This movie is available for purchase at www.hkflix.com

Rating:

6

Year of release: 1999

Genre: comedy

Director: Wong Jing

Action director: Bruce Law

Writer: Wong Jing

Producers: Charles Heung, Wong Jing

Stars: Andy Lau, Nick Cheung, Natalis Chan, Kelly Lin, Alex Man, Yuk Fong, Wong Jing

Rated IIB for crude humor and language

DVD Information

Company: Mei Ah

Format: widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese, English

Extras: trailers, data bank

Notes: A good re-mastering of one of Mei Ah's earlier releases. There's not much for extras, but the transfer is done well.

Related links:

Wong Jing biography
Andy Lau biography
Movie Review index
Main Page

The Conmen in Vegas

In this followup to 1998's The Conman, Andy Lau returns as King, a top gambler who has taken to scamming small-time casinos with his partners Dragon (Nick Cheung) and Nat (Natalis Chan). After one scheme goes wrong, Dragon is captured and held for ransom by Triads, while King and Nat are arrested. King is offered a deal by the cops; if he captures a thief named Peter Chu (Alex Man), the government will give him enough cash to both rescue Dragon and secure his own retirement. With Nat in tow and a couple of cute girls (Kelly Lin and Yuk Fong) by his side, King heads to Las Vegas.

The Conman, while nothing outstanding, was another in the long line of solid gambling movies helmed by Wong Jing. The Conmen in Vegas actually deviates a bit from Wong's usual formula, in that the gambling sequences are set on the back burner for the most part, which is a bit surprising, since The Conmen in Vegas is one of the few movie productions that was actually allowed to film inside the prestigious Caesar's Palace casino -- there were rumors that this was do that this was due to producer Charles Heung's "connections". At any rate, the emphasis here is on comedy, rather than large bets. And it actually works... to an extent. While there are no out-and-out gut-busting scenes, most of the jokes presented here work, with the funniest bits coming from Wong himself, who has a small role as a porno director who helps the gang out.

As someone who is well-versed with Wong's work, it's quite obivous with this role that he's not afraid to take a few shots at his own expense, though he also shoots a couple of salvos at "sell outs" like John Woo. But Wong's devil-may-care attitude during his on-screen appearances makes these scenes all that much funnier. Of course, if you're not a fan of Wong's toilet humor or pop-culture/movie parodies, then you're probably not going to get much out of the proceedings.

Also, The Conmen in Vegas's attempts at "real" drama fall flat. Even though he is now known as one of Hong Kong's strongest actors, at this point in his career, Andy Lau was coasting on his good looks and star power, rather than actually using acting ability. When he's paired up with the sexy (but wooden) Kelly Lin, the results are less than perfect, to say the least. Thankfully, Wong Jing is smart enough to know his actors' limitations, and doesn't dwell too much on the dramatics. True to his blitzkrieg style, Wong follows any of the slower-paced dramatic bits with fast-moving sequences of action or humor.

All in all though, even though there is nothing horribly wrong with The Conmen in Vegas, it doesn't do anything particularly great or with a lot of panache, either. There are a few sequences which have promise to turn this movie into one of the greats of the genre, but it's fairly obvious that Wong Jing had been cranking out far too many of these types of gambling films during this period, and it just feels like his heart was not fully in this effort. Not surprisingly, Wong handed the reigns on the future Conman movies to other directors. Even if The Conmen in Vegas doesn't represent Wong Jing's best work, there are far worse things that you do with your time than to check out this picture. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll enjoy The Conmen in Vegas, but it's most likely not something you're going to remember years down the road.