Magnificent Team

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Year of release: 1995

Genre: action/drama

Director: David Lam

Action directors: Chin Kar-Lok, Wong Wai-Fai, Yee Tin-Hung

Producers: Raymond Wong, Wong Sing-Lim

Writer: Wong Ho-Wa

Cinematography: Tony Cheung, Sunny Tsang

Editor: Poon Hung

Music: Wong Wai-Nin

Stars: Francis Ng, Christine Ng, Amanda Lee, Simon Lui, Hui Siu-Hung, Karen Tong, Chan Hoi-Man, Angela Tong, Michael Lam, Yee Tin-Hung, Lo Meng, William Duen, Woo Wai-Chung, Chin Hoi-Lung

Rated IIB for violence and language

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Even though on the surface Magnificent Team is as generic as a Roundy's Vegetable Turkey Dinner, playing out each and every cliche in the Hong Kong cops and gangsters playbook, it still ends up providing an enjoyable ride, mostly powered via a wonderfully over the top and balls-out performance by Francis Ng.

Francis puts out the loose cannon role in the titular team, which is led by Amanda Lee, who fulfills the straight arrow slot. As with most movies of this type, Amanda and Francis bicker, but develop a romantic relationship. The other parts of the team are filled by other well-worn stereotypes, including Hui Siu-Hung as the Danny Glover "I'm too old for this shit" veteran, and Simon Lui (who is surprisingly not playing a high-schooler) as the cowardly one.

The stunningly standard script, penned by Category III genre screenwriter Wong Ho-Wa, has the usual story of the team being regulated to menial cases while a more flashy group gets the big collars. That is, until a series of coincidences has them chasing down Michael Lam's nasty bank robber Two Stroke. If you can't insert your own mastrubation joke at that unfortunate name, don't worry, because Magnificent Team has all your badly-translated Chinglish synonyms for jerking your gherkin covered.

Despite the low level of quality of the base elements, Magnificent Team manages to ascend to a higher level, mostly due to the acting. I don't know if you could truly call it "great", but the actors' work makes the characters very likeable, and that goes a long, long way to transforming Magnificent Team into something of higher quality than your usual Hong Kong B-movie total cash-grab rubbish.

In particular, Francis Ng is noteworthy. He doesn't just chew the scenery: he eats the camera, he eats the boom mic, he eats the whole mothablankin' thing. It's the sort of performance that logically should make you hit the fast-forward button harder than Rosie O'Donnell at the crab legs table of a Vegas buffet, but is so mesmerizing that you can't help but keep watching.

RATING: 7