As you might expect from a movie helmed by a pair of Yuens, Three Against the World offers up some nice action scenes. However, the fairly lame comedically-tinged heist-centered scenes that surround the fisticuffs aren't really all that hot, and might have you itching to hit the fast-forward button.

The movie revolves around an original copy of the Koran that is being protected by Andy Lau while it is on exhibition in a museum. A pair of competing thieves (Teddy Robin Kwan and Norman Chu) is after the Koran, and... well... that's about it.

While there's really not all that much to Three Against the World, the film-makers still try to make things heavier dramatically by introducing a lot of double and triple crosses, which really end up adding nothing to the picture besides slowing things down, since any average audience member is likely going to be able to see any of the big twists coming a mile away. In particular, the amount of fake Korans thrown about by the end as red herrings to supposedly keep the viewers interested gets to be ridiculous.

While I am not a fan of musicals in general, I would have rather had more time devoted to scenes like one in a bar where Andy and Teddy have a little duet. Even though the song is horribly mistranslated, both guys look to be having a ball, making this one of the few times during the film where the exposition has a flavor of uniqueness and rings true. Perhaps the film-makers should have rolled with this sort of momentum and gone more in this direction, ala the under-rated Jackie Chan movie Miracles.

RATING: 5