Mr. X
1995; directed by Godfrey Ho (credited as Ed Woo)

Coming from the appropriately named Patchwork Productions, we're treated to yet another cut-and-paste effort from the infamous Godfrey Ho -- who goes here by Ed Woo, which I'm sure is supposed to in no way bear any resemblance to Ed Wood -- in the fabulously schizophrenic release Mr. X. Even by Ho's lazy standards of film-making, this is a new low: his inclusions into the original footage are shot on video. Yet, somehow, this whole mess remains watchable.

Perhaps that last statement is a bit full of hyperbole due to the massive amounts of NyQuil your battered reviewer has been ingesting, but it is probably attributable (at least in part) that the source material Ho ripped off is actually pretty good. Though no definite confirmation could be found, it appears to be 1990's Gangland Odyssey, which was longtime kung fu and Triad movie heavy Michael Chan Wai-Man's directorial debut. Sure, the film appears to be totally derivative of John Woo's work, full of slow motion guns akimbo, but I (and I wager many others) would take even a generic heroic bloodshed movie from the Golden Age compared to what passes today when it comes to action films.

At points, the movie is over the top, even by Hong Kong action film standards, such as a scene where a hitman rappels into a building from an airborne helicopter and then proceeds to mow down literally about three dozen shemps. They just keep coming and coming, and the guy doesn't bust a sweat, much less stop to reload. It's gloriously out of whack without a hint of irony or nodding to the audience that they're supposed to be in on a joke, a refreshing contrast to the "so hip, it hurts" manufactured cool so many modern releases have.

Anyway, getting back to Ho's vision in particular, he takes this footage that was good enough on its own and, to entice gwailo viewers, clumsily places in scenes featuring American kickboxing champion Joe Lewis as a hitman trying to quash a war between the Yakuza and the Triads. Mostly this entails him ad libbing dialogue with his Chinese handler Charlie Chaplin (groan) and then getting spliced into some of the action scenes, with a couple of new ones inserted near the end. Of course, this makes the narrative turn into mush, but one shouldn't expect anything less from the king of scholck -- long may he reign.

RATING: 5.5

Note: As per a post on our Facebook page from So Good Reviews' Ken Brorsson, who knows much more about Godfrey Ho movies than yours truly: "King Of Gambler is the Lam Wai/Alex Man movie used. Haven't seen Mr. X, so maybe Gangland Odyssey was used too."