Following on from the disappointing 'God Of Gamblers 2', this third part in the series thankfully chooses only to re-employ the services of Chow Sing Chi and Ng Man Tat as they were the most successful elements from the second film.  Story-wise, it also moves away from the cheap repetition that plagued the last production and comes up with a completely new film that only borrows ideas from the original idea as a springboard.

Having finally got his wish to learn the art of gambling from the God Of Gamblers, Sing (Chow) returns home to find he is the talk of the town.  However, with this new found responsibility comes danger in the form of rival gamblers who compete for fame and fortune.  When they combine their powers, Sing is transported back through time to 1937 where he arrives just in time to save his own grandfather (Man Tat).  On his quest to find his way home, Sing is befriended by Triad boss Ding Lik who offers him all the wealth he needs in exchange for his gambling skills.  However, the only thing that he really wants is the love of Ding's wife, who is gentle with him one minute and cold as ice the next.  It's up to Sing to chose between helping Ding or risking all by trying to the win the hand of the woman he loves.

Surprisingly for a Wong Jing comedy, this is actually a very inventive and highly amusing outing that emerges as one of my favourite Chow Sing Chi films.  How much it was inspired by films like 'Back To The Future' is not known, but thanks to some excellent casting and hilarious gags, this film really does rise above a lot of his earlier (and most recent) efforts.  Chow and Man Tat are clearly the key to it's triumph with some side-splitting routines that surprisingly offer Man Tat an equal amount of screen time as well as some of the funnier dialogue.  However, its the combined chemistry that is so enthralling and makes this one of their best on-screen collaborations to date which can't fail to have you rolling with laughter.

Chow's admiration for his real life idol Bruce Lee also gets a chance to shine through for this role as he recreates several homage's to his hero.  The most notable of these is when he actually re-enacts the training sequence from 'Way Of The Dragon' with uncanny ease before launching into some impressive moves of his own.  Admittedly, most of these action scenes are played for laughs but some of his real talent for martial arts is also evident.  It's a shame Chow has never really chosen to appear in a serious Kung Fu film as he certainly has the ability and timing for it so I'm sure it would make for interesting viewing but it looks unlikely at this stage in his career.

A third film in this series seemed like a bad idea, especially considering the lacklustre second part, but in fact this movie succeeds in taking the concept to a whole new level.  Correcting the mistakes from its predecessor, it contains some of my favourite Chow and Man Tat moments of all time as well as providing a genuinely enjoyable hour and a half's entertainment.