Writer: Raymond Wong Pak-Ming

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.

Unlike much of today’s canto-comedy, the humour in ‘Aces.’ translates very well and certainly doesn’t seem to have dated after nearly twenty-years.

The formula that made the original so successful has naturally remained untampered, but the scope of effects and stunts clearly expanded.

Alongside this familiar narrative is the constantly disarming duo of Samuel Hui and Karl Maka and they of course continue to show great comic timing and interplay in the familiar roles of Sam and Kodijack.

It’s such a shame that one of Lam’s more appealing roles is hamstrung by unusually poor direction from Tsui Hark.

Despite the weakness of its central performance, ‘All The Wrong Spies’ does incorporate the zest of the Cinema City films that dominated the early 80s.

Chow Sing-Chi completists may want to seek it out, but everyone else should divert their attention to his many more accomplished films.

Hung and Wu Ma still manage to keep the film interesting with their charming on-screen personas and some noteworthy kung fu routines.

The few moments of promise at the beginning do not last long and the occasional flashes of action are merely there to trick us into sitting through the whole thing.

Little bursts of bone jarring violence, especially the bloody conclusion, help raise the stakes to remind you that you’re not watching ‘Pretty Woman’.

‘Life Express’ is far more moving than should be expected – it certainly has a deeper air of poignancy than the average episode of any medical drama.

Thrown together rather than constructed, this is a production where the director has little idea how to generate organic laughs from situations and must therefore shoe-horn them in.