adonis98-743-186503 When a spate of eerie murders erupts across HK two troublemaking cops are assigned to the case. Young WANG and grizzled vet HUANG who is fed up with his reckless younger partner always landing them in hot water. Reaching a dead end after discovering all the victims were former boyfriends of aspiring starlet LIU, the detectives must play a deadly game. Badges of Fury is a letdown and horrible goofy action comedy that wastes Jet Li's talent in a role that completely makes him look like a cartoon character in a movie that is beyond awful.. (0/10)

Derek Childs (totalovrdose) Despite the cover of Badges of Fury depicting a massive explosion in the background of the two protagonists, never do fireballs grace the screen of this action-comedy. Moreover, despite taking up dominant space on the cover, Jet Li is not the main character in this film. Though there are a couple of scenes where he produces the kind of entertaining martial arts moves he is most notable for, there are other occasions when he is entirely absent from the story altogether, appearing in cameo roles to support the progression of the plot.Wang Bu'er (Zhang Wen) is a young detective, and despite been partnered up with the grizzled Huang Feihong (Li), he learns nothing from his renowned partner. Though occasionally receiving advice from Feihong, Bu'er is largely arrogant, believing himself to be superior, and blaming the constant failures he is responsible for on other members of the squad, especially the fairer sex. Angela (Michelle Chen) is the detective in charge, though is continuously under Bu'er's scrutiny, and despite his attitude, can't shake the feelings she has for him. Chen is perhaps one of the funniest members of the cast, and takes to the humorous lines well, though at the same time, sacrificing professionalism for immaturity.At the film's beginning, an undercover operation goes hopelessly wrong when Bu'er jeopardizes everything upon setting his sights upon Chen Hu (Colin Chou), an antagonist from his past, who manages to slip through his fingers. Though viewers may suspect this particular plot would continue throughout, it is immediately abandoned in exchange for a case concerning the inexplicable deaths of several men. The introduction of this case is quite humorous, with each of the victims dying with a smile on their faces. It is later revealed each victim had one person in common - their former girlfriend, Liu Jin Shui (Liu Shishi), an up and coming actress looking for her big break, who at the same time is crushed beneath the despair of losing every man she loves, while being equally hurt by her older sister, Dai Yiyi (Yan Liu).Liu (the actress, not the character) portrays an unconventional femme fatale, her role, alongside the twists the story takes, making it surprisingly difficult for the audience to comprehend who the antagonist responsible for the many deaths is. As Bu'er struggles with the feelings he has for Shui (safe to say a love triangle begins to form), he begins to suspect that perhaps the only way to catch the culprit, is to put himself in harm's way, by going undercover as her new paramour.Although Shui is a convincingly sympathetic character, and despite the film attempting an emotional connection with the audience, lack of character development prohibits this. Though the film deserves kudos for its ability to maintain the mysteriousness of the lead antagonist until the end of the feature, Badges of Fury works best as a comedy, however, the slapstick nature of many of the laughs does take away from any seriousness the film attempts to make. Furthermore, some of the laughs generated during character interactions may go over the heads of some western audiences, who are unfamiliar with Chinese culture, one such example being, how an unmarried woman, 28 years or older, is considered peculiar.Although the fight scenes are enjoyable to watch, it is Wen who steals the show, these moments, alongside the scenes when he is deducing evidence, making him a reliable protagonist, which is quite the contradiction, as he spends half the film being very unreliable. The behavior by those portraying the police seems to be unrealistic in contrast with professional stereotypes, and can therefore make following the film a little difficult. Though one cannot deny the fun audiences will potentially receive from viewing the film (not to mention the number of times jaws will drop at the sight of all the beautiful women), Badges of Fury lacks a certain authenticity for it to be taken seriously, or, at least, appreciated for its story-line.

Tweekums When a series of strange deaths occur the Hong Kong police suspect murder. Taken individually each looks like a tragic accident but each man died with a fixed smile on his face and each of their funerals was attended by the same woman. The case is taken by a trio of detectives; impulsive Wang Bu Er; older Huang Fei Hong, who is a master of kung-fu and Angela, their sergeant. Their first suspect is the woman at the funerals; actress Liu Jin Shui. She had dated each of the dead men and they had each left her. Her sister, Dai Yiyi, is suspected too; each of the men had moved on to her… indeed her feminine charms are noticed by just about every man who sets eyes on her. As the case progresses more suspects arise and there will be quite a few fights before the case is solved.Anybody watching this expecting lots of top quality martial arts action or realism is likely to be disappointed… especially as that is what the DVD cover promises… it may say 'Genre: action/martial arts' on the box but this is a comedy plain and simple. What martial arts we see is 'enhanced' with unbelievable CGI… we certainly don't get the stunning choreography of a Jackie Chan movie or the wire-work of wuxia films. Once one has got over that it is possible to enjoy this film as a slap stick comedy. Another surprise is that Jet Li isn't the lead actor; that is Wen Zhang. The cast do a decent enough job; although it is sometimes hard to tell overacting from part of the deliberate comedy. The case isn't the most gripping; it really just serves to link the series of comedy moments. These vary from laugh-out-loud funny to cringe inducing. As stated before the action features a fair amount of CGI and this is the films biggest let down; it doesn't look real enough… the opening which should grab the viewer's attention merely made me wonder why I was watching! Overall if you want a silly action comedy it is fun enough and it is probably suitable for anybody old enough to read the subtitles… although some viewers might find the camera's fascination with Dai Yiyi's impressive cleavage a bit too much!These comments are based on watching in Mandarin with English subtitles.

kluseba "Badges of Fury" is a short and fast paced action comedy movie which is certainly entertaining but overall disappointingly superficial. The movie has a clever marketing strategy and includes many cameos by famous Chinese stars which include not only actors but also sportsmen for example. The longest cameo includes Jet Li who appears from time to time in this movie but doesn't really play an important role as the trailers might suggest. Even when he's there, his acting is wooden and lifeless and this could be considered his worst movie ever and I'm saying this as a big fan who has watched almost all of his movies. The film is also a parody of several Hongkong blockbusters from the last thirty years. Some of the insinuations are funny, for example when the main characters coincidentally capture a fashion icon who is behind online piracy acts. Most jokes are though either silly in a very childish way when we get to hear weird cartoon noises during some action scenes and overacted reactions by some of the characters. These ridiculous noises that seem to be taken off some old Looney Tunes episodes are overused in the first half of the movie and get completely dropped in the second part. Other jokes are simply sexual innuendos as we get to see many close-ups of Liu Yan's big breasts which get a lot of attention from female and male characters throughout the entire film. In general, men are mostly portrayed as dumb and superficial machos while women are mostly portrayed as silly sexual objects. I'm someone who likes to laugh a lot and this includes dirty and slapstick humour but this kind of silly rehashed comedy is nothing but embarrassing.The action scenes are quite a mixed bag. Most of them are voluntarily exaggerated and feature massive CGI effects that kill any kind of charm that the parodied Hongkong classics have. Still, a few fighting scenes are well executed and filmed. They are filled with adrenaline and grace and use several interesting items as weapons. Even in his weakest movie, an elderly Jet Li can still show off his incredible talent and his acolyte Zhang Wen does a quite convincing job if one ignores the distracting slapstick moments during his fighting scenes. On the other side, the final fighting scene involving Jet Li is overlong and unspectacular.The plot of this movie is extremely odd. The film starts with three random slapstick murders where the victims all die with a strange smile on their faces. The main suspect of the movie is a shy actress with good manners in her late twenties who hasn't got her breakthrough yet and who was engaged to each victim over the past years. Her sister soon becomes another important suspect as the superficial beauty with bad manners stole each of her sister's fiancés and sold insurances to them that made her a wealthy woman when they died. The unpredictable final twist of the movie where a rabbit gets pulled out of a hat is though so absurd that it even feels misplaced in a slapstick comedy flick. In between the morbidly amusing opening and the forced twist followed by a stereotypical happy ending, a few more plot lines are introduced only to justify many pointless cameo appearances. None of the few potentially promising ideas such as the relationship between the two investigating officers or the meeting of the criminal gang at the beginning of the movie are pushed further. Any kind of character development is completely absent in this hollow movie.In the end, this movie is bearable because of a few gripping action scenes, a couple of acceptable jokes, a high number of cameos by famous actors and allusions to classics any Hongkong cinephile should know and the fact that one is impatiently waiting for the outcome of the story as the tension slightly increases even if the twist ends up being a huge letdown. Despite its obvious flaws, I was overall very well entertained by this dynamical movie for the reasons mentioned above. I would surely watch it again in a couple of years. Those who are mainly planning to watch this movie because they are expecting an explosive martial arts blockbuster with Jet Li should be careful though and rather rent the film for a reasonable price instead of buying it or going to the movies.