him, his sister and his new partner (with the scars from her beating still on her face). The last 20-minutes is a hurricane of choreographed Hong Kong action violence. It keeps ramping up the mayhem from Kung fu, guns, and guns as clubs, to shotguns, shotguns on ropes, knives, bayonets and climaxes with an insane chainsaw duel. One of the greatest things I've ever seen. If you edited out that offensive abuse scene in the middle, you'd have a real OTT comedy gem.
Lovin' this theme song:
Right from the canto-pop title song (in the style of songs like 'Eye of the Tiger') you know this Chow Yun-fat action-comedy is going to be fun, in a 'Bad Boys' type of way. Unlike his other serious action-hero roles, Chow plays a fairly lackluster underachieving cop, who even p*sses his pants in an early scene when a baddie puts a gun to his head. He gets partnered with a muscle-bound overachieving cop in the Jackie Chan mold (I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to get Chan to play the part) and they get mixed up with the sister of a drug trafficker. After an hour of delightfully wacky action there is a bizarre scene where our two lighthearted comedy "heroes" decide to really violently beat her up because she won't stop crying about her dead brother. What the f*ck?! It's like we've cut to a different movie where the same two actors are playing evil b*stards and I think the scene is actually supposed to be funny?! The madcap stunt-filled car chase that happens right after is so good it almost erases what just happened from your memory. Except in the scene after that she is suddenly madly in love with Chow and cooking a celebratory double-date banquet for him, his sister and his new partner (with the scars from her beating still on her face). The last 20-minutes is a hurricane of choreographed Hong Kong action violence. It keeps ramping up the mayhem from Kung fu, guns, and guns as clubs, to shotguns, shotguns on ropes, knives, bayonets and climaxes with an insane chainsaw duel. One of the greatest things I've ever seen. If you edited out that offensive abuse scene in the middle, you'd have a real OTT comedy gem.
Lovin' this theme song: