![]() Hell, if you’ve already dumped the fridge, oven, gas grill and Cuisinart into the mix, throwing in the kitchen sink won’t make much difference.Ĭomplementing Lau’s packed-to-the-gills screenplay is his overeager direction. If the film added space aliens and laser sharks, it might actually be OK. Whoops, there’s also a woman running an ice-cream truck, a lost little girl, a befuddled old lady (Siu Yam-Yam), a campsite full of sleeping campers, and a bizarre subplot about an army of massing cockroaches. Throw in a tireless cop (Leo Koo) who’s tracking the bunch, and some internal strife in Big F’s gang, and you have a powder keg of situations and personalities waiting to explode. Unfortunately, a group of vicious thieves (led by Keung Ho-Man and Christie Chen) have a similar idea, as well as the same target: a corrupt funeral service that smuggles money across the border by hiding it in corpses. Procuring an actual EU van isn’t easy but the gang has the bright idea of taking a public minibus and outfitting it to resemble one. Along with former cronies Crazy B (Simon Yam), Johnny T (Patrick Tam) and East L (Mark Cheng), Big F plans to put together a fake police Emergency Unit (EU) van so that he and his buddies can cruise the streets and earn false praise from the citizenry. After some onscreen text stating that the film is “Based on fictional events”, the audience is introduced to ex-con Big F (Francis Ng), who’s released from a Malaysian prison but is hankering to return to the criminal life in Hong Kong. This crime comedy has a terrific premise and fan-favorite casting, but it’s also incredibly overwritten, weaving self-conscious dialogue, multiple character arcs, maudlin lessons and unnecessary metaphor into a self-indulgent web of screenwriter conceits. Longtime screenwriter Lau Ho-Leung ( Undercover Hidden Dragon, Triple Tap) makes his directorial debut with Two Thumbs Up – and you can really tell that he’s a screenwriter. As a general audience picture, Two Thumbs Up has the goods to entertain, but the needless details and attempts at meaning can be very annoying. Great casting and a terrific premise are handicapped by an overstuffed screenplay and overeager direction. ![]() ![]() Ho-Man, Rock Ji, Jie Zhuang, Jamie Cheung, Siu Yam-Yam, Jack Kao, Law Wing-Cheong, Alan Mak Siu-Fai, Felix Chong Man-Keung, Mark Wu Yiu-Fai Yiu-Man, Mark Cheng Ho-Nam, Christie Chen, Philip Keung Yam Tat-Wah, Leo Koo Kui-Kei, Patrick Tam Simon Yam, Patrick Tam, Mark Cheng and Francis Ng in Two Thumbs Up. ![]()
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