Dragon Loaded 2003
2003
Director: Vincent Kok
Stars: Ronald Cheng, Sam Lee, Alfred Cheung, Stephy Tang, Eric Tsang, Lau Kar-Ying
This might be the best Stephen Chow movie ever that doesn't actually have Stephen Chow in it. From top to bottom, Dragon Loaded 2003 is an unabashed rip-off of Chow's manic style of comedy -- and seeing as how Chow only seems to do a movie every two years or so now, that's not necessarily a bad thing. While it might not be the most original film, Dragon Loaded 2003 is still funny and enjoyable.
The basic plot would fit in with Stephen Chow's work. A rich never-do-well (played here by Ronald Cheng) and his buddies (Alfred Cheung and Sam Lee) go to the police academy to try and convince their fathers that they're not just lazy bums. They take a pretty half-ass approach to training (which only serves to infuriate their commander, portrayed by Eric Tsang) until Ronald falls in love with Eric's daughter (Stephy Tang), who -- big surprise -- is also a police cadet and only admires people like her hero Danny Lee. As you might guess, Ronald and his buddies eventually get things together enough to crack a big case and win the admiration of the captain.
I feel bad that I keep bringing up Stephen Chow's name, but this movie so much like his (especially his work from the early-to-mid 90's like From Beijing With Love), you really can't seperate the two. Thankfully, unlike some other attempted "homages", Dragon Loaded 2003 actually succeeds in presenting a good bit of moy len tau ("nonsense comedy"). The jokes come fast and furious (in fact, that is one of the many movies parodied in here) and most of them are actually pretty funny. I even found Eric Tsang -- who can come off as very annoying in his comedic work -- generating a few laughs over the film's running time.
There is also a nice bit of action. I would have actually like more, since Ronald Cheng and company surprisingly look pretty good doing the action stuff, but what's in here is well done. One puzzling bit is Cheng's use of Bruce Lee's moves, especially since Stephen Chow also does quite a bit of that in his own movies -- so is this a parody of a homage to the original?
At any rate, despite a lack of originality and a tendency at times to try too hard to be a "serious" film (perhaps not coincidentally, this is a problem with some of Stephen Chow's movies as well) Dragon Loaded 2003 is one of the better movies I've seen this year. Despite a total lack of boobs and blood, the proceedings here were still exciting and, more importantly in this case, funny enough to keep me entertained. Even though there have been a lot of "copycat" movies this year from both sides of the ocean, Dragon Loaded 2003 is one of the very few of them to actually succeed.
RATING: 7.75
A review of the DVD for this movie can be found here